2021-04-01-accounts

Healthy Living Project: The Caribbean and African Community Health Support Forum Annual Report April 2020 March 2021

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Photograph taken from the CACHSF Exercise Class with 50+

Report compiled by Clem Turner and Jennie James

Introduction

The Caribbean and African Community Health Support Forum (CACHSF) works with people from Caribbean and African backgrounds and people from the wider community on issues relating to health and wellbeing.

The objective of CACHSF is to specifically address the health issues that impact the Caribbean and African community by engaging and enabling them to access/receive culturally appropriate health improvement information and intervention via targeted initiatives such as seminars, community talks, health projects, and health-focussed community events.

It has been well documented that the target community is predisposed to certain health conditions such as sickle cell, hypertension and diabetes, so the task of the Forum is first and foremost to raise awareness about these issues, ensure equity of access to health improvement information and support, empower individuals to identify their health care needs as far as possible, and to seek the support that will enable them to maintain and improve their general health and wellbeing.

The following report documents the prioritised projects which have been delivered by the CACHSF in 2020-2021.

Summary of the Year

It has been a very challenging year for the Caribbean and African Community Health Support forum and its committee members, this is due to several reasons. Firstly, we had to close the centre for face-to- face work when the COVID-19 Pandemic gripped the country, and the majority of our volunteers suffered many health challenges as a result which reduced our human resources.

We had to prioritise and diversify our projects for an online service, which included telephone and reduced one to one face to face contact to mitigate risk. In relation to the Dice and Spice project, we took a decision that as this was a much-needed service during the Pandemic, we would continue to cater for the needs of the community. With a reduction in

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volunteer drivers, we had to work creatively to respond to the increased demand.

The exercise classes were delivered online, however existing clients over 70+ did not participate due to their reluctance to engage technology. The classes, as a result, attracted new clients who were unable to attend face to face and preferred an online service.

Two of our clients passed away and this had a devastating effect on the health and well-being of their family, and Befriending support has to be allocated to the families.

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CACHSF Unity Befriending Project

CACHSF worked in Collaboration with the Suffolk Black Community Forum was funded by Suffolk Community Foundation to pan and deliver an 8-week online programme

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to respond to the health inequalities within the African and Caribbean community. COVID and the lockdown further compounded the health and well-being disparities within our communities, and a programme was designed to respond to the growing needs arising out of the Pandemic.

A working group met on 2nd March 2021 to design and plan the 8- weeks programme, in collaboration with volunteers who work directly with the African and Caribbean communities. The following concerns around diet, nutrition and health were raised through anecdotal feedback:

OBESITY, DIABETES, HYPERTENSION, MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES, LACK OFTRUST AND FAITH IN HEALTH SERVICES AND GOVERNMENT INITIATIVE RELATING TO BME COMMUNITY E.G. VACCINE TREND IS SHOWING THE BME WHO ARE AT HIGHEST RISK OF GETTING CV ARE THE LEAST LIKELY TO GET THE VACCINE. MISREPRESENTING OF FACTUAL INFORMATION, PREVENTING OUR PEOPLE OF WORKING WITH GIVERNMENT, MISUSE AND ABUSE OF BME OF PREVIOUS, HISTRIAL EXPERIMENTS.

Practitioners were approached who already had the cultural lived experience, as well as the professional qualifications, knowledge, and expertise to plan, deliver and evaluate the programme. The schedule was then agreed, and promotion through outreach, radio promotion and social media commenced. The programme started on Monday 22nd March 2021 for 8 weeks using a Zoom platform and some sessions were 5.00-6.00pm and others were 7.00-8.00pm to enable those at work to engage.

TOPICS

The importance of living an herbal life

Lewis Turner ,

Herbal Life Health Coach and Fitness

Lewis Turner

Boosting your immune system with High Energy Natural Foods – Make your

own Healthy Smoothies

Jennie James - Qualified Nurse

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The Healthy Gut Connection!

Shirley Powell - Nurse and Business Owner of Your Health in Your Hands

Enjoying Caribbean Meals and looking at healthy options

Shirley Powell

Nurse and Business Owner of Your Health in Your Hands

Moving towards a plant-Based Diet – Make your healthy vegan breakfast

Louise Gittens

Qualified Chef

Granny’s Red Pea Soup – A Healthy taste of the Caribbean

Karen Walker

Cultural Ambassador, Life Coach and Business Owner

Cooking Healthy Caribbean Food on a Low Budget

Shirley Powell

Nurse and Business Owner of Your Health in Your Hands

The Caribbean Melting Pot - Celebrating and Bringing it all together!

Imani Sorhaindo

Holistic Health Practitioner and Qualified Teacher

Project Evaluation

The programme was well promoted and although FREE tickets could be obtained through Eventbrite, we also wanted to ensure members of the community who lacked digital skills could also access the sessions. Volunteers assisted in the word of mouth to enable more accessible promotion of the sessions, and each facilitator also played a key role in promoting their sessions. This allowed for an even wider profile of attendees to access the project.

52 people attended overall, with the majority attending 3 or more sessions overall. There were a small number who

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attended all 8 sessions consistently. Over 45 of attendees were of African, African Caribbean and Dual Heritage backgrounds. Other attendees were White British or of Asian backgrounds. Feedback was very positive and there were requests to have much more of these types of learning opportunities when out of lockdown. It was not the preferred mode of delivery for the majority attending, but the topics attracted them to still book on. Zoom rental hire from Be Me Like We Ltd allowed us to be resourceful, as CACHSF

did not have its own Zoom facilities. This allowed the project to work in collaboration with other projects and businesses who have a like-minded mission and vision. Zoom security was managed by a Tech volunteer as the Black community experienced Racist Zoom Bombing when attending some national events this year, and so we had to mitigate the risk and keep everyone safe.

What went well?

An average of 10 people attended all of the sessions, and some sessions attracted much higher numbers in the 20s. The interactive nature of the sessions went down very well, to avoid being too Power Point led. Each session included s short visual presentation with the project branded templates, a demo, interactive question and answers, followed with ‘what next’. The feedback showed that attendees valued the cultural perspective when learning about diet and nutrition, and they wanted to have the confidence that the practitioners actually cooked and lived the life they were promoting. Many of the attendees fed back that they were going to try some of the health tips advised or gave feedback about how they transferred skills the following week with new recipes being applied in the home for a healthier lifestyle. We had people attend not only from the African and Caribbean communities so continue to share with wider audiences and promote more on radio such as ICR and in the newspaper or free newspapers. The vast majority of those attended were local and came from the Black communities. Practitioners from some of our partner organisations also attended, such as Onelife Suffolk, SBCF and DASH.

Next Steps and Recommendations

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-Longer series of sessions were requested

-To offer some session at later times or Saturday mornings, to allow more people to come from work to attend session

-Additional topics were requested as follow-up sessions when out of lockdown:

Healthy eating and promoting general health and wellbeing

Understanding cholesterol levels Trying a sugar free diet tips to help and prevent prediabetes implications.

-Attendees requested the recordings post-event and this is not something we anticipated. It was decided that they could access it via the website as a continual resource.

Exercise Class

Due to the fact that the country went into lockdown on 23[rd] of March 2020, our regular Monday morning face to face exercise classes were suspended from there on in. As stated above we took the decision to introduce the sessions online via zoom. Although we attracted some new and younger people to the online classes, our regular clients (the over 60 plus) were not keen, and the majority did not participate with the online sessions and was quite prepared to sit it out until such time when we could return to face to face. The exercise classes are still ongoing. These sessions take place at 17 Tower Street Ipswich IP1 3BE St Mary-La Tower, every Monday morning 11:00am – 12:30pm.

AIMS:

The purpose of the weekly exercise classes is to:

1. Increase access levels to provisions such as local exercise classes

2. Highlight the importance of regular exercise for people living with long term health conditions

3. Give participants a place to meet and socialise on a regular basis

4. Reach and encourage members of the community who may otherwise be isolated to get active, meet new and old friends.

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Some of the participant’s feedback included:

‘I find this so much better since we changed the instructor’

‘I was looking for somewhere like this for a long time I’m so pleased that I’ve found this’

‘I feel like I am getting more benefit from exercising now, makes coming here even more worthwhile’

‘I’m really enjoying coming to the exercise classes, I feel so much better within myself’

‘I love it here; I don’t know what I would do if this class was to stop

I have been attending the CACHSF exercise classes for over 11years now, I love it here, I don’t know what I would do without it.

Dice ‘n’ Spice – Hot Caribbean Meals Delivery Service Report

This project was established by the Caribbean and African Community Health Support Forum’ to provide a hot meal to members of the Caribbean and African Community. This need was identified from research that was carried out by the CACHSF in 2018 which highlighted the need to provide healthy food options for those who are not socially mobile and for those who have limited access to cultural food. The project has now extended and continues to serve members from all communities.

Covid19 and lockdown in general highlighted the importance of the dice ’n’ spice hot meal service. With so many of our elders living alone and isolated under covid restrictions, it was important we kept this service going during this unprecedented and difficult times.

The food is prepared and cooked in a much healthier way than the outside takeaway options, and this helps to addresses the project’s main priority which is to lower the rate of degenerative illness in the local community, through health lifestyle changes. In our food preparation there is a reduction in Salt, none of the food is fried, and no sugar is used in the food preparation.

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The Dice ‘n’ Spice service, cooks and delivers to approximately 15-18 people every Wednesday.

Dice ‘n’ Spice deliveries are made for lunch time, and we aim to serve them between 12.30 – 2.30pm.

The Team:

X1 Volunteer Coordinator

X2 Volunteer Drivers

X1 Chef

X2 Volunteer admin

Evaluative feedback:

Dice ‘n’ Spice now have regular customers who state that they really appreciate the food and the fact that it is delivered to their door.

All of the regular customers look forward to the personal contact that the delivery brings to them.

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Here are some statements from customers: -

• I really like the food and I do not want to go without it.

• I am thankful for the food and that it is delivered to my door.

• The food is very nice, and it helps me a lot because I don’t have to cook every day.

• The food is nice, and it reminds me of home. I cannot cook the food myself because it is too expensive for me to buy.

• The chicken and mash are very nice, and I enjoy the combination of fruits.

• I am thankful for the hot dinner, and I like the fruits too.

• I was very happy to have a vegan option. I would recommend this service to anyone.

• I look forward to eating the fresh fruits that come with my Caribbean hot meal.

Our findings:

Many of our customers are elderly and we have discovered that without Dice ‘n’ Spice food delivered to their door on a Wednesday or Sunday; they may not have eaten sufficiently that week. Some people have been relying on only soup or sandwiches or from snacks brought in by a family member on other days to survive and this is often below the expected food intake per day which is concerning. The customers also benefit from being able to freeze additional meals so that they have adequate food each week.

The project has identified some challenges: -

Firstly, the aim and long-term objective of this project is to provide a service to those that need it most throughout Ipswich. However, the demand has been greater than anticipated and in order to expand to the full capacity, we would need more volunteers and drivers.

There are potential customers who are dispersed across the Town, and also living isolated lives outside of Ipswich. Dice ‘n ‘Spice is apprehensive

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about attracting a large number of customers whose locality would be spread across Ipswich and beyond because they would all expect hot meals and all within a similar time frame and we would not be able to meet this demand and timeline without additional resources. We had to turn away potential clients that do not reside within the five-mile radius of central Ipswich due to limited resources to expand. (Deliveries are presently carried out using two drivers).

Based on the specialist Caribbean cuisine, and the fact that much of the food has to be purchased fresh from the Suppliers, storage can be a factor for the team. We do not want to compromise on the healthy consistency of the food by adding preservatives which would make the non-perishable food last longer.

To safeguard the commitment of volunteers, and to recruit new volunteers, we would need to consider reimbursing fuel costs for the deliveries.

The food deliveries were initially set up to be done twice a week on a Sundays and Wednesdays. The Sunday delivery has proved to be challenging as our existing customers do not order regularly. As a result, there is a 60% drop in Sunday orders. We will need to review whether a Sunday delivery is viable or explore an alternative day (which customers have alluded).

Successes and the Future

Dice’n ‘Spice has catered for approximately 40 people over the course of the year. The majority of customers are regular and have deliveries on a monthly basis. Others are very reliant on a delivery each week. There are a few new customers who are not so regular, however they order as and when the need arises.

Dice’n ‘Spice will continue re-evaluating with the team and the customers to ensure our standards are maintained. We will also be revising our menus in light of feedback and to attract new customers. We also plan to recruit new volunteers who can assist in the cooking and deliveries so that the project can go into its next phase of expansion.

Dice’n ‘Spice is thankful for their funders support.

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Clem Turner

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Men’s Health and Well- being, Unity Football Project

The Unity football project was created/instigated by our Chairman Mr Clem Turner who had worked tirelessly for almost two years in an attempt to get young people from underprivileged background and deprived areas of Ipswich and the surrounds who wanted to play football but found it difficult to gain access to the more established local clubs.

As stated below, UNITY FC was officially formed in 20/19 under the umbrella of the CACHSF. In our first year as a Affiliated football club in 20/20 we had a total 42 registered players from 17 different nationalities, an achievement that we are all very proud of. We are also proud of the fact that due to all the hard work, commitment and dedication from Clem and his coaching team, this was recognised and duly award with Clem wining the Suffolk FA Adults grassroots coach of the year 2020/2021. Well done, Clem, Paul, John, Daniel, Leroy, Phil, Jennie, Veronica and all those volunteers that we have not mentioned.

We would very much like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all who have supported this much needed project. Hopkins homes, our main kit sponsors, Ipswich Rotary Club , Sunbelt, who are the sponsors of our away kit. Suffolk Community Foundation for the ongoing support that they have provided for us. Also, a special thanks to Ipswich Town FC for also providing us with a brand new kit.

Unity FOOTBALL CLUB

A Brief History, and the aim and objectives of the club.

Formed in April 2019, Affiliated to Suffolk F.A August 2019.

UNITY F.C applied to join the Suffolk and Ipswich league (SIL) in June 20/20. The Application was granted in July 20/20, the club will be playing their football in division 3 of the SIL for the coming season 2020/21.

Unity F.C will be playing their home game at Inspire Suffolk Lindbergh Road Ipswich Suffolk IP3 9OX, for the next two years.

The main aim and objective are to create a family orientated club where any young person from the deprived and underprivileged background who wants to play football can go and play football.

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Our long-term gold is to have teams representing UNITY F.C at all levels of local football and beyond.

Over the next five season we plan to have the following progression in place.

• Year One: UNITY F.C first team, playing in Division 3.

• Year Two: we hope to have as well as the first team, a reserve team and a under 18 side.

• Year Three: we intend to add another two different age group to the club.

• Year Four: we will continue to develop young players through our coaching system. We will be looking to install another two different age group.

• Year Five: We will take stock, reassess, see where we are, have a look at what the next five years looks like.

We Feel that we have the structure of the club right, we have a very good, very strong backroom staff and dedicated

volunteers to guide us through what has become a very challenging times for any new club embarking on this journey for the first time. 20/20 the year of Covid 19.

Football, Level One Coaching Badge Course Suffolk FA

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----- Start of picture text -----
Attendees no.3 Three young men from the community were able
to advance their football knowledge by signing up
to the Suffolk FA Level One Coaching course.
£160 per person
Cost
Outcome
All three are now fully qualified step one football
coaches and are now applying their newfound
skills in the community, the long term aims and
objective for these guys is to get as many young
people as possible from underprivileged
background who would not normally have the
opportunity to play football, off the streets and
getting them playing competitive sports.
Well done, and congratulation to Daniel, Kai and
Ben on your achievement.
----- End of picture text -----

Health Check Day

On 28[th] August 2020, health checks were carried out on 38 + men from the Unity Football club. The checks included Blood Pressure, Blood glucose, BMI, Peak Flow and Carbon Monoxide. The men ranged from ages 17 to 66 on average and made up of footballers and coaches. Amongst the 38 people screened most had their checks results falling within the normal ranges. 5 participants were identified with a raised BMI, 3 with a BM level above 7mmols, however this may be attributed to a meal they recently ate, and we advised them to visit their GP for further action. One man was discovered with increased Blood sugar level, and he was also advised to visit the GP for further investigation.

The Carbon Monoxide Test was completed, and most participants produced a healthy lung breathing result. Only 1 person’s result was abnormal which suggested that a higher level of Carbon Monoxide / nicotine was in the system. All had great lung capacity and breathing technique as confirmed by the Peak Flow tests which showed ideal results blown at a range of 400 – 600 litres per minute. He was advised to contact the smoking cessation support team.

Overall water was given as a refresher to boost participants hydration and to boost test results.

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Expenditure: Peak Flow mouth pieces

£8.49

Social distance sign X4

Test mouth Pieces (Oxygen) -

1 Peak Flow -

Test Strips (BM) -

Metre strips

£8.90 £9.99 £9.90 £17.49 £3.16

Pulse Oximeter -

£15.77

Thermometer

£25.99

Hand sanitiser sign -

£0.90

Sub Total = Purchase.

£100.59. Amazon

Other dry goods including hand sanitisers, gloves, masks, and minor equipment including water:-

B &M = £71.50

Savers = £63.

Total - £135.04 Card purchase.

Health checks 38 @ £11. = £418.00

Grand Total = £653.63

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Suffolk FA Adults Grassroots Coach of The Year 2020 - 2021

CACHSF INCOME & EXPENDITURE 2020 - 2021

CACHSF INCOME & EXPENDITURE 2020 - 2021	CACHSF INCOME & EXPENDITURE 2020 - 2021	CACHSF INCOME & EXPENDITURE 2020 - 2021	CACHSF INCOME & EXPENDITURE 2020 - 2021
Income and Expenditure
Income	2020- 2021	2021- 2022		Total
B/FWD	2,870.60
Funding
IBC Area Committee		£0.00
Southwest	£535.00
Central	£765.00
Nacton Comm. Funds	£639.47
Suf Comm Foundation	£13,289. 50
SCF Emergency Food fund	£1,385.3 7	£0.00
Hopkins Homes	£570.00
Dice and Spice	£6,685.0 0

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Exercise class	£120.00	£0.00
Football income
Sported England	£1,630.0 0
Rotary Club	£500.00
Sunbelt Rentals	£500.00	£0.00
Donations	£100.00	£0.00
Remittance	£476.76
Total Income	30.066. 70	`
Expenditure	2020- 2021	2021- 2022		Total
General Running Costs
Telephone	528.4				Unity befriending project increase in usage
IT / internet	£445.97	£0.00			Unity befriending project increase in usage
Postage/Stationery	£876.48	£0.00			Unity befriending project increase in usage
Publicity/Promotion	£799.24	£0.00			Unity befriending project increase in usage
Training :-	£660.00				Unity befriending project increase in usage
Food hygiene X2	£0.00
First Aid Training	£320.00
		£0.00
Professional fees:-	£1,655.0 0	£0.00			Befriending project teaching session
Exercise hall fee	£112.50	£0.00
Exercise class Inst fee	£150.00
Football Fees
train Facility	£244.00
Coaches fee	£510.00
Minibus Hire	£670.00
Training equipment	£217.00
Match day fees	£520.00
League reg fees	£225.00
Sufolk FA Fees	£127.00
Football kits	£1,367.0

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	0
Dice and Spice	£4,681.0 5
Chef cost	£1,536.0 0
Health Day checks	£464.76	£0.00
Volunteer expenses	£1,494.4 0
Ofce car park fees.	£75.00
	£0.00	£0.00		£0.00
Centre Costs
Hire/Rent	£1,915.8 2	£0.00
Insurance	£284.00	£0.00
Council Tax		£0.00		£0.00
Maintenance/ cleaning	£505.65	£0.00			covid 19 sanitising / cleaning /hand hygiene
Equipment	£1,785.0 0	£0.00		£0.00	New phones and Laptops for Befriending project
		£0.00
Miscellaneous	£289.00	£0.00
Total Expenditure	£22,458 .27	£0.00
Total Surplus/Defcit	£7,608. 43
Jennie James Jennie James Treasurer Caribbean and African Community Health Support Forum.

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Forum Committee Representatives & Trustees

Clem Turner

CACHSF Chairman & Strategic Lead

Ancilla Uzande

CACHSF Vice Chair

Jennie James

CACHSF Member &Treasurer

Verley Robert Veronica Akrofi

CACHSF Forum Member CACHSF Forum Member Interim Secretary

Carline Benloss

Sharlene Turner

CACHSF Member Volunteers Coordinator/ DBS ID verifier and administrator CACHSF Forum Member Young people project Lead

Trustees

Mrs Ethlyn Beaton Mrs Delorita Williams Mr Courtney Akrofi Miss Diamond James Mrs Ceciline Emery

Special Thanks

On behalf of the Caribbean and African Community Health Support Forum we would like to extend gratitude and thanks to our funders, volunteers, and members of the committee for all the hard work under challenging circumstances during the covid -19 pandemic.

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To all the committee members who have dedicated their time and effort into making the Caribbean and African Community Health Support Forum grow, thank you and well done. Your help and support has not gone a miss.

We would like to express sincere thanks to all those from the community that have supported and are continuing to support and appreciate the work that we do. Without them the CACHSF would have struggled to come through the difficult period of 2020 – 2021.

Caribbean and African Community Health Support Forum 17 Tower Street Ipswich Suffolk, IP1 3BE Tel: [phone] Email: [e-mail]

“Let’s Talk About Health”

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CACHSF Income & Expenditure Apr

Income and Expenditure				Unity befriending pr Unity befriending pr Unity befriending pr Unity befriending pr Unity befriending pr Befriending projec t
Income	2020-2021	2021-2022	Total
B/FWD	2,870.60
Funding
IBC Area Committee		£0.00
South West	£535.00
Central	£765.00
Nacton Comm. Funds	£639.47
Suf Comm Foundation	£13,289.50
SCF Emergency Food fund Hopkins Homes Dice and Spice	£1,385.37 £570.00 £6,685.00	£0.00
Exercise class	£120.00	£0.00
Football income
Sported England	£1,630.00
Rotary Club	£500.00
Sunbelt Rentals	£500.00	£0.00
Donations	£100.00	£0.00
Remittance	£476.76
Total Income	30.066.70	`
Expenditure	2020-2021	2021-2022	Total
General Running Costs
Telephone	528.4
IT / internet	£445.97	£0.00
Postage/Stationery	£876.48	£0.00
Publicity/Promotion	£799.24	£0.00
Training :-	£660.00
Food hygiene X2	£0.00
First Aid Training	£320.00
		£0.00
Professional fees:-	£1,655.00	£0.00
Exercise hall fee	£112.50	£0.00
Exercise class Inst fee	£150.00
Football Fees
train Facility	£244.00
Coaches fee	£510.00
Minibus Hire	£670.00
Training equipment	£217.00

Match day fees	£520.00			covid 19 sanitising / New phones and Lap
League reg fees	£225.00
Sufolk FA Fees	£127.00
Football kits	£1,367.00
Dice and Spice	£4,681.05
Chef cost	£1,536.00
Health Day checks	£464.76	£0.00
Volunteer expenses	£1,494.40
Ofce car park fees.	£75.00
	£0.00	£0.00	£0.00
Centre Costs
Hire/Rent	£1,915.82	£0.00
Insurance	£284.00	£0.00
Council Tax		£0.00	£0.00
Maintenance/ cleanibg	£505.65	£0.00
Equipment	£1,785.00	£0.00	£0.00
		£0.00
Miscaellaneous	£289.00	£0.00
Total Expenditure	###	£0.00
Total Surplus/Defcit	£7,608.43

Jennie James

Jennie James

Treasurer Caribbean and African Community Health Support Forum.

il 2020 to April 2021

roject increase in usage roject increase in usage roject increase in usage roject increase in usage roject increase in usage

teaching session

/ cleaning /hand hygiene ptops for Befriending project

Independent Reviewer Report.

My name is Paul Akanbi. I write to confirm that ai have examined the accounts of the Caribbean and African Community Health Support Forum as an independent reviewer for the purpose intended the Charity Commission. I have found that the account submitted reflects a true and accurate record of the organisation financial income, expenditure and transactions.

I have looked at the bank records for the period indicated (April 2020 to April 2021) and confirmed income stated throughout the period. I have also looked at the expenditure, verifying this with bank records and receipts / invoices regarding expenses and payments where necessary.

After having reviewed their financial records and accounts, I can verify that this is an accurate account of the information presented in the annual report sent.

Paul Akanbi

Independent Reviewer.