## **Trustees' Annual Report for the period**
Period start date 01 04 2020
Period end date 31 03 2021
**From**
**To**
## Section A Reference and administration details
**Charity name** Lower Grange Community Association
**Other names charity is known by** LGCA **Registered charity number (if any)** 1159081
**Charity's principal address** Lower Grange Youth & Community Centre Chaffinch Road Bradford **Postcode** BD8 0RF
**Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity**
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13|**Trustee name**|**Office (if any)**|**Dates acted if not for whole**
**year **|**Name of person (or body) entitled**
**to appoint trustee (ifany)**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
||G Ball|Chair|||
||L Cunningham|Treasurer|||
||F.E. Evans|Secretary|||
||L Aspin||||
||C Woodley||||
||N Malik||||
||J Berry||||
||M Bull||||
||M Duffy||||
||R Tariq||01/04/20|09/09/2020|
||L McIntosh||01/04/20|11/09/2020|
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||**Names of the trustees for the charity, if**||**any, (for example, any custodian trustees)**||
||**Name**||**Dates acted if not for whole year**||
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## **Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)**
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**Type of adviser Name Address**
**Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)**
Alex Dilger
## **Section B Structure, governance and management**
## **Description of the charity’s trusts**
Type of governing document CIO - Association Registered 05 Nov 2014 (Constitution) (eg. trust deed, constitution)
How the charity is constituted Charitable Incorporated Organisation (eg. trust, association, company)
Trustee selection methods
- Elected by membership at Annual General meetings.
- (eg. appointed by, elected by)
## **Additional governance issues (Optional information)**
You **may choose** to include additional information, where relevant, about:
- policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees;
- the charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works;
- relationship with any related parties;
- trustees’ consideration of major risks and the system and procedures to manage them.
## **Section C Objectives and activities**
**Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document**
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To promote the benefit of the inhabitants of Lower Grange and the neighbourhood (hereinafter called "the area of benefit") without distinction of sex, sexual orientation, race or of political, religious or other opinions, by associating together the said inhabitants and the local authorities, voluntary and other organisations in a common effort to advance education and to provide facilities in the interests of social welfare for recreation and leisuretime occupation with the object of improving the conditions of life for the said inhabitants.
**Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects (include within this section the statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit)**
Establish, or secure the establishment of, a community centre (hereinafter called "the centre") and to maintain and manage the same (whether alone or in co-operation with any local authority or other person or body) in furtherance of these objects.
Classification What
• General charitable purposes • Education / training
- Recreation
Who
- Children / young people
- Elderly / old people
- People with disabilities
How
- provides buildings / facilities / open space
## **Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)**
You **may choose** to include further statements, where relevant, about:
- policy on grantmaking;
- policy programme related investment;
- contribution made by volunteers.
## Section D Achievements and performance
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Section D Achievements and erformance p Throughout 2020/2021 we focused initially on increasing our crisis relief efforts **Summary of the main** which helped us put the right things in place for our community by delivering **achievements of the charity** new and existing activities and services in new ways and, when possible, still on **during the year** site and by undertaking regular outreach, by continuing to meet the needs of our charity objectives and to continue to meet the ongoing needs of people within our locality and surrounding areas, by adapting our service delivery whilst still having a positive impact. We aimed to collectively work with the business community, service user volunteers, CVS and statutory services to ensure that the needs of the Lower Grange community are being met; LGCA being a catalyst for collaboration. We aimed to define local priorities to enable and empower to support preventative approaches and behavioural change, which reduced the demand on public services and produced improved outcomes for people at local level. We aimed to draw the community to into solution focused thinking and begin to reflect on their own contribution and to broker a relationship of civic responsibility to deliver better outcomes for community benefit. This is our ‘wrap around approach’ which encouraged closer understanding of the issues and barriers that our community is current facing. We continued to draw on strengths and personal experiences, so together we can overcome these immediate difficulties and be ready for the opportunities and challenges ahead. We made the Community Centre a safe space to provide essential activities for residents. We were able to adapt our Pay as you Feel Food Pantry into a remote foodbank with the support of FareShare Yorksire. Morrisons and other local business provided us with extra food donations & emergency supplies, with local councillors helping us identify and deliver to the most vulnerable (and isolated) - many were not on the radar of social services or other agencies, particularly the elderly who had previously been more self-sufficient and managing without assistance or interventions. Opening up new ways of working and delivering classes online enabled our volunteers and service users to become more confident using technology and this had additional benefits in that many of them began using other digital methods of staying in regular touch with each other (providing another layer of support within specific community groups who otherwise would have become even more marginalized whilst not being able to access the Centre). Our trusted network enabled us to identify the most vulnerable elderly, disabled/medically vulnerable and at-risk families with young children. This provided us to provide appropriate support and communication to the most isolated in our community. For younger children we created & distributed activity packs to help parents/carers with home learning and mitigate mental health issues within households. We were able to both increase and transform our engagement with the community through digital/social platforms – we had started doing more of this but recognized how crucial it was to get this right during lockdown and the collective effort of staff, sessional workers and will remain a key part of our offer moving forward. We employed additional sessional workers, upskilling them and volunteers to deliver exercise and creative sessions using online platforms – these provisions also enabled continued communication with vulnerable people and families
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Section D Achievements and erformance p
who may otherwise have dropped off our radar when unable to visit the centre in person and during lockdown.
Our links with local schools through the Bradford Community Play Partnership & JU:MP Programme enabled us to identify families where children were most at risk from a reduction of physical activity and well-being (also affecting their mental health). Our community Play Lead from BCPP created activity packs to encourage children and families to stay active through an ethos of playfulness - fun, simple and accessible to those on low incomes who may lack resources (and sharing videos of how to use them).
Seeing two of our volunteers become employed with us via the JU:MP programme has given everyone a boost in confidence and Lower Grange becoming a Pioneering Neighbourhood area. This programme will explore how we can encourage people to become active and remove barriers to participation, looking at local transport, planning and other policies, improving places where people can be active or training local people to lead. In this way we can deliver a ‘Whole Systems Approach’ where the conditions are created so that our children, young people and families can make the choice to be active.
Also, working with Bradford Community Play Partnership (BCPP) we still managed to leverage unused greenspaces in the locality and through our new play pod to encourage children and families to become more active. As a result, in addition of continued funding and growing our network, we have also been able to expand our offer – this included existing groups being supported to extend and improve their own offers (for example ESOL class attendees beginning to work on wider community issues and the elderly Keep Fit sessions now including Osteoporosis support), along with educational, recreational and youth provisions where people were accessing our services throughout the year. Residents and service users told us that without our support, their experience of lockdowns would have been significantly worse. From basic practical support such as much needed food supplies, essentials and the activity packs for children, we found that having regular, purposeful contact with people through the creation and distribution of these enabled greater insight into the ongoing needs of the whole community, whilst keeping lines of communication open with the most vulnerable which they have said was invaluable to them. We are continuing to pursue our Community Asset Transfer application to take over Lower Grange Youth & Community Centre from Bradford Council. In the mean-time we have been able to use some of our Lottery grant to make modifications to the building to increase our potential rental income and revenue for our long future, sustainability and providing a community facility for community benefit.
## **Section E Financial review**
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## **Brief statement of the charity’s policy on reserves**
In accordance with guidance from the Charity Commission, Lower Grange Community Association/Centre has a reserve policy. We aim to retain a reserve, held in cash, to provide for six months operating costs, together with a provision for winding up expenses and redundancy payments. Furthermore, it is our aim to maintain a balance within our current account roughly equivalent to six months operating costs. The amounts involved are kept under review each year.
**Details of any funds materially in deficit**
N/A
## **Further financial review details (Optional information)**
You **may choose** to include additional information, where relevant about:
- the charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising);
- how expenditure has supported the key objectives of the charity;
- investment policy and objectives including any ethical investment policy adopted.
## **Section F Other optional information**
## **Section G Declaration**
**The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.**
**Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees**
## **Signature(s)**
Lynne Cunningham **Full name(s)** Graham Ball **Position (eg Secretary, Chair,** Chair Treasurer **etc) Date** 15/01/2022
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