The Famlty Forge R•f•Y•nc• •ndAdmknlstr•thie D•i*115 A ChJrtt•ble Incorpornted Oryanlsatlon R•port and Annual Accounts for the pérf¢)d lrt Nov 2024-31" Oct 2025 Charlty Regtstratlon 1161 tstered Address 4 Cobbs Brow Lane Newburgh Lantashlre WN87ND 07947 853502 Life Skills Centre 128 Sand Lane Skelmer5dale Lancashive WN88LH Trustees Jocel Owens Enisa Huso Mithael Tyrner Contents Administrattve Detrlls and Sl8nature on behalf of all the Trustees P I Trustees Report P 2-6 Receipts and payments Accounts P7 Statements of Assets and Liabilitles P8 The Trustees have referred to guidance from the Charltles SORP FRSSE {effecti¥e l Jan 20151 whlle the statement of accounts Is cash based receipts and payments accounts not verffied by an independent examiner thls year as we fall below £25000 threshold. Slgned on behalf of all the Trustees Date 211/26 Jocelyn Owens The Famlly Forge Enisa Huso Michael Turner
Trustees Report For the period 1st November 2024 – 31st October 2025
Charity Structure/ Governance and Management
The Family Forge became a registered charity in May 2015. It is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation and continues to follow the directions of its constitution amended on 25[th] March 2015. During the period Nov 2024 to the end of Oct 2025, the charity was led by 3 trustees one of whom was also the Life Skills Centre manager- Jocelyn Owens. This manager worked on a full-time voluntary basis. She was supported again this year predominantly by 1 skilled paid tutor with 7 voluntary support workers. Two were drawn from our beneficiary group. Informal discussions with beneficiaries influenced decision making.
Michael Turner accepted another 3 year term as trustee. The trustees are appointed for three years or until retirement by a properly convened meeting of the charity trustees. The maximum number of trustees is three. Decisions are made by a 75% majority of the trustees. One of the trustees was a former beneficiary.
Training this year was provided for two volunteers by Mountain Training Organisation in Lowland Leadership. Also training to deliver the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme was undertaken by two tutors and three volunteers as was required by The Duke of Edinburgh Organisation whom we were working with this year.
No exemptions from disclosure of trustee details apply and no trustee held title to any property belonging to the charity during the period as the charity currently holds no property. The pay of the language tutors/activity leaders saw no change and was set as in the past with regard to the going rate for private hourly tutors as our activity leaders are self-employed and not employed by the charity.
Special thanks should be given to Judy, Melanie, Andy, Eileen and Mohsen, Mohamed, Abubaker and Ayaz, Adam, Toufiq and everyone who spared their time and effort to assist in the work this year on a voluntary basis along with special thanks to our donors who made the work possible.
This year the charity delivered the Duke of Edinburgh program for beneficiaries who were interested as well as continuing the usual activities. This encouraged a renewed emphasis in this group to attain new skills, voluntary work and sporting activity. We also undertook an overnight expedition with the group. We had to undertake the Duke of Edinburgh’s training program to qualify as supervisors and verifiers of this activity for safeguarding and quality control purposes. In addition, we increased substantially the insurance coverage for this activity.
No independent examiner was required for our accounts this year since the charity’s income did not make the threshold.
Financial review
Funding this year was received from St James Church, Groundwork UK, Pilkington Charitable Trust , The Archer Trust, Douglas Valley Outreach Group and the Corsoraf Charitable Foundation and a number of private donors. Grants with funds still available from the previous year included the Duke of Edinburgh Fund and Burscough St Johns Church funds.
Private donations this year formed approximately 18.33% of The Family Forge income; for which, once again we are extremely grateful. Thank you to all our donors.
No reserves are kept at present.
Once again, the charity was extremely busy especially with the extra work involved in administering the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme. Unfortunately, due to the constant level of activity and service delivery, a skeletal staff to supply the admin and fundraising requirements as well as the changed personal circumstances of the full-time volunteer centre manager Jocelyn Owens combined with the difficult funding climate, the funds available to the charity this year were simply not enough to continue beyond October 31[st] with the Life Skills Centre office suite. So, the decision was taken to close the office and take the next year as a year to take stock and plan the future whilst continuing with initiatives in line with our wider objectives not requiring the use of an office suite.
This led to an outpouring of gratitude for what we had been able to offer to date and messages that we would be missed. It obviously caused some disappointment in staff, volunteers and beneficiaries.
Public Benefit Statement
The trustees this year again took into account that any purpose of the charity to be considered charitable must be beneficial with any consequent harms not outweigh the benefits and they further acknowledged that any benefits must be identifiable.
To that end:
For our hiking and expedition program our assistant and supervisor was placed on a Lowland Leader Training course. Also, the expedition supervisor and verifier undertook the Duke of Edinburgh’s training course in order that safeguarding and the mitigation of risks were taken into account. The identifiable benefits of offering the program were the obtaining of a recognised national award for those with no other certificates or qualifications, integration, improving mental and physical fitness and reducing social isolation.
No trustee benefitted personally from the activities of the charity except through travel expenses as a result of voluntary working to the amount of £223.2. The expense rate paid is 0.45p/mile.
Objectives and Activities
The Family forge was formed to:
-advance education in the specific area of personal and family development,
- to advance the Christian faith by raising awareness and understanding of Christian beliefs and practices
-and to advance the relief of those in need by reason of youth, age, ill health, disability, finance and other disadvantage
November and December 2024 as well as the usual activities including swimming saw completion of the set-up of the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme and the recruiting of the first participants on the scheme. A Christmas lunch finished the year.
January through to closure of the office on 31[st] Oct 2025 saw the continuation of our usual sevenpoint program aimed at the development, wellbeing and integration of our user group in addition to the offering of the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme.
Integration for members of differing cultures as well as meeting and gaining insights into Christianity continued to be seen as an essential element of the offering and by our loving Christian presence and care Christian love was experienced by all attenders throughout the year.
It was noticed again that the government’s fast-track processing program was being effective and asylum claims were being processed faster than in previous years leading to many more people attending the office for administrative services for the follow-on tasks that are required to be done after a successful outcome had been reached in their cases. So much of the office staff and volunteer time in the afternoons was given over to assisting with universal credit claims, home finder applications, travel document applications, cv creating, bank account, job applications, equivalising certification and driving license applications. Seconded onto assisting with these tasks were a couple of the Duke of Edinburgh participants in order to fulfil their service section of the award which was especially helpful.
Dental care also played a more prominent role as several people had severe dental issues and at least one individual required special care and attention and help with appointments and travel- this meant travel back and forth to Preston or Chorley or occasionally Ormskirk over a sustained period of time. With so few dentists taking on patients, great use was made of the emergency dental services out of necessity. This usually occurred out of office hours.
Difficulties were experienced in March through April with the charity website and fundraising, as the web hosting company we had been using for years was bought and the re-registering process was long and protracted during which time the website was down. This required a lot of the centre manager’s time. This was seen as contributing to an unsuccessful fundraising year. It wasted the manager’s precious time and since funding bid writing was occurring at the same time there was no website to view.
Hiking, Expedition and Kayaking
Hiking featured heavily in the program this year with 11 hikes in total being undertaken to the following destinations:
Brant Tor- Cumbria, Whitewell in the Forest of Bowland, Ingleton in the Yorkshire Dales, Formby to Crosby coastal path in Sefton, Newburgh to Parbold Hill and Newburgh and across the Beacon in Lancashire, Rivington near Wigan, Brock Bottoms in the Forest of Bowland, Langdale pikes in Cumbria, Alderley Edge in Cheshire and Pendle Hill.
July saw a separate hiking expedition as part of the Duke of Edinburgh program from Whitewell to Angram Green below Pendle Hill. This was the highlight of the year for all concerned and involved camping overnight.
September saw a kayak trip to Ullswater in Cumbria.
Duke of Edinburgh Program
In addition to the expedition itself, preparation camp set up training and map reading classes were organised. Voluntary work was undertaken by participants over and above that carried out by other members. Initially however we experienced an issue with finding placements in outside organisations due to organisations either not having insurance for volunteers, or the inability to gain DBS certificates which therefore precluded any working with children or vulnerable adults. So, we initiated in-house volunteering once again. These activities including assisting with the administration and services that the Family Forge offered, litter picking and upcycling with the intention to fundraise from the sale of the items. We produced key holders, coat hooks and party
bunting. A few chairs were upholstered, the office paintwork was touched up, kayaks were mended, a table sanded and restored, bikes were mended, and apple crumbles produced.
Two volunteers worked at the Birchwood community café and a third joined the grounds work team of Our Lady and All Saints Church in Parbold. Later a third participant joined the Café team.
One participant learnt to drive with our accompaniment and several learned to swim from scratch or to improve their strokes under our tutoring while others joined the football sessions coached by Ayaz.
The skills sections were largely fulfilled through tutoring in English and driving theory with one participant undertaking Cyber Security courses.
Special initiative – the Family Aid Kits and way for the future
September and October saw the work of the copy and design of the Family Aid Kits come to fruition and become printed. The Family Aid kits were produced as an aid for young Christian singles to understand the dating phase of life better and the issues affecting dating and relationships. It was envisaged that they may also be helpful for use by parents or chaplains to stimulate ideas to discuss with their teens or youth groups. Encouraging the setting up of personal boundaries in a world where anything goes and including explanations of the effects on the human brain of certain behaviours is hoped to encourage healthier lifestyles.
The Family Forge has periodically since it’s foundation produced literature of a Christian formative style, it is envisaged that this will now take a larger role in the charity’s activities in the future as it does not require renting an office space.
More on Performance and achievements
A total of 227 people were recorded as attending the centre this year over a period of 40 office weeks. However, despite having volunteers helping we did not capture all attendees. Of whom 18 were women. This is 8% greater than last year without taking into account the non-recorded attendees. We estimate that the total number of attendees would be as much as 20% higher. This makes at minimum of a 53% increase from numbers attending two years ago, as last year saw a great increase also.
We saw our first Chinese and Vietnamese nationals this year.
Thus, we can say that the accessibility of the activities and the services offered continued to improve and was needed and welcomed by this community. We can also say that we had an impact on the integration, physical and mental health and even the social mobility of the group. Many of the above attendees benefitted from support work and assistance with practical issues.
Specifically mental health improved with the acquisition of new skills – English, driving theory, map reading and expedition training, mentoring and having someone to help sort out problems. While physical health improved with the hiking - 34 participants plus two volunteer leaders, dental care and the often 3 mile walk each way that many beneficiaries undertake to attend activities at the office. About 13 people joined in the swimming program. 4 different beneficiaries took part in
the kayak trip with 2 leaders while 4 took part in gym training although many more were inspired to join the gym themselves for exercise. we were limited to D of E participants) and 4 people received bikes.
A greater level of integration was achieved through the Duke of Edinburgh Award Program-15 participants began with scheme, 2 dropped out while most achieved some sectional certificates. About 5 are likely to be awarded the full Bronze Award. Integration was especially increased through the voluntary work- meeting English people at Our Lady and All Saints Church and at the Birchwood Centre and learning the ropes with grounds work and the community café. Two participants earned Food Safety Certificates ( a further two not on the scheme also began these certificates in the year) and participant gained IBM Cyber Security certificates which assisted him to gain a place and start studying at Edge Hill university to study Cyber Security.
Many other beneficiaries transitioned into jobs this year; with one Iranian in particular progressing to a position whereby he could apply for jobs and obtained one in his electrical engineering field comparable to where he left off in Iran. A second person from Sudan gained their Academic White card for electrical services.
Highlights
1: A highlight of the year was to accompany Abubaker to the Council Chambers in Ormskirk where he was awarded by the mayor with a well-deserved certificate to recognise the level of his volunteering for the community. He did well over 100 hours of litter picking to say nothing of what he did in our centre. Two more of our volunteers from the local community were recognised also. 2: A second highlight was the tea party in the covered way outside the office where Ringtons’ biscuits (kindly donated) and cucumber sandwiches and tea was served. Naturally, it was well attended and we had to have two sittings.
Inspired by Christian love for all people we at the Family Forge endeavoured to carry out all these activities with great respect for the human person and the desire to see all people grow and flourish. Although we intend to round of some of these programs going forward it is with some disappointment that this work will come to an end with the closure of the office. But we look forward to planning the future in the year ahead.
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