2020-12-31-accounts

The Lighthouse Centre 56 Stewart Street Crewe, CW2 8LX

The LATH Group (Looking After The Homeless) Charity Number: 1157729

TRUSTEES REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST DECEMBER 2020

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The LATH Group The Lighthouse Centre (Looking After The Homeless) 56 Stewart Street Charity Number: 1157729 Crewe, CW2 8LX

Table of Contents

1. Charity Information ................................................................................................... 3 2. Trustee report for the year ended 31[st] December 2020 ............................................... 4

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The LATH Group	The Lighthouse	Centre
(Looking After The	56 Stewart Street Homeless)
Crewe, CW2 8LX Charity Number:1157729
	1. Charity Information
Registered Name	The LATH (Looking After The Homeless)
	Group
Operating Name	LATH
Registered Charity Number	1157729
Registered address	Europa House, Coppicemere Drive,
	Crewe Business Park, Crewe, CW1 6GZ		Commented [PM1]:New address to be advised
Correspondence address	The Lighthouse Centre, 56 Stewart Street,
	Crewe, CW2 8LX
Operating address	The Lighthouse Centre, 56 Stewart Street,
	Crewe, CW2 8LX
Trustees	Bernard Potter (President)
	John McManus (Chairman)
	Frank Lepisz (Vice Chairman)
	Pat Gardner (Treasurer)
	Barbara Francis (Secretary)
Independent examiner	Kim Jones (Chartered Accountant)
Bankers	HSBC, 30 Market Street, Crewe, CW1 2ES
01270 694758	facebook.com/LATHcrewe
[e-mail]	twitter.com/LATH_Group
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The Lighthouse Centre 56 Stewart Street Crewe, CW2 8LX

The LATH Group (Looking After The Homeless) Charity Number: 1157729

2. Trustee report for the year ended 31st December 2020

Constitution

The LATH (Looking After The Homeless) Group is a Charitable Incorporated Company (CIO). The charity operates under the working name of LATH.

Charitable objects

The object of the CIO is to relieve poverty and sickness among homeless, needy and vulnerable people in the Crewe and Nantwich and surrounding areas by the provision of assistance, facilities, goods, services and other support.

Organisation

Our model of the charity structure continues to be refined based on skills and available time, with specific responsibilities for roles and a better form of communication between Trustees and volunteers, including Facebook groups. Our monthly meeting helps us to discuss any issues raised during our customer sessions. Members of the board of Trustees at the year-end were:

• Bernard Potter (President)

• John McManus (Chairman)

• Frank Lepisz (Vice Chairman)

• Pat Gardner (Treasurer)

• Barbara Francis (Secretary)

Members of the Board of Trustees are appointed in accordance with the governing constitution and are approved each year at the Annual General Meeting. There are no paid staff and we are lucky to have a group of around twenty-four regular volunteers who are dedicated to the objective of the charity and without whom we would not be able to operate. Unfortunately, many of our volunteers were in the elderly and/or vulnerable age group and unable to assist with service provision during 2020. Some younger volunteers continued to do food deliveries and donation collection and distribution throughout the year.

The value of the contribution by volunteers is not recorded in the accounts.

Principal activities pre 23 March 2020

Prior to lockdown, LATH ran a drop-in centre three days a week for homeless, vulnerable and lonely people. Food donations were received from Mark & Spencer, Longmans butchers, Aldi, Greggs, two local Polish shops and some Co-op shops. All donations covered the food required for each day the centre was open, which means we could concentrate on spending money on other important issues for our customers. Food surplus to our requirements was recycled to a local farmer.

We provided drinks and toast during the morning and a hot meal from 12 noon (Tuesdays and Thursdays).

We provided sandwiches from about 6pm and a hot meal at from about 7pm on Fridays. We provided a wide range of advice and assistance in the areas of benefits, housing and employment.

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The Lighthouse Centre 56 Stewart Street Crewe, CW2 8LX

The LATH Group

(Looking After The Homeless) Charity Number: 1157729

We had computer facilities with three free-to-use computers, a printer and a telephone which helped to solve problems.

We provided tents, sleeping bags and clothing if required, and arranged occasional emergency accommodation.

We liaised regularly with all the other local service providers, including Cheshire East council, YMCA, Salvation Army, The Lighthouse Centre and Chance charity. Our representatives attended meetings with other charities and the council to solve problems and coordinate our services to prevent duplication, and to keep up to date with current legislation. All services were provided by an excellent team of volunteers.

Principal activities post 23 March 2020

When the first lockdown commenced, LATH stopped providing a drop-in centre and adjusted our service to clients as follows:

We continued to collect donated food from retailers, and distributed it to needy and vulnerable clients.

On an individual basis, working from home, our Trustees, Executives and those volunteers who were able to, continued to provide a wide range of advice and assistance in the areas of benefits, housing and employment. We provided tents, sleeping bags and clothing, and arranged occasional emergency accommodation, when required.

We provided school children in deprived areas of Crewe with food vouchers to cover the October half-term period, and provided a Christmas hamper to vulnerable families and lone parents. We financially supported three local food banks, and a faith group providing assistance to the local needy.

We have continued to work with the Crewe Voluntary Service to assist non-UK clients with applying for settled status post-Brexit. We have worked with other charities to co-ordinate a Covid vaccination for vulnerable clients, and provided a translation service for our Polish friends. We continued to liaise regularly with all the other local service providers, including Crewe council, Cheshire East council, YMCA, Salvation Army, The Lighthouse, and Chance charity to ensure continuity of service and non-overlap of provision.

We plan to re-open a drop-in centre when regulations allow inside gatherings.

For those wishing to contact LATH, we have a Freephone number (0800 508 8021) that directs callers appropriately. The Freephone number is managed by a sponsor company.

Future developments

The current location is good, but unfortunately, it has limited us from expanding our services, which conflict with Lighthouse Church events and activities. We are currently evaluating partnering with Caritas charity on use of a community centre to be based in Crewe,

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The Lighthouse Centre 56 Stewart Street Crewe, CW2 8LX

The LATH Group (Looking After The Homeless) Charity Number: 1157729

near the town centre. Building work on this project is due to start Q2 2021 and is projected to finish by the end of 2021.

Statistics

Statistics are meaningless as formal records were made only for 10 weeks of 2020. Since that time we have helped up to thirty individuals and families with food, have helped with several settled status applications, have arranged and paid for transport for clients to obtain ID documents, have provided clothing, furniture and household items to clients moving to social accommodation, have reported and provided essential items for rough sleepers, and have provided housing and tenancy advice to a vulnerable family.

Income generation

During 2020, we were unable to derive income from two of our traditional income sources (concerts and quiz nights). We have managed to continue as a charity through generous ad hoc donations. Our only source of regular income is through Friends of LATH, who donate either monthly or annually, much of which is gift-aided. Some income is derived from collection boxes in Co-operative shops. We hope that once we can hold fundraising events again, our income stream will improve.

Our main cost it is rent for the drop-in centre – this was only incurred for the first 3 months of 2020. Donations were used to help finance local foodbanks and necessary items for the needy.

Governance and internal control

The Trustees take very seriously their overall responsibility to ensure the charity has appropriate systems to control and inspect Finances, Insurance, Health and Safety, Hygiene and Safeguarding and all statutory requirements and all volunteers are required to obtain DBS clearance. New Trustees undergo Trustee training provided by our local CVS.

The Trustees implement GDPR regulations to the files that contain sensitive data. Accordingly, such files are password protected and access to them is limited to the people who have the login and password. Computer use by registered people is password protected, and files are password protected in two stages. In addition, memory sticks are not used on laptops to prevent copying of data by unauthorised people.

We look forward to growing and adapting our charity to fulfil our mission and charitable objective, especially given the hardships expected during 2021.

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