2025-03-31-accounts

Trustees’ Annual Report for the period

From 01/04/2024 Period start date To 31/03/2025 Period end date

Charity name: BSURF

Charity registration number: 1165937

Objectives and Activities

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Summary of the purposes of The aim and purpose of BSURF is to provide
the charity as set out in its individuals who suffer from Drug and Alcohol /or any
governing document Substance Misuse, a safe and supportive
environment to enable their individual recovery,
maintenance and stability from substances, who also
reside within Bolton and its surrounding areas.
Summary of the main BSURF provides a positive social network for clients
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Objectives and Activities	Objectives and Activities	Objectives and Activities
Summary of the purposes of the charity as set out in its governing document The aim and purpose of BSURF is to provide individuals who suffer from Drug and Alcohol /or any Substance Misuse, a safe and supportive environment to enable their individual recovery, maintenance and stability from substances, who also reside within Bolton and its surrounding areas.
Summary of the main		BSURF provides a positive social network for clients
activities in relation to those purposes for the public benefit, in particular, the activities, projects or services identified in the accounts.		working to achieve recovery and also people working to sustain their recovery from addictive substances. BSURF offers a large range of methods to connect and then purposefully engage with people in recovery. In addition to this our offer is not fixed. We provide activities that are responsive to the needs and ambitions of our service users. BSURF has drop ins for our clients to engage in social skills through recreational activities eg: pool and darts. We provide a safe therapeutic environment to engage with fellow recovering addicts, they can enjoy a hot drink, and it allows them to have a central meeting point. We have expanded our mutual aid proposition to not only include ACT recovery but also SMART recovery and the hope group as-well as our Friday ‘check-in’. We have expanded our creative projects and have engagement once again in day trips to support a healthy lifestyle. We have taken the opportunity to train some volunteers, and this has resulted in them gaining college qualifications and in particular food hygiene certifications. We have utilised funds to widen the scope of awareness and have a weekly group in the Horwich area now making connections to the wider community through local churches offering our members and local parishioners the experience of witnessing real success stories in recovery.

Achievements and Performance

Achievements and Performance	Achievements and Performance	Achievements and Performance
Summary of the main achievements of the charity, identifying the difference the charity’s work has made to the circumstances of its beneficiaries and any wider benefits to society as a whole.		BSURF is a Mutual Aid organisation based in Bolton. It is run by and for clients and former clients of the Drug and Alcohol Services. It is a responsive organisation whose modus operandi is to respond to and meet the needs of those suffering and recovering from addiction. Our current location has been slowly developed with a corporate branding of signage, marketing material and even our minibus being decorated in the corporate colours. We have seen a continued increase of new clients engaging with BSURF in all activities and mutual aid work. This has resulted in an increase in new volunteers within BSURF. We have continued to build on our successes and introduced new activities during this year. One of these is our breakfast club. We have seen growth in our proposition and an increase in numbers engaging in extensive range of activities, opportunities for ‘self-development’ and most importantly the chance to become part of a positive social network of people who are striving towards similar goals – to maintain and achieve abstinence from drugs and alcohol. The service is accessible for clients with addiction problems, also accepting those with concurrent psychiatric problems. We are keen to work in partnership and signpost our clients to statutory services to ensure they get the help and support they require. BSURF has become an intrinsic part of the Drug and Alcohol offer in Bolton. BSURF’s Modus Operandi is to recognise that although formal services provide a vital support to formal drug and alcohol services. We recognise that as good as formal services are in Bolton their contact with clients can only ever be relatively fleeting. Recovery is 24 hours a day 365 days a year. BSURF is a crucial support network to be there when clients require emotional support, words of encouragement or a reminder of how far they have come. Many of our clients have engaged in college courses, gained qualifications through BSURF as well as volunteering for BSURF and strategic partners e.g.: MHIST, Achieve

We are constantly reviewing our offer to ensure that it meets the needs of our client base. Specifically, our aim is to ensure that BSURF gives our clients a sense of fun. We understand that addiction is often the result of trauma and unfortunately some of our clients have experienced multiple traumatic events and life experiences that have directly led to them in effect ‘self-medicating’. What has worked well for us this year .What were the challenges . The weekly drop ins and the mutual aid groups including the Church activities work well. It’s always a challenge to make sure our clients are engaged with services if they are in early recovery, so we encourage that they have a worker in the drug and alcohol services at Achieve. We partnered with Hep C UK trust to bring awareness of this avoidable but deadly decease. We brought educational awareness to the fact that the decease although associated with intravenous drug users can be picked up by anyone, this helped break down the stigma attached. We offered people a free antibody test at our premises (they got a £5 voucher sponsored by the Hep C UK trust) This attracted a lot of people and 17 took the test and many more got educated. Several now are seeking help through Achieve and BSURF to get clean. The music group is always a great success to get people enjoying life again and our annual pool competitions brings joy to everyone who takes part. We have shown initiative to encourage members throughout the years to volunteer for BSURF and to see a ‘career recognition track’ in volunteering for BSURF. E.g.: A member who had taken up volunteering with BSURF went on to be a trained councillor, many more now work in services, we have a nurse who has returned to her job in the NHS and many more success stories. We have utilised the musical equipment to engage in supporting ‘next steps’ by performing at their events. We have put on fund raisers at Christmas to promote healthy living after addiction and help remove the stigma of addiction. We have reintroduced our successful Breakfast/brunch club that meets on a Monday morning for an all you can eat breakfast. Through this we will be able to provide a safe and relaxed environment and further breakdown stigma and barriers associated with addictions. We can engage members and encourage them to look at obtaining

the food hygiene qualification so they can help with the delivery of the breakfast to other members and to gain a qualification and skill they can use in later life. We have had several fund raisers throughout the year to raise funds and to bring much needed awareness.

Financial Review

Review of the charity’s financial position at the end of the period		BSURF continues to support its clients within the grants we can obtain. We aim to secure funding for essential running costs of BSURF this allows us to concentrate our activities for the benefit of our clients whilst preserving our presence in the town centre.
Statement explaining the policy for holding reserves stating why they are held		We hold funds in reserve for specific projects but will aim to have a reserve of at least £1,000 for unexpected emergencies. These are usually generated by donations or fund-raising events. This figure isn’t set in stone, but it is used as a guideline based on our experiences.

Structure, Governance and Management

Description of charity’s trusts:		The name of the Charitable Incorporated Organization (“the CIO”) is BSURF
Type of governing document		Constitution
How is the charity constituted?		Charitable Incorporated Organization
Trustee selection methods including details of any constitutional provisions e.g. election to post or name of any person or body entitled to appoint one or more trustees		BSURF shall be managed by a Board of Trustees who also serve as The Charity Committee. The Committee shall comprise of no more than 6 members of BSURF. Within the 6 there must be an elected CHAIRPERSON, SECRETARY and TREASURER. We currently have 3 trustees this is sufficient for BSURF to function adequately. Other roles may be allocated to the Committee members as is deemed necessary for the efficient running of BSURF

Reference and Administrative details

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Charity name BSURF
Other name the charity uses N/a
Registered charity number 1165937
Charity’s principal address 37 Knowsley Street
Bolton
BL1 2AS
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Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity

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Dates acted if not for whole Name of person (or body) entitled
Trustee name Office (if any)
year to appoint trustee (if any)
1 Mark Yates n/a n/a n/a
2 Lesley Ann Love n/a n/a n/a
3 Michael Vickers n/a n/a n/a
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Declarations

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

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signature(s)

Full name(s) Mark Yates

Position (eg Secretary, Chair Chair, etc) Date 24/04/2025

BSURF (Bolton service Users recovery Forum)

Statement of annual accounts for year ended 31[st] March 2025

Total funds at start of the year ……………………. 6,510.50 INCOME Grants …………………………………………………………..14,092.00 Donations & Money raised…………………………….1,997.61 Total Income………………………………………………..16,089.61 EXPENDITURE Building & parking rent…………………………………6,120.00 Energy, utilities, phone bills………………………….2,552.77 Refreshments and supplies……………………………212.55 Insurance ………………………………………………………825.81 Minibus expenses…………………….…………………..1,513.15 Entertainment &Trips……………………………………909.79 Total expenditure……………………………………….12,134.07 Net income for the year……………………………3,955.54 Total funds at year end ……………………………10,466.04

Signed ……... Mark Yates (Chair)

28/07/2025