Mosaic LGBT+ Young Persons’ Trust Charity Number 1166676
Report of Trustees
April 1[st] 2023 – March 31[st] 2024
Registered Address
Old Diorama Arts Centre 201 Drummond St London NW1 3FE
Introduction
Welcome to the Annual Report of Mosaic LGBT+ Young Persons’ Trust which we usually just refer to as Mosaic. We are a Charitable Incorporated Organisation and provide a range of services for teenagers from across London who are LGBT+.
Our objects are
*** TO RELIEVE THE MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL DISTRESS SUFFERED BY YOUNG PERSONS WITHIN GREATER LONDON AND THE SURROUNDING AREA, WHO ARE LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER (LGBT), BY THE PROVISION OF ADVICE, EDUCATION AND SUPPORT WITH THE OBJECTS OF INCREASING SELFESTEEM AND POSITIVE IDENTITY AMONGST SAID PERSONS.**
*** TO PROMOTE EQUALITY, DIVERSITY AND COMMUNITY COHESION AS WELL AS TO ELIMINATE DISCRIMINATION IN RELATION TO LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER (LGBT) PERSONS BY ADVANCING EDUCATION AND RAISING AWARENESS OF ISSUES AFFECTING SAID PERSONS.**
We summarise our objectives into a simple aim: to support, educate and inspire LGBT+ young persons from across London and the surrounding area. We think this aim fulfils the public benefit requirement of our charity. The Trustees reviewed our charitable objectives during the year and believe that they still summarise the work that we want to do.
Governance
Mosaic has a very active Board of Trustees and we have tried very hard to ensure we have as diverse a Board as possible and that we listen to what these diverse voices are saying.
As reported in our last Annual Report we started the year in question with some new Trustees appointed from 1 April 2023. Unfortunately, one of those had health problems almost from day one and resigned during the year. In addition, a couple of our longer standing Trustees, Emma Palmer and Graysen Whittaker, gave us 6 months notice that they planned to step down as a Trustee. Graysen was our Vice Chair and despite stepping down continues to be heavily involved in Mosaic completing some long-term projects. I am delighted that Madi Pollard-Shore agreed to be our new Vice Chair – they were able to work alongside Graysen for a few months and formally took over in November 2023.
One thing we decided was that there needed to be a “bedding in” period where new trustees felt able to say “this is not for me” or we felt able to say “this isn’t working for us” and consequently we recruited new Trustees on an initial one year term – you will see that some chose not to continue at the end of that 1[st] year.
We had a second recruitment round in November 2023 appointing 3 new Trustees.
The result of all this is we have a Board that is remarkably diverse both in protected characteristics and also in the length of experience as a Trustee with Mosaic. While we are sorry when good Trustees leave us, we do see the varying experiences of the Board as a real strength.
The list of Trustees below shows the changes in our Trustee Board from 1 April 2023 to the date of this report (8[th] January 2025) Names in bold are Trustees as of the date of this report, Ken Batty is Chair and Maddison Pollard-Shore is Vice Chair.
Ben McGlynn-Moore
Charles Alderwick
Christos Papaioannou
Holly Singlehurst
Jo Wittams
Ken Batty
Maddison Pollard-Shore
Norman Powell
Gavin Doyle Resigned 26th May 2023 Imogen Webb Resigned 1 October 2023 Ash Bungarnayak Appointed 1 October 2023, attending Board since 1 April 2023 Ellie Lewis Appointed 1 January 2024 Sally Cochrane Appointed 1 January 2024 Emma Palmer Resigned 27 January 2024 Graysen Whittaker Resigned 27 January 2024 Chris Shearer-Wright Resigned 31 March 2024 Elliott Howe Appointed 11th May 2024, attending Board since 1 January 2024 Deuvaunn Darroux Resigned 31st May 2024
Our process for recruitment of Trustees was to advertise the roles widely, including on Charity Jobs, Linked In and through personal approaches. A panel of Trustees and a panel of young persons interviewed all the applicants and then selected those who we felt brought most to the Board.
The Board met 6 times during the period under review. Three times for a 2 hour meeting via Zoom and three times for a half day face to face meeting. While our Board meets regularly the detailed work is done in Committees. Each committee met 5 times in the year.
Our Frontline Services committee has oversight of everything we do that involves our young persons. This is also the committee that provides assurance to the Board on the quality of our safeguarding. Our goal is that it should be chaired by a Trustee with deep experience of youth work and safeguarding, supported by several Trustees with experience of Frontline work with young people. We have managed to meet that goal throughout the period covered.
Our Finance, Risk and Governance Committee has oversight over our finances. They ensure the risk register reflects our risks and the mitigations we have in place. They also ensure that we do all that is necessary to meet our regulatory requirements and have good governance. Our goal is that it is chaired by a Trustee with deep experience of charities and charity governance, supported by several Trustees with charity or business experience. We have managed to meet that goal throughout the period covered.
Our Marketing and Fundraising committee has oversight over our marketing and fundraising. We use a fundraising consultant to advise us on grants and foundations and she works directly with the Chair. We have our own part time marketing and admin person who does a great job ensuring we have an interesting and lively presence on social media. Our goal is that the Chair is a Trustee with deep marketing or fundraising experience, supported by Trustees with marketing and fundraising expertise. We have managed to meet that goal throughout the period covered.
Staff and Volunteers
Our founder, and Executive Director, Lukasz Konieczka, led the Trust throughout the period. Lukasz continues to inspire us with his vision for what Mosaic could be and he is as creative in identifying new programmes for us as he has always been.
He is supported by three permanent members of staff.
Klara Lievens is our Services Manager and continues to focus on our work with 12 – 18 year olds. There is a whole section on this work. Klara was an intern for us in 2021 and joined us as a full-time employee in January 2023.
Rachel Padilla is our Partnerships Manager and focuses on our work around employability and with 18 – 25-year-olds. There is a whole section on this work. Rachel was a volunteer mentor for us with the 13 – 18 youth club and joined us as a full-time employee in July 2023
Jax Hoefnagels is our part-time Social Media and Admin Assistant. Jax previously worked for us through the Kick Start program and it was great when we heard they were available and wanted to work for us. They joined us in October 2023.
Our counselling service is managed by Sona Barbosa who is our Head of Therapeutic Services. Sona has managed this service since its inception. This is a contracted role as Sona is self employed.
Our bookkeeping is done by Filipe Rosa, a Member of the Association of Accounting Technicians, who is training to be an accountant. While Filipe was doing our accounts on a
voluntary basis during the period of this report we have since transferred him to be a paid contractor as our requirements increased and we make significantly more demands on his time. In addition he has recently qualified as an accountant and is ACCA accredited.
As well as our paid staff we have a host of volunteer mentors. Our young persons’ clubs on Wednesday and Sunday are each supported by a team of 4 – 5 mentors every week. Winter Retreat and Summer Camp are residential programs which again rely on volunteers. In addition to this, we have a team of volunteers who go into schools and support young persons there. These young persons are usually unable to attend our clubs and greatly benefit from someone spending time with them and helping them navigate the challenges of growing up LGBT+.
Mosaic Strategy
Last year we decided that we needed a year of consolidation after the disruption of Covid. We deepened our work with young persons we were supporting, rather than actively seeking out new young persons or new groups to serve. However, the year under review has been very different. We have:
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Relaunched our Sunday young persons' club, which we stopped at lockdown. This runs alongside our Wednesday club. Young persons go to only one in any week as the purpose is to serve even more young persons.
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Run our Pride Prom and Homoween for the first time since lockdown. Both these events were really well attended, including by people who would not have been to any Mosaic service before.
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Increased the Clothes Swap events frequency to four times per year. This event has transformed from an opportunity for some of our members to get clothes that better match their gender and become a major opportunity for LGBT+ people up to the age of 25 to refresh their wardrobe and see clothing properly recycled. It has been an excellent way of reaching new young persons.
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Launched a new 18 – 25 years old service. More about this below, but this is a major change in what we do and a whole new service area for us which we believe was a critical development due to a lack of provision in London that serves young adults.
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Launched our Mosaic Works employment program. This is another whole new area for us and again it is detailed below.
Delivery against our values
Mindful - we have been continuously aware of the impact we are having on the environment and in doing so replaced all cleaning products with bio-degradable ones while reducing plastic use to a minimum.
We have also increased Clothes Swap frequency to four times a year - coinciding with the seasons of the year while allowing our members to swap pre-loved items with other members of their community.
We were mindful of the cost of living crisis and that was part of our planning process as we included meals wherever we engaged with young persons. During young persons’ clubs, our members received food donated by Pret and during half-term outings, we took our members for meals out being mindful of their dietary needs, environmental impact (meals were always vegan), economic impact (meals were usually purchased in small independent vegan restaurants supporting vegan economy where feasible) as well as the cultural impact on our members as we broadened their horizons by offering food from a whole array of cultures including Ethiopian, Indian, Mexican, Chinese and many more.
We are also mindful of the tremendous effort that our mentors put in to help our community grow and to express our thanks we engaged them in Big Gay Sports Day as well as several outings to express our gratitude.
We will take more time and actively ask questions to increase mindful considerations across all our services.
Open - we have continuously listened to our members’ feedback they provide us with via Mentimeter alongside other surveys and implemented suggested changes where possible promptly. Those included equipment upgrades like a new projector alongside a new coffee machine as well as programme changes asking for more creative activities during curricular learning that were quickly implemented.
Our members told us they felt listened to and cared for in our reviews. Mosaic still had no hierarchical participation structure as we strongly believe that every member should feel free to contribute to how Mosiac operates. We have also been open to partnership work as we have developed several partnerships helping organisations engage with Mosaic services.
We are open to feedback and scrutiny and held meetings with members who felt we came short on some aspects of delivery seeking mutual resolution through restorative justice. We will continue to be open to feedback, scrutiny and challenge as we see it as an opportunity for learning and growth.
Safe - we proactively engaged in safeguarding meetings, taking all concerns seriously and worked with partner agencies where applicable to deliver the best outcomes for our members. We have seen an increase in asylum seekers accessing our services as they trusted us to be a safe and inclusive organisation. Our evidence to the Home Office contributed to 3 young persons receiving their right to remain.
Youngest members’ often first casual and unstructured community experience are Mosaic Events - Pride Prom, Homoween and now also since last year Queer Garden Party all of which offer slightly different experiences of joyous time with their peers in a safe environment. This
year we have used a new venue on private business estate looking to deliver a safer environment for our members. All events have a private security company that makes sure our venue is secure.
Although we provide a safe space, we want our members to be challenged and exhale in spaces we run. That is why we continue to seek to challenge them outside of their comfort zone either through offering of social action opportunities like being interviewed by the media on aspects of the LGBT+ community or through outdoor pursuits at Summer Camp like abseiling or raft building that our members took part in. Safe doesn’t mean sheltered.
We will look for new ways to challenge our members.
Agile - we acted proactively when we discovered that we didn’t have enough counselling capacity and hired a private counsellor to reduce waiting time. We also observed that young adults who graduate from Mosaic do not have any services to go to after leaving Mosaic as adult services often are unable to meet their needs well. The launch of the 18 - 25 group was an agile response to observed needs.
Similarly, we knew that our members needed help in developing employability skills and hence Mosiac Works was established to offer our members the opportunity to have a paid work experience shadowing LGBT+ mentors in their workplace. It is a perfect example of agile response.
We are keen to see where the needs of our members can be best served and where our services are coming short. We believe that services growth has reached capacity this year and we are now looking to increase agility next year in our responsiveness and reach both in numbers as well as depth of work as we improve our processes and systems internally.
Inclusive - we perceive inclusion to be an ongoing effort as we try our best to facilitate access for all our members. This year we have a young person who requires access through the use of a taxi as she lives far away and public transport wouldn’t be possible. It is coming at quite a cost, but the board is extremely clear on the priority of making sure the young person can access our services. Since taxis bring the young person to the city centre, she is also able to meet friends after the club making her more socially available and connected reducing isolation and loneliness. We have observed growth in the number of young persons with access
We are committed to continuously looking for ways to be more inclusive. One of which is the refurbishment of the building to reduce noise levels that affect our neurodivergent members most.
Community - being focused on community is vital to Mosaic as we work with young LGBT+ persons who will be the building blocks of the community moving forward. We instil the community values of kindness, generosity and respect in our members not only through young
persons’ clubs’ curriculum but also through positive and active engagement. Our members were consulted by NHS on LGBT+ inclusive initiatives. Our members were also active participants of the commemoration of the Admiral Duncan Bombing and contributed to the AIDS Memory UK memorial competition by giving their insights. Our members also have taken part in guerilla gardening and litter picking.
Our members have their first experiences of Community through the Prides we take part in and it has been our priority to engage our members in as many Prides as possible including Student Pride, Black Pride, Trans Pride, Pride in London, Brighton Pride, BiPride just to name but few. We believe that Pride has a very strong connection with our community.
Delivery in numbers
We could fill the report with details of the number of people who use our different services. Rather than talk about every one we have just picked a few to give you a sense of what we do.
Young persons club continues to be the way most young persons (ie those aged 13 – 18) initially engage with Mosaic. We have clubs on a Wednesday evening and a Sunday afternoon to enable us to accommodate the numbers who want to attend. During the time of this report we saw 183 new registrations.
School mentoring is how we engage face to face with young persons who are unable to attend the young persons club. During the period covered we delivered services in 13 schools. The number of students who engage differs by school – in some schools it is just one young person while in other schools we saw as many as 5 regular attendees for one-on-one sessions.
Discord provides us with our online community and during the period covered we had 268 registrant members. The level of engagement varies between those who use it mainly to check up on activities and start times, and those who chat to others on a very regular basis.
Culture Club is how we engage our young persons in the many and various LGBT+ cultural events in London – from shows, to museums to anything that is LGBT+ and cultural. In the year under review we saw 475 young persons attend 56 LGBT different events.
Young Adults Group met for the first time in September 2023. The goal is not to provide a regular weekly meeting but a monthly meeting where people can make connections and then arrange their own meetings. By the end of March 2024 114 young adults registered to know more about the service and 56 of them had joined the member operated WhatsApp group which is where they arrange their own get togethers. We had 8 in person meetings had 136 young adults (18 – 25) had booked to attend.
Financial Report
Mosaic is financially well-managed. We have clear financial controls and proper budgeting. We raise money from a variety of sources ensuring we are not reliant on one particular income stream.
We continue to raise significant funds from within the LGBT+ community and in the period covered, including Gift Aid, raised over £43K. This was significantly higher than in previous years and was because of a major fundraising event which brought in almost £17K. That hides the fact that, on a monthly basis, individual giving has declined slightly, as the cost of living has hit. However individual giving remains an excellent source of income. We believe strongly that we need to be connected to the LGBT+ community and we think funding from the community is one measure of that.
We raised £37K through corporate donations – significantly higher than in previous years. This remains a focus going forward and we would hope to increase that in future years.
In the past our biggest source of income has been local authorities however three years ago we identified the decline in this funding stream and the decline has continued. The funding model for local authorities does not really provide them with funds for discretionary services such as youth work.
In identifying the drop in local authority funding we focused the majority of our fundraising efforts on trusts and foundations. Last year it rose from £3K to £64K and this year that has increased to £152K. Furthermore, £60K of that is guaranteed for the next four years. As a result, we had a total income of £291K and this was an increase of almost 60% over the previous year
Our expenditure was balanced as well. Our biggest cost remained staffing and on-costs which accounted for £142K of our expense. Included in that figure are the salaries of our Executive Director and 3 other staff members plus the on costs including training. Our second biggest expense, as you would expect, was direct support for our young persons – travel to our events, refreshments, and we also include in that number emergency support for young persons who may become homeless or have some other sort of crisis. In total we spent £247K.
At the end of the period in question our cash holding was £248K. Our reserves policy is to have 12 months of staff related costs and 9 months of other costs based upon the year ahead. As our budget for 2024 – 25 is £275K, of which £180K is staffing costs, our reserves are just slightly ahead of target. The Trustees do not consider this a material cause for concern.
Summary
Mosaic, as a service, not a charity, has been running for 20 years and has adapted its services constantly through that time. A service originally aimed at young gay men soon became a service for all queer teenagers. It then became a Charity which offered services to 13 -18-yearold LGBT+ young persons. This year we have extended that offering to LGBT+ persons aged 18 -25. We believe that this is covered in our objectives but is clearly a major expansion in our services. Adapting what we do to meet the needs of our community is a key focus of the Board and the staff and we are delighted to have been able to be agile - as it is one of our values. We will continue to look for new, exciting and innovative ways to support, educate and inspire young LGBT+ persons from across London and the surrounding areas.
b
| Charity no. 1166676 Period start date 01/04/23 To Period end date Mosaic LGBT+ Young Person’s Trust Annual accounts for the period ww?a~~——~~ FOR ENGLAND AND WALES |
Charity no. 1166676 Period start date 01/04/23 To Period end date Mosaic LGBT+ Young Person’s Trust Annual accounts for the period ww?a~~——~~ FOR ENGLAND AND WALES |
Charity no. 1166676 Period start date 01/04/23 To Period end date Mosaic LGBT+ Young Person’s Trust Annual accounts for the period ww?a~~——~~ FOR ENGLAND AND WALES |
Charity no. 1166676 Period start date 01/04/23 To Period end date Mosaic LGBT+ Young Person’s Trust Annual accounts for the period ww?a~~——~~ FOR ENGLAND AND WALES |
Charity no. 1166676 Period start date 01/04/23 To Period end date Mosaic LGBT+ Young Person’s Trust Annual accounts for the period ww?a~~——~~ FOR ENGLAND AND WALES |
Charity no. 1166676 Period start date 01/04/23 To Period end date Mosaic LGBT+ Young Person’s Trust Annual accounts for the period ww?a~~——~~ FOR ENGLAND AND WALES |
Charity no. 1166676 Period start date 01/04/23 To Period end date Mosaic LGBT+ Young Person’s Trust Annual accounts for the period ww?a~~——~~ FOR ENGLAND AND WALES |
31/03/24 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| h Section A Statement of financial activities |
Guidance Notes Unrestricted funds Restricted income funds Section A Statement of financial activities |
Endowment funds Section A Statement of financial activities |
Total funds | Prior year funds |
|||||
| £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | |||||
| Incoming resources (Note 3) | F01 | F02 | F03 | F04 | F05 | ||||
| Income and endowments from: | |||||||||
| Donations and legacies | S01 | 80,131 | - | - | 80,131 | 43,990 | |||
| Charitable activities | S02 | 59,737 | 110,500 | - | 170,237 | 130,232 | |||
| Other trading activities | S03 | 7,050 | - | - | 7,050 | - | |||
| Investments | S04 | 3,890 | - | - | 3,890 | 913 | |||
| Separate material item of income | S05 | - | - | - | - | ||||
| Other | S06 | 6,727 | - | - | 6,727 | 8,536 | |||
| Total | S07 | 157,535 | 110,500 | - | 268,035 | 183,671 | |||
| Resources expended (Note 6) | |||||||||
| Expenditure on: | |||||||||
| Raising funds | S08 | - | - | - | - | - | |||
| Charitable activities | S09 | 129,008 | 118,392 | - | 247,400 | 139,289 | |||
| Separate material item of expense | S10 | - | - | - | - | - | |||
| Other | S11 | - | - | - | - | - | |||
| Total | S12 | 129,008 | 118,392 | - | 247,400 | 139,289 | |||
| Net income/(expenditure) before investment | |||||||||
| gains/(losses) | S13 | 28,527 | - | 7,892 - |
- | 20,635 | 44,382 | ||
| Net gains/(losses) on investments | S14 | - | - | - | - | - | |||
| Net income/(expenditure) | S15 | 28,527 | - | 7,892 - |
- | 20,635 | 44,382 | ||
| Extraordinary items | S16 | - | - | - | - | - | 10,970 - |
||
| Transfers between funds | S17 | - | - | - | - | - | |||
| Other recognised gains/(losses): | |||||||||
| Gains and losses on revaluation of fixed assets for the charity’s own use | Gains and losses on revaluation of fixed assets for the charity’s own use | S18 | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| Other gains/(losses) | S19 | - | - | - | - | - | |||
| Net movement in funds | S20 | 28,527 | - | 7,892 - |
- | 20,635 | 33,412 | ||
| Reconciliation of funds: | |||||||||
| Total funds brought forward | S21 | - | - | - | 185,497 | 152,085 | |||
| Total funds carried forward | S22 | 28,527 | - | 7,892 - |
- | 206,132 | 185,497 |
CHARITY CO FOR ENGLAND Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Report to the trusteesl members of Mosaic LGBT+ Young Person's Trust On accounts for the year end 31 March 2024 Charity no. 1166676 Set out on pages As attached I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charty (kne Trusf,) for the year ended 3110312024. Responsibilities and basis of reportAs the char.rty trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 ('the Acf). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, S have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission unaer section 145(5)(b) of the Act. I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect: i. accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or 2. the accounts do not accord with the accounting records. Independent examiner's statement I have no concems and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Signed Date: 27 January 2025 Name: Howard Lane Relevant professional qualification(s) or body (if any): Fellow of the Institute of Financial Accountants Address: Pro-Filing Ltd 68 Canterbury Grove London SE27 OPA CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES IER