Let Yourself Trust (Registered charity, number 1159017) Financial statements for the year ended 29 February 2024
| Page | Contents |
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| 2 - 11 | Trustees’ annual report |
| 12 | Independent examiner’s report |
| 13 | Receipts & payments account |
| 14 | Statement of assets & liabilities |
| 15 | Notes to the accounts |
Let Yourself Trust Trustees’ annual report for the year ended 29 February 2024
Full name Let Yourself Trust
Organisation type Charitable incorporated organisation
Registered charity number 1159017
Principal address PO Box 37, Cardiff, Wales, CF64 2YU
Trustees
Roger Oldfield, Chair Ruth Oldfield Clare Harris Gill Hewitt, from 4 March 2023 Andrew Davies, from 17 September 2024
Independent examiner
John O’Brien, employee of Community Accounting Plus, Units 1 & 2 North West, 41 Talbot Street, Nottingham, NG1 5GL
Governance and management
The charity is operated under the rules of its CIO – Association constitution registered 29 October 2014 and most recently amended 9 August 2022.
The trustees are all elected and appointed at the AGM as set out in the constitution.
Objectives and activities
Let Yourself Trust’s Objects, as defined in its Association Model Constitution are as follows:
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Relief of poverty: the prevention or relief of poverty anywhere in the world by providing grants, items and services to individuals and/or communities in need, or other organisations working to prevent or relieve poverty for individuals. The prevention or relief of poverty (or financial hardship) anywhere in the world by providing or assisting in the provision of education, training, or healthcare projects and all the necessary support designed to enable individuals to generate a sustainable income and be self-sufficient.
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Equality & diversity: the promotion of equality and diversity for the public benefit by a) the elimination of discrimination on the grounds of race, gender, disability, sexual orientation or religion; b) advancing education and raising awareness in equality and diversity; c) promoting activities to foster understanding between people from diverse surroundings;
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d) cultivating a sentiment in favour of equality and diversity.
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Public benefit statement
The Trustees confirm that they have complied with the duty in section 17 of the Charities Act 2011 to have due regard to the Charity Commission's general guidance on public benefit, 'Charities and Public Benefit'.
Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit
In practical terms, Let Yourself Trust supports people affected by poverty, disability, discrimination and those deprived of natural, educational and professional resources via partnership with 2-6+ organisations per year. These organisations are at a grassroots level and devote themselves and their lives to the vulnerable people they support, and Let Yourself Trust partners with 2 of them for a 6-month period each, as well as providing smaller community development donations to any other projects deemed appropriate to help promote their work and to raise funding for their efforts building better lives for families and communities.
Funding and awareness are raised in part due to the Founder of Let Yourself Trust, Martyn Joseph, and his long established career as an internationally acclaimed touring artist. Martyn performs 170+ shows each year all over the globe, and Let Yourself Trust is featured prominently at each performance, both via Martyn’s highlight from the stage as well as via literature at the merchandise table. This, in addition to the use of social media shared with Martyn’s pre-established global audience, provides the framework for Let Yourself Trust to spotlight these issues of vulnerability, discrimination and disadvantage that our partners work hard to stabilise.
Summary of the main achievements during the period
We were so thrilled to be able to give donations to 7 major projects this year including 4 new partners, one in Greece, one in Nigeria, one in Uganda and one in the UK, as well as continued support to 3 previous partners, two in the UK and one a match campaign for our partners in Gaza/Palestine.
Below is a summary of the 7 partners we worked with this year, and where the funding was used.
CRIBS INTERNATIONAL
CRIBS mission is to empower women who are heavily pregnant or have a new-born baby and have fled conflict or exploitation. By providing shelter, safety and support they get them off the streets of Athens and give them the chance to begin to recover from trauma, rebuild their lives and regain their independence. The women they support are often travelling alone, and have fled from various regions including the DRC, Cameroon, Afghanistan, Syria, Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Ivory Coast. Many are survivors of exploitation, including sexual exploitation, rape and labour exploitation. Having fled violence in their home countries, they have endured long and traumatic journeys and on reaching Europe they find themselves homeless on the streets of Athens. With little or no support from the Greek authorities they are in desperate situations and are at risk of further exploitation.
CRIBS was created to prevent babies of refugee mothers from spending the first months of their lives on the streets, in the Greek 'care' system, in parks, on the ground
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in tents, squats or churches. They house up to 14 families at one time, and their case managers support the new moms to navigate the healthcare system, and provide advocacy around birth to ensure women have choice and dignity. They also provide perinatal support, give advice and support with breastfeeding, assist with the complex asylum system, and with accessing psychological support, education opportunities and employment.
With LYT’s gift of support of £33,300 , CRIBS were thrilled to be able to cover medical costs, housing, food, and household and educational supplies for 14 families for over 6 months.
CAMP JOJO
Camp Jojo specialise in providing wild camping experiences for children with complex needs. Their focus, however, is to provide holidays for the whole family together. They provide for the needs of everyone in your family from the youngest to the oldest, and offer fully accessible camping and outdoors experiences you can enjoy together. Their dedicated team of carers will take as much or as little of the caring role as you would like, allowing parents to rest, relax and focus on just being parents again.
At Camp Jojo they believe spending time together as a family is important. They believe that through nurturing the family unit, strengthening relationships and sharing great times together, families develop the resilience needed to face the challenges
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ahead. Specifically, Camp Jojo gives 6-7 families with children with complex needs the opportunity to camp under canvas on a specially adapted campsite on Ivy Farm, East Mersea, in Essex, UK with whatever accessible equipment they require. They provide trained volunteers committed to supporting each family to ensure the experience remains a holiday rather than an endurance event.
A previous major partner of ours, we were very happy to continue to support the development of Camp Jojo with a CDD. With Let Yourself Trust’s gift of £6,000, they were able to continue to fund 5 camps in the Summer of 2023, and have gone from growth to growth, with the goal of running 8 camps by 2025. We love seeing our partners develop!
RUNNING SPACE
Running Space’s passion and calling are to see every life lived in all its fullness and not one be lost to suicide.
How do they achieve this? By educating and training communities to become able, appropriate and available to those suffering with thoughts of suicide. By pioneering a worldwide movement of runners who will run, and raise awareness for those affected by suicide. By working with communities to build prevention and recovery programmes which include Walk2Run groups, building relationship connections, developing links with clinicians, facilitating volunteering, and job creation for example.
A previous partner of LYT, we learned in March that their Project Co-Ordinator had been made redundant and that the head of the program only had 2 months’ salary
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funding left. With their fundraising arm in high gear and applications in process, they were awaiting decisions and working on a crowdfunding campaign. In the meantime, they requested we help fund the director’s salary for 5 months, at which time they expected other funds to be in place. We understand the difficulties small charities face, especially in today’s climate, with financial highs and lows, and wanted to help Running Space get through their difficult patch as they continued to work through things. Consequently, we were so pleased to gift them a CDD of £6,579, the full 5 months’ salary requested. We’ve since learned they have continued to carry on their wonderful work, with volunteers stepping into places that were needed, and continued growth in new markets.
FOREVER FRIENDS
Forever Friends was created by husband and wife Keith and Jeannette Mills in 2002 after being teachers in Uganda since the 1970’s and feeling they wanted to do more. They built 2 primary schools and one secondary school, and support and facilitate sponsorship of individuals to pay school costs and meet basic personal and educational needs. Funding for these projects is completely directly from family, friends, and Facebook campaigns, no public or government grants.
Over the last 20 years there have been numerous success stories from their graduates, many who give back to the program. The charity currently sponsors 92 nursery and primary school pupils, 33 secondary school pupils, and 6 young people in further and vocational education. Looking to the future, they wish to make the schools self-funding. To this end, dormitories have been built to house the teachers, and further dormitories will house fee-paying pupils from other areas. To promote self-sufficiency, gardens tended by the school will provide vegetables and food.
A project which started just before Covid lockdown was a Skills Centre. The intention was to provide practical skills for those unable to attend school. Skills such as gardening, cultivation, cooking, soap making, sewing, sanitary towel making, etc. were some of the main ideas. An important ambition for this project was to include women from the village, many of whom have lost what little support they had.
We’re so proud to report that with a CDD of just over £4300, LYT supported the finishing of the Skills Centre, and funded the start-up costs to get all of their programs running - including sanitary towel making, dress making, a salon/hair dress station and soap making. The soap making programme LYT funded took place over 2 days and gave initial training to approximately 100 young people from all over the community. The participants were taught how to make liquid soap and bar soap. They then took home some of the soap which was made, and the rest was given to the primary and high school. There were also sessions on self-help skills, as well as counselling and guidance.
The Tailoring Section was extended to members of the local community and the ladies of the church choir were given lessons in using a sewing machine.
They were also given knitting lessons. All of these projects will help build selfsufficiency for families in the village, led by women entrepreneurs.
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RAINBOW JUNKTION
Rainbow Junktion is a food bank operating from a church located in Hyde Park, an inner-city area of Leeds. Not far from the University, it serves the immediate locality but also those who are able to get here from across Leeds. Those who receive its services include a diverse array of people, from all kinds of faiths, cultures and socio-economic groups, including those in receipt of benefits, asylum seekers and refugees, disabled people and some who are homeless or have just fallen on hard times. There are no questions asked, no referrals needed and everyone who comes receives the same warm welcome and is offered as much food as they ask for, when donations allow. Last February, before the current cost of living crisis, attendance at Rainbow Junktion’s Friday Food Share was 75 on average per week, but the statistics for March 23 showed that this figure had risen to 168, with this accounting only for households, not the number of people in them, needing to be fed. Not surprisingly, RJ struggles to meet this need and has to rely on the generosity of local residents, supermarkets and other donors to try to meet the need.
As well as these services, RJ has also been offering musical entertainment to customers on the first Monday of the month. This was provided by local musicians, often buskers, who have until recently been paid £90 per session by Keep Streets Live, a local group committed to keeping music accessible to all. Unfortunately, this offer came to an end as KSL could no longer afford to keep it going, so music was no longer played in the cafe. Customers, who are unable to access live music otherwise and for whom the arts generally are a luxury they cannot afford, were missing it tremendously,
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asking when it would happen again and desperate for it to return. The musicians were likewise wanting to come back and were also now missing out financially.
LYT were so happy to give a CDD of £1,080 which paid for musicians to perform at the cafe for a year. We are very grateful to be able to help in even a small way to keep such an exceptional programme running.
AMAUDO
Amaudo was founded in 1989 by Rosalind Colwill in response to growing numbers of mentally ill people roaming the streets of south east Nigeria. They offer a safe haven; a place for people to heal and be treated with care and dignity, to be helped to face a positive future, rehabilitated, trained in transferable skills to give them the opportunity to provide for themselves and if possible, reunited with their families and communities.
Specifically, Amaudo can accommodate 60 mentally ill residents with a team of 25 health care practitioners and support staff at their two centres. Rehabilitation takes place whilst residents and staff live, work, eat and socialise together. Rehabilitation can involve counselling, medication, training and family tracing.
Amaudo also provides community-based services and mobile mental health clinics. They work with local communities to raise awareness of mental health issues reducing stigmatisation and discrimination and challenge the government to ensure basic human rights. Their Community Mental Health Program (CMHP) is now a network of 70+ clinics in 4 states in southeast Nigeria in a pioneering collaboration with State Governments and other local stakeholders. Nurse-led clinics provide accessible and affordable care to people in their own communities. Amaudo now provides hundreds of placements each year to student nurses from across the region.
Additionally, an impressive new training facility was opened in April 2023. It was built to provide residential accommodation for students to come and learn about mental health issues in a mental health setting. Finally, the Amaudo weekly Radio show was launched in 2021 and has now broadcast over 100 episodes. The show is an amazing outreach tool and has a potential audience reaching across many Nigerian States. It has been a huge success in raising awareness, signposting people to help and getting people to talk about their own mental health, and has been commended by senior Nigerian government officials.
Amaudo is an innovative and ground breaking project nearly 30 years on, working on a shoestring budget. Their major need was a vehicle, with their current one at the time constantly breaking down. LYT were so proud to be able to support them with a donation of £32,500 to specifically fund their new badly needed truck. There have been no maintenance costs since its purchase, which has saved considerable funds. Despite the poor roads and rains the vehicle has not got stuck anywhere and it has given staff confidence to travel widely and make visits to rural locations which have not been made for a long time. Currently the vehicle is used to reach service users during home visits, supervise community psychiatric nurses in community clinics, make visits to government officials, visit corporate supporters to appeal for funding, and visit communities to plan awareness raising events and meet community leaders.
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AMOS TRUST - GAZA & PALESTINE MATCH CAMPAIGN
In 2023 and ongoing now, the population in Gaza is experiencing a humanitarian disaster. In a Christmas emergency appeal, our partners at Amos Trust asked us to contribute to their match campaign to help aid our partners in Gaza and our partners’ vital work in the West Bank.
In Oct of 2023, the bombardment of Gaza had led to over 15,000 deaths, over 6,000 of these children. There was no accurate count for the number injured, which was many more than this and over 1.7 million Gazans had been displaced from their homes. On the 17th of October, we heard the appalling news of the strike on our partner, Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, that left hundreds dead. It re-opened the next day to treat patients and has continued to operate since.
It was inundated with hundreds of patients at the time as it is one of the only hospitals still operating in Gaza City, despite in the days before the cease-fire being surrounded by tanks, cut off and running out of essential medical supplies and fuel. The cease-fire meant that families who had no fuel, food, or drinkable water were able to get some supplies — but there remained desperate shortages with people trying to find shelter wherever they could.
There is also a crisis in the West Bank. All the cities, towns and villages have been locked down, hundreds have been killed and many more arrested or injured. Settlers
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have forced the population from villages in the South Hebron Hills and many more have been made homeless.
With such ongoing atrocities, LYT were moved to donate a CDD of £10,000 to Amos’ match campaign. LYT’s support via their campaign allowed them to send vital funds to the Al Ahli Arab Hospital, provide food and water for some of the 1,000’s sheltering in the church, hospital and community buildings in Gaza City, and enabled the Gaza Sunbirds para-cycling team to provide essential food parcels to their communities. as well as also to support those in the West Bank who were, and are still, facing huge challenges.
Financial review
As each 6 months brings a significant emptying of the coffers, Let Yourself Trust is quite pleased with the continuation of sustainable income via its current 500+ monthly donors. This database of monthly standing orders is vital to Let Yourself, and this generous and committed support has created a foundation and budget that has continued to grow each year, and that, along with one off donations throughout the year, leads us to be in a surplus at the end of this reporting period. With this dependable funding comes the ability to increase charitable expenditure beyond our two main 6 month projects via Community Development Donations (CDD), thus delivering greater impact among vulnerable people via our current and future partners. Several such opportunities occurred during this financial year in our providing a Community Development Donation to two brand new partners as well as 3 of our previous projects, giving them all a badly needed boost of support.
The charity’s policy on reserves
In order to meet commitments to current and future partners, the Trustees and Director aim to maintain a level of reserves that will protect the charity against any dramatic fall in unrestricted income or unexpected rise in expenditure. As a general principle, they consider that Let Yourself Trust should maintain a minimum of £8,000 to maximum of £15,000 in reserves between six months of budgeted expenditure. During 2023/2024 reserves remained within the target range.
Financial risks
Let Yourself Trust have reviewed the risks faced by a small charity working from within the UK and operating internationally with few employees, and monthly data and financial reports are used to monitor these risks.
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Additional information
To date (through 2024), LYT has worked in 21 Countries: West Bank Palestine, Gaza, Guatemala, Wales, Uganda, Canada, England, America, India, Belgium, Holland, Greece, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Haiti, Mexico, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nepal.
In its last financial year alone, and during a global rise in costs of living, Let Yourself Trust has made a direct difference to thousands of people in 5 different countries facing extremely difficult circumstances, granting one of our largest ever yearly totals - a total of £93,788 to 7 different projects.
We continue to do our small part in a difficult, increased cost of living world with perilous political climate affecting worldwide economies, and would like to thank our loyal supporters, without whom none of this would be possible.
Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees:
Signed ______ Date _ Roger Oldfield, Trustee
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Independent examiner’s report to the trustees of Let Yourself Trust for the year ended 29 February 2024
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of Let Yourself Trust (the charity) for the year ended 29 February 2024.
Responsibilities and basis of report
As the trustees of the charity you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the Act’). I report in respect of my examination of the charity’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
Independent examiner’s statement
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
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accounting records were not kept in respect of the charity as required by section 130 of the Act; or
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the accounts do not accord with those records.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Signed ____ Date _______ John O’Brien MSc, FCCA, FCIE Employee of Community Accounting Plus
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Let Yourself Trust Receipts & payments account for the year ended 29 February 2024
| 2023 £ Note Receipts 100926 Donations & fundraising 21041 Gift aid 121967 Total receipts Payments 614 Bank & PayPal charges 161 Computer costs 82500 Donations paid 2 427 Equipment & repairs 558 General expenses 108 Insurance 1297 Accountancy & payroll fees 306 Postage 1770 Advertising, marketing & printing 30312 Salaries & NI 692 Telephone & internet 147 Trips & travel expenses 288 Website costs 119180 Total payments 2787 Net receipts/(payments) 54094 Cash funds at start of this period 56881 Cash funds at end of this period |
2024 £ 92284 15846 |
|---|---|
| 108130 | |
| 447 34 93788 64 187 70 1352 990 2924 29319 769 932 466 |
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| 131342 | |
| (23212) 56881 |
|
| 33669 |
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Let Yourself Trust Statement of assets and liabilities at 29 February 2024
| 2023 | 2024 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| £ | Cash assets | Note | £ |
| 56881 | Bank accounts | 33669 | |
| 56881 | 33669 | ||
| Other monetary assets | |||
| 15846 | Debtors - Gift aid | 16619 | |
| 15846 | 16619 | ||
| Liabilities | |||
| (1135) | Creditors | 3 | (552) |
| (1135) | (552) |
These financial statements are accepted on behalf of the charity by:
Signed _____ Dated _____ Ruth Oldfield, Trustee
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Let Yourself Trust Notes to the accounts for the year ended 29 February 2024
1. Receipts & payments accounts
Receipts and payments accounts contain a summary of money received and money spent during the period and a list of assets and liabilities at the end of the period. Usually, cash received and cash spent will include transactions through bank accounts and cash in hand.
2. Donations paid
| CRIBS DONATION CAMP JOJO CDD Donation RUNNING SPACE CDD Donation FOREVER FRIENDS CDD Donation RAINBOW JUNKTION CDD Donation AMAUDO - project donation CDD to Gaza partner / match campaign |
£ 33300 6000 6579 4329 1080 32500 10000 |
|---|---|
| 93788 |
3. Creditors
| Independent examination fee | £ 552 |
|---|---|
| 552 |
4. Trustees’ remuneration
Trustees received no expenses, remuneration or benefits in this period.
5. Related party transactions
There were no related party transactions during the period.
6. Glossary of terms
Creditors: These are amounts owed by the charity, but not paid during the accounting period.
Debtors: These are amounts owed to the charity, but not received in the accounting period.
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