2022-07-31-accounts - X2y LGBT Youth Group

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Trustees’ annual report for the period: 31 July 2021 to 31 July 2022

1. Reference and administration details

Name X2Y LGBT Youth Group

Other name charity is known by X2Y Charity Number 1162589 Address Pride House, 27, School Street, Wolverhampton, WV1 4LR.

2. Names of the charity trustees

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Name Office (if any) Date acted
if not for whole
year
1 Ruth Wilson Chair
2 Stephanie Treasurer
Knight
3 Gaby Howell
4 Sean Russell Until 09/03/22
5 Laura Babb From 01/12/21
6 Lucy Onions From 05/02/22
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3. Advisors during the year

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Type of Name Address
advisor
Youth Organisations Steve Dodd 16 Temple Street,
Wolverhampton Wolverhampton, WV2 4AN
(YOW)
Wolverhampton Rashmi Patel, 16 Temple Street,
Voluntary Sector Sharon Nanan- Wolverhampton, WV2 4AN
Council (WVSC) Sen, Pete
Emms.
Bank Co-op Bank PO Box 250, Skelmersdale,
Lancs., WN8 6WT
JMS Accountants Melissa Smith 15, Cedar Avenue, Kinver,
DY7 6BW
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Advisor Name Address
Wolverhampton Kelly Walker- Pride House, 27 School
LGBT+ Reed (Chair) Street, WV1 4LR
Birmingham LGBT Steph Keeble 38-40 Holloway Circus,
(CEO) Birmingham, B1 1EQ
Alan and Thomas Martin Howard 314-316, Bournemouth
Insurance Brokers Road,
Ltd. Poole, Dorset, BH14 9AP.
Base 25 Alan Jarvis Base 25, Castle House,
Wheeler's Fold,
Wolverhampton WV1 1HN
PAG Consulting Polly Goodwin 43, Westfield Road, Kings
(Consultant) Heath, Birmingham, B14
7SX
LGBT+ Consortium Lucie Brook, Zone 5, Wrentham
Louise Cook Business Centre, Prospect
Park, Exeter, EX4 6NA
4. Staf
Name Role Date
if not
whole
year
1 Nicky Howells Sessional youth worker (4 hours
per week)
2 Rachel Sessional youth worker (4 hours From
Hetherington per week) 16/01/20
3 Emma Savage Outreach worker (self-employed)
hours vary according to funding.
Responsibilities:
● [18+ group ]
● [links with schools, training ]
● [networking / outreach work]
● [counselling]
4 Lucy Palin Operations manager (0.8 FTE) From
03/05/22
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5. Structure, governance and management

Governing document: Constitution adopted 21 May 2015

How the charity is constituted: We are a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) whose only voting members are its charity trustees

Trustee selection method

Trustees are appointed or reappointed annually at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in September. Trustees are appointed for a term of three years. Additional trustees may be provisionally voted onto the board during the year and their appointments confirmed at the next AGM.

Additional governance issues

The Trustees confirm they have complied with the duty in Section 4 of the Charities Act 2006 to have due regard to guidance on public benefit published by the Charity Commission.

X2Y has a safeguarding policy in place. Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks are carried out on all members of staff and volunteers prior to employment or taking up voluntary placement.

X2Y is affiliated to YOW, which is part of WVSC, and Steve Dodd has given excellent support and advice on a range of topics. WVSC also keeps us up-to-date with local initiatives and funding opportunities. A representative from X2Y also attends the Volunteer Information Network’s quarterly meeting.

X2Y has benefitted from a close relationship with LGBT Wolverhampton and is affiliated to it as an ally. A representative of X2Y attends each WLGBT+ partners meeting.

All trustees give their time voluntarily and receive no remuneration or other benefits.

6. Objectives and activities

Summary of the objects of the charity

To promote social inclusion of, and preserve the physical and mental health of, LGBTQ+ young people in Wolverhampton and the Black Country, and to promote equality and challenge discrimination particularly on the grounds of age, gender identity and sexual orientation.

Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects

X2Y’s core activity is to run two drop-in sessions per week for LGBTQ+ young people in a central location.

One is for young people aged 11-17; the other is for the 18-25 age group. Through this we aim to achieve our objects by:

Providing facilities and opportunities for recreation and education for young people in the interests of social welfare, in order to improve their conditions of life
Providing information, advice and emotional support
Raising awareness within Wolverhampton and surrounding areas of all aspects of discrimination through publications, training, events, media and other means of communication.

The group also provides support for secondary schools, and other services working with children and young people in Wolverhampton and surrounding area. This includes staff training, advice and guidance and short term 1-to-1 support for individual young people on request.

X2Y also relies heavily on the work of our sessional youth workers, outreach worker and operations manager, who consistently go above and beyond their contracts in their commitment to our beneficiaries. We also appreciate the many hours trustees have spent applying for funding, handling finances, attending meetings and supervising staff.

7. Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year

Sustainability

We have developed a five-year strategy. This underpinned our successful bid to the National Lottery Community Fund for a threeyear project (see below).

National Lottery Community Fund:

In January 2022 we heard the exciting news that our funding bid to the National Lottery Community Fund had been successful. This was for a three-year project which started on 1[st] March 2022. Entitled ‘X2Y reaches out’, this project aims to reconfigure our services to continue to meet the needs of LGBTQ+ young people in Wolverhampton and surrounding areas following the Covid emergency.

We expect the project to make a difference to the LGBTQ+ youth community in that we will be able to grow and develop our services to support a greater number and a more diverse mixture of LGBTQ+ young people in Wolverhampton and the Black Country. Specifically:

Through engaging with other LGBTQ+ young people at X2Y,
●

young people will be less isolated, be more comfortable with their sexuality/gender identity and report improved confidence

Through our schools’ work, LGBTQ+ young people will be less
●

isolated, more resilient and be more comfortable with their sexuality/gender identity, and 10 young people will feel confident enough to attend X2Y groups

Through our counselling service, young people will report and
●

improvement in their mental health and well-being

The number of young people we work with will increase year on
●

year

Through engaging with other parents/carers of LGBTQ+ young
●

people, families will feel positive, or more positive, about their child’s sexuality/gender identity and more aware of how to support them

Through our training packages, schools or other bodies per year
●

will be better equipped to meet the needs of LGBTQ+ young people

The project will enable us to take our organisation to the next level in terms of making us more sustainable. The research done by Julie

Duffy and team last year identified that the fact that our current staff only work a few hours per week for X2Y and have other demanding jobs the rest of the time is a barrier to the growth of the organisation. The lack of a manager meant that there was a danger that the trustees’ time is taken up with day-to-day operational matters, leaving less time for, for example, risk management, strategic planning, accountability and financial controls. Duffy reported ‘The skills of the board are clear, there is great skill and knowledge and affection for the purpose of the organisation but also as the organisation grows there could be more demands on a small number of trustees. It could be that with a manager, or a CEO, that other skills from the Trustees could be utilised.’

To address this need, we have recruited an operational manager four days per week to co-ordinate and re-design our services to meet these needs over the next three years. Our new operations manager, Lucy Palin, took up her post in May 2022.

We have also been able to increase the number of hours we are able to support schools from 6 hours per week to 18 hours per week, from the beginning of the summer term 2022.

Projects

HeadStart 3 Train the trainer project: X2Y was commissioned by Wolverhampton HeadStart to train staff in schools and social care teams such as fostering, adoption and children in care. This project ran from March 2021 to March 2022. X2Y delivered three training days, one for social care staff and two for secondary schools. Some of the key features of the project were:
Attendance: 14 out of the 21 mainstream secondary schools
●

sent at least one member of staff, giving a 66% take up rate. All social care staff who were invited came to the social care train the trainer day. Sessions were also attended by staff from 3 PRUs, 2 special schools, the Nightingale hospital service and the Music Service.

Feedback: Feedback was very positive. Here are some typical ●

comments:

Emma and Rachel were very knowledgeable and were able to answer many difficult questions the group had! I am looking forward to taking this course back and delivering it.
Fantastic training on awareness of LGBT – very in depth on legislation. Over all very thorough training.
Thank you for a really engaging and informative training session �
Thank you so much for the excellent presentation; informative, humorous, well-resourced and memorable
Thank you. Many students will feel listened to because of the impact of this training. Staff will feel supported and more confident to normalise LGBTQ.
Improved links with schools: As a result of this project, X2Y
●

now has links with most secondary schools in Wolverhampton, key social care staff and a range of other teams. This will really help us provide support for LGBTQ+ young people in the City, and has raised our profile among many staff working with Children and Young People in a range of settings. Our links with schools has led to a number of young people finding out about our groups, and one person who attended a train the trainer session has since joined our board of trustees.

Outcomes: participants were asked about the extent to which
●

the training met its aims:

83% of social care attendees and 100% of education attendees reported feeling able to promote an inclusive environment for LGBTQ+ young people
83% of social care attendees and 100% of education attendees
reported feeling confident to deliver the training
83% of social care attendees and 94% of education attendees

said they were clear on the legal rights of LGBTQ+ people

Creative Black Country Creative Connections project: X2Y carried out a creative project funded by Creative Black Country with our young adults’ 18-25 group. This resulted in the production of a spoken video around the topic of ‘My kind of normal’.

Numbers attending and activities

- 11 17 group:

In the past year (July 2021- August 2022) the total number of young people attending the group has been 44. Numbers were relatively low for the first six months of the year, following the covid restrictions. However, since moving to Pride House in February numbers have increased considerably and we are now getting around 20 young people per week.

Activities included:

playing games (board games, computer games etc.)
discussing relevant topics
creative activities (e.g. decorations to make the room their own)
visit to funfair, trip to theatre (Everyone’s talking about Jamie)
outside speakers (e.g. consent and healthy relationships, experiences of LGBTQ+ young people with autism)
writing letters to LGBTQ+ athletes coming to the Commonwealth Games

18+ group:

22 young adults have interacted with the 18-25 group this year (face-to-face, zoon and Whatsapp chat), with an average weekly attendance of 10. Since February the group has been mainly meeting at Pride House. Before that they were based at the Arena Theatre and the average weekly attendance was 6. However, they still meet at their previous venue, The Arena Theatre, once a month to attend the Arena’s drag night. The group has a few members who come each week but mostly it is different members dipping in and out of the group as and when they need to, or when they are free to attend.

Activities included:

discussing relevant topics (volunteering, JK Rowling)
mentor training
creative spoken word project (Our kind of normal)
trips out (e.g. drag night, walk and talk park visits, Macdonalds, Birmingham Pride, funfair)
pop up shop of Body Shop products
playing games
group member’s talk about Dungeons and Dragons
making pronoun and name plates to display
outside speaker – Pam from Work Pays (CV writing, training opportunities), crochet lesson

Work in schools:

Our outreach coordinator supported 16 young people in 7 different schools during the year up until Easter 2022. This work includes providing one-to-one and small group support for LGBTQ+ young people in schools, and giving advice and guidance to teachers and other professionals. Since April 2022 we have been able to increase the number of hours for our schools’ work from 6 to 18 per week, funded by the National Lottery Community Fund project. Our outreach coordinator is now able to visit four schools per week on a 3-week rota, making a total of 12 schools supported. This enables us to support young people who do not wish to attend a youth group, or who are not yet at the stage of having the confidence to do so. The increased number of young people attending our youth group is partly due to the work our outreach coordinator does in schools.

7. Financial information

Funding this year has come from 7 main sources: Wolverhampton HeadStart, the Yapp Charitable Trust, National Lottery Awards for All, National Lottery Community Fund, Wolverhampton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), West Bromwich Building Society and The Eveson Trust.

We have two individual contributors and one local organisation who pay a regular monthly sum via standing order, totalling £40 per month.

Brief statement of the charity’s policy on reserves

We hold NET bank and cash assets of £44,994.33 which £21,154.46 is unrestricted. Included in this balance is £2,541.89 of tangible assets and an overpayment of £167.83 PAYE to HMRC, also an underpayment of £29.81 in wages which was picked up after year end, both of which will be reflected in next year’s accounts.

The accounts show income for the year of £5,497.18 unrestricted and £44,467 restricted, total income £49,964.18. Expenditure for the year was unrestricted £3,710.87 and restricted £37,966.65. The total expenditure amounts to £41,677.52. The overall surplus for the year is £8,316.66.

Our aim in the past has been to build up reserves of at least £5,000 but not more than £15,000, in order to ensure we are always able to carry out our obligations as an employer and to meet any unforeseen expenditure that may occur. However as a result of the expansion of our organisation as a result of our successful Community Fund bid we have needed to reconsider this position due to our plans to re-design and extend the services we offer LGBTQ+ young people and schools in our community. We now aim to build up reserves of at least £30,000 but not more than £45,000. This takes into account the fact that our main funder, the National Lottery pays its funding in 6-month instalments so will be reflected in our balance. We will review this position next year based on the current liabilities of employees, rent and contingencies etc.

Further financial review details

Our main sources of funding this year have been Wolverhampton HeadStart, the Yapp Charitable Trust, National Lottery Awards for All, National Lottery Community Fund, Wolverhampton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and The Eveson Trust.

We have also received £X in donations from individuals and groups. This includes 'cashback' donations from Just Giving, Amazon Smile and PayPal – all additional ways in which our supporters can make a contribution to X2Y when shopping online. It also includes £1000 from the West Bromwich Building Society, which enabled us to upgrade and update our website.

This year we have not earned any additional income by selling training or other services as the training we have delivered was funded by HeadStart.

Bank account

We have a community account with the Co-operative Bank.

8. Future plans

Our plans for 2022/3 are to continue to grow and develop the support we provide for LGBTQ+ young people. Specifically:

[We hope to increase the number of youth groups we run, so as to]

support a larger number, and a more diverse range, of LGBTQ+ young people. This will involve recruiting more sessional youth workers.

[We have appointed a community worker to set up a parents’ ]

group for parents of LGBTQ+ young people, and also to look at supporting the needs of LGBT+ parents.

[We hope to further strengthen the board of trustees by recruiting ]

new members and providing training opportunities for existing trustees.

[We will work with our partner organisations to improve Pride ]

House further, for example increasing accessibility to the building. We will need to work together to explore sources of funding to make these further improvements.

Declaration

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signature

Full name Ruth Wynne Wilson Position (e.g. Chair of trustees chair etc.) Date

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