You Can Flourish (Flourish)
Trustees’ Annual Report and Financial Statements
Year Ended 31st March 2024
Registered Charity Number: 1166721
A Charitable Incorporated Organisation
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Chair’s Introduction
At Flourish, we witness daily the resilience of girls living in a world that often feels so challenging to navigate. This past year, Flourish girls’ stories have both challenged and inspired us to do even more.
The numbers are striking: referrals for 1:1 mentoring increased by 18%, while 82% of the girls we support continue to struggle with low self-esteem. Yet, behind these statistics we see and hear young people who remain determined to find their confidence! We, as a Team, are incredibly proud of how Flourish has grown to meet these pressing needs during 2023/4.
This past year alone, Flourish delivered over 560 hours of 1:1 mentoring and 224 hours of group mentoring to C.280 girls - impressively increasing our reach compared to last year. These achievements highlight the tireless efforts of our team and volunteers, who have contributed in excess of 2,800 hours to ensure girls feel seen, supported, and enabled!
Starting as a mentor myself, I have experienced first-hand the transformative power of Flourish’s trauma-informed approach, the value of the organisation’s exceptional training, and the impact of a supportive network of active , local women.
Naturally, with growth comes greater challenges. The needs of the girls we support are increasingly complex, with rising numbers experiencing anxiety, parental separation, and various trauma. However, as one of our mentees recently shared:
“ Flourish helped me feel less alone and more like myself again ”…this sentiment encourages us that Flourish can, and is , helping to cut through the structural barriers young people are facing today!
Therefore, encouraged, we look to the future, ambitious in our plans, and next year, we aim to expand our reach to 430 girls, to deepen our partnerships with schools and communities, and to launch new services tailored to girls at critical transition points, such as the move to Secondary School.
I continue to be so impressed that Flourish prioritises girls being authentically at the very centre of this organisation, and through our Flourish Advisory Board (FAB), we listen to
girls and empower them to shape our services, advocating for themselves, and influencing the systems around them.
As I reflect on my first year as Chair, I am filled with appreciation and respect for our dedicated leaders and staff team, inspiring and generous volunteers, funders, and of course, the incredible girls we serve. Together, we have achieved so much, and this coming year is already looking more progressive and exciting than ever!
Leila Clare - on behalf of Flourish Trustee Team
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1. Objectives and Activities
Flourish’s purposes as set out in our constitution are:
- To promote and protect the good health and wellbeing of young women and girls in particular but not exclusively in Warwickshire and the surrounding areas through the provision of guidance, support, education and other such services as the trustees shall determine with a view to improving their self-esteem, relationships, and resilience; and increasing their active participation in their communities. To advance the Christian faith in accordance with the statement of faith.[1]
Why we exist
We believe that every girl should have the opportunity to feel confident, good enough and capable, in short to flourish. Nationally, the picture for girls is bleak: 89% of girls and young women aged 7–21 feel generally worried or anxious (Girl Guides, 2023), girls are the unhappiest they have ever been, they are significantly less happy with their lives than boys, and the gap is growing (The Good Childhood Report, 2024).
In Warwickshire, girls continue to face challenges in achieving their academic potential, face fewer years in good health and feel less safe at night compared to the best areas in the UK (Plan International UK, 2024).
At Flourish, we continue to see increasing numbers of girls who feel lonely, worried, sad or stressed. Our referrals for 1:1 mentoring increased by 18% during this year, and we have had growing demand from more schools for group mentoring support as well as support for parents and carers. Girls referred to us are struggling with low self-esteem (82%) and confidence (67%), anxiety (59%), managing their emotions and friendship issues (41% and 40% respectively). Amy*’s experience is typical:
“I’m really struggling with my confidence and poor body image. I get really worried and anxious about things every day and struggle to attend school. I would really like help with these things before I go to college.” Referral, 2024
1 The trustees and co-CEOs have reviewed and requested to remove the aim of ‘advancing the Christian faith in accordance with the statement of faith’ as this isn't currently an accurate reflection of our activities. Flourish remains motivated by the Christian faith.
Girls also tell us that they experience different treatment to boys in their schools and communities, telling us that when seeking support from others, they are called ‘dramatic’, ‘silly’ and ‘hormonal’ and they believe this isn’t an experience that boys have.
Our Vision
Our ambition is for all girls to be supported early, feel confident, be empowered and equipped to take on life’s challenges. We want all girls to have access to girl-shaped services, to have their voices amplified and mobilised to improve the experiences of girls like them - creating a culture where girls can truly flourish.
Our Mission
We are girl-focused specialists, we believe that girls are the experts, creating services that are girl-shaped, ensuring girls are supported early. We know that our work is most effective when our services are girl-shaped, and girls grow in confidence when they see that their voices matter and drive change. We do this by supporting the self-esteem and wellbeing of girls through 1-2-1 and group mentoring, successfully delivered by local women to local girls aged 10-18 in Warwickshire. We specialise in early intervention, preventing issues from escalating. We’re here to listen, understand and support this generation of girls, providing a safe space for them to talk, share their concerns and explore their challenges and goals using creative techniques. We do this so girls can recognise their self-worth, live to their full potential, and get to where they want to be.
Our Strategic Aims and Objectives
Flourish has set strategic objectives for 2023-26 under four key areas:
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Centre for Excellence - to build our reputation as the specialists in girls’ selfesteem and wellbeing, continue to impact our beneficiaries now and in the future, be an employer of choice.
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Funding and Stability - build a diverse income funding plan, create a dedicated funding resource/people, upgrade our systems, deliver excellent stewardship.
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Depth - effective systems and processes, growing partnerships, review and build our business plan, excellence in governance, develop our people plan.
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Development - grow and embed FAB Youth Voice, build our networks, develop membership/monetising our resources, grow beneficiary reach, improve our own office space.
More specifically for this year our aims were to:
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Extend Flourish services to reach more vulnerable girls across our community. This includes new services to meet girls' evolving needs (i.e. reaching girls who are out of education/employment; on NHS waiting lists; transitioning from primary to secondary/secondary to employment);
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Grow multi-year funding relationships with a range of funders (companies, regular givers, companies, grant makers and individuals).
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Develop new training products for Professional, Parents and Community Partners to improve outcomes of young people in the wider community.
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Develop referral channels to accept more girls through self-referrals, GP services, social workers, youth networks and extend mentoring contracts with new schools and community spaces.
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Embed young voices across our organisation and provide opportunities for more girls to raise their voices, and advocate for themselves within the community.
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Drive the mobilisation of many more inspiring local women from all backgrounds, to support local girls as volunteers and supporting the development of a sustainable model of delivery.
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Consult
Our Activities and Services
The trustees have considered the Charity Commission guidance on public benefit as we have planned and reviewed our activities. We carry out our charity’s purposes through the provision of services to improve the self-esteem, wellbeing and self-confidence of girls aged 10-18 in our community.
The aim of all our services is to enable girls to feel heard, known, seen and supported. We provide early intervention programmes, workshops and resources and participation work for girls through our FAB (Flourish Advisory Board).
● Early Intervention Programmes
“My anxiety has gone from a ten to a three and it has helped me cope with my anxiety and panic attacks.” Mentee, 2024.
Our programmes are delivered by our staff and award-winning volunteers to girls aged 10-18 in schools and community settings. Through early intervention, we support girls
at their point of need, preventing issues from escalating. As one girl recently shared, ‘Through this course I learnt that being yourself is the best thing you can be.’
Flourish 1:1 Mentoring creates a safe space in which we work with girls towards building self-esteem, nurturing emotional resilience and building a toolkit for life. It comprises 12 weekly hour-long sessions at school or another suitable place. Our mentoring follows a structured programme and takes a girl-led approach. This leads to our programme being personalised to each mentee, with the mentor drawing on a variety of skills as a coach, listener, facilitator, critical friend and relatable role model. We find this approach to be effective, relevant and long-lasting, seeing significant improvement in self-esteem and wellbeing. Our 1:1 mentoring is coordinated by our Mentoring Coordinator, and delivered by two members of staff (our Training and Service Development Lead and our Specialist Trauma-Informed Delivery Lead) and up to 19 volunteer mentors.
The Flourish Course is our flagship group mentoring programme. Across 8 weekly sessions, we cover topics ranging from friendships and discovering worth to managing emotions and positive self-talk. Each session includes games, crafts, discussion, and creative journaling to help girls build self-esteem and mental wellbeing, advocate for themselves, and create a supportive peer community.
Flourish Rebuild is a group mentoring course consisting of 8 weekly sessions around understanding emotions and building emotional resilience. These sessions offer the ideal safe space for girls to explore and identify emotions together as a supportive peer community and to create a physical and mental 'toolbox' of coping mechanisms to help them thrive long after the course has ended. Both the Flourish course and Flourish Rebuild are delivered by our Group Delivery Lead along with one or more volunteer mentors for each programme.
● Workshops and Resources
We offer parents, carers, and school staff the opportunity to attend our popular workshops. Our FAB girls (see below) have designed the sections on what self-esteem is, how to build it, and how best to communicate with a young person. By using their language, experiences and suggestions, we amplify their voices and ensure the workshops are as relevant and effective as possible. We also provide access to our
Flourish Hub, an online specialist resource library with innovative Flourish-crafted tutorials, tools and tips to support girls’ wellbeing.
Our workshops and resources improve our community’s engagement with and support of the girls in their care. They ensure a holistic approach to our support—by equipping and resourcing parents and professionals we can improve the longevity of our impact. Our Training and Service Development Lead designs and develops our resources in partnership with the girls we support, and she also leads the delivery of our workshops for parents, carers and professionals.
● Girls’ Voice - Our FAB participation work
We know that our work is most effective when our services are girl-shaped: our Flourish Advisory Board (FAB) underpins everything we do. These young former participants meet regularly in groups or on a 1:1 basis, to advise our staff and board on approach, service offer, and strategy, shaping the services we provide for girls like them. Girls grow in confidence when they see that their voices matter and drive change.
We want to improve awareness of girls’ wellbeing within our wider community, so all girls feel heard, known, seen and supported through our wider influence. We are seeking to provide opportunities for more girls to self-advocate within the community, directly influencing the systems around them. One way we are already doing this is through our FAB girls, whom we give the opportunity to meet community leaders for roundtable discussions, write blogs, present podcasts, and do public speaking. Our Training and Service Development Lead leads our FAB work, but it involves all of our staff and volunteers who are delivering work directly with our beneficiaries.
“One of the things I love about being a Flourish Mentor is helping girls to find that they have a voice that can be used to make positive change. Part of this is encouraging girls to think through communicating issues that are important to them, also important is how to communicate effectively without confrontation. Empowering girls in this way gives them a way to deal with concerns now and also embeds skills that will be of lifelong benefit.” Volunteer Mentor.
Our Measures of Success
We measure outcomes over the year in order to report the impact our services have on our beneficiaries. To evaluate the success of our early intervention programmes we use
the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale. We also ask girls to use a 10-point scale to measure their satisfaction in certain areas of their lives and we also gather qualitative feedback from girls.
We gather feedback from parents/carers of beneficiaries, after they young person has received mentoring, and after they have attended our workshops themselves. We also gather and evaluate feedback from our volunteers, for example, when they attend training sessions.
We continually review our impact to ensure what we are doing is working to achieve our charitable purposes and the best outcomes for girls and our community. We also examine our evaluation methods and decide when they need to be adjusted for different age groups or girls with SEND for example.
Our Volunteers
Core to our model is to mobilise and resource local women volunteers to support local girls, with the dream of providing this generation with women who champion them, who look like them and believe in them. Our volunteers deliver a huge amount of our 1:1 mentoring and accompany a staff team member to co-deliver our group mentoring. Our volunteers are supported by staff through robust training, regular supervision and high quality, relevant resources. We have had 19 volunteers actively mentoring during the year, as well as 2 wonderful admin volunteers supporting us in the office weekly. Our fantastic team (excluding trustees) provides us with approximately 2857 hours of volunteering.
One new volunteer reflects on her experience of her Flourish mentoring training:
“I could see a need for more extensive emotional support for teenage girls and have been inspired by how Flourish provides this in such an accessible and uplifting way. I was delighted to be able to offer my skills to help girls navigate their difficulties and better prepare them to fulfil their potential. Mentor training has been great fun. Comprehensive resource packs alongside open and thoughtful discussions with experienced mentors has given me the confidence to tackle the role with enthusiasm. It was a joyous experience to train with a like minded group, all of whom want to make a positive difference in the journey of the next generation of young women.”
Our volunteers also support us in fundraising, for example, arranging a Christmas concert, and recommending us within their own networks for gifts and donations.
2. Achievements and Performance
Impact on beneficiaries
During 2023/4 we delivered 562 hours of 1:1 mentoring to 83 individual girls. We are delighted to report that:
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81% of 1:1 mentees finished with improved wellbeing
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75% finished with improved self-esteem
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74% finished with improved body image.
We delivered 224 hours of group mentoring through 28 group mentoring courses to 196 girls. This represented a 65% increase in the number of groups since last year, due to the appointment of a new full-time Group Delivery Lead. Our number of
beneficiaries through this providing service has doubled since 2022/3. We found that:
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73% of girls on the Rebuild course finished with improved self-esteem
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60% of girls on group courses finished with improved wellbeing
Over the year, girls consistently told us that mentoring helped them to grow in confidence, that they now feel happier at school and with friendships and that they understand their support networks. They have strategies and a toolkit to cope with the challenges they face. Here’s a typical story of change we see at Flourish:
For Ana*, 1:1 mentoring was transformational. She no longer cries about school, she has stopped self-harming, and she now meets up with friends. Ana said,
“The best thing about mentoring has been realising that I’m better than what I thought I was. I have learnt to accept myself and not listen to others; I’ve become more confident; I feel happier in school.”
Ana wants to make her voice heard and she now recognises that going to school will get her to where she wants to be in the future. She has developed a mature understanding that there will be problems and difficulties at times, but thanks to mentoring she now has the tools and techniques she needs to be much more in control when they arise.
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Some further examples of feedback we gathered:
Qualitative feedback from 1:1 Mentoring:
“Mentoring has helped me through everything and given me someone to talk to. It has taught me to tell others if I am struggling, and to be able to tell someone about my worries and troubles. This has created a huge impact on me and helped me so much.”
“The best thing about mentoring has been the activities that we did. I learnt all about myself and how important I am. I’ve been feeling better about myself and I learnt how to properly take care/look after myself. I would recommend Flourish to a friend because it helped me.”
“The best thing about mentoring was being able to have a safe space to talk to people who feel safe to talk to. I liked the interactive activities and decorating things. The mood cards were helpful. I feel that I have calmed down, been given genuine coping methods, learned new strategies and improved my positivity and self worth.”
Parents and carers who have referred girls also testify to the impact that Flourish mentoring has had on their young people:
“I know she has appreciated the mentoring, and was sad to finish, but it has helped get her through a very difficult year as she prepares to move to secondary school. The other week she received the letter she wrote to herself, which she had completely forgotten about, so that was a really nice touch.”
“Sophie* is taking her mock exams at the moment and, even though she is a bit anxious, I can see that she is handling this stressful time way better than she used to. Once again, I am so grateful to Flourish and (her Flourish mentor) for helping Sophie gain confidence and a better self-esteem.”
“Thank you for the restart of the mentoring with Jodie*. It has been a great help for her and, everyone at home and in our family back in France have noticed that she was feeling much better. She is more confident and joyful than before. I'm very grateful for these sessions and for your support.“
100% of parents/carers who have referred girls for Flourish mentoring would recommend it to a friend, and 100% either agree or strongly agree that Flourish Mentoring has made a positive difference to their young person, the outcomes on the
referral form have been met and the presenting issues or concerns originally highlighted have improved.
Qualitative feedback from Group Mentoring:
“I have learnt to value myself more. I am less self-conscious about myself and I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders!”
“This course has helped me to think more positively about myself. I have changed the way I think about things, as I understand myself more and other people more too.”
"It was not pressurising, the activities were so fun and the people were all friendly. This has helped me so much."
"I have learnt to believe in myself more and that I am not my mistakes. I have learnt that I am worthy and loved by others."
School staff also report on the difference that Flourish mentoring makes, for example:
“Flourish helps to equip girls with the ability to reach their full potential. My students who have worked with Flourish have all seen significant improvements in not only their attendance and achievement but self-esteem and mental health. They feel listened to and prepared to deal with the challenges life brings”, Head of Year at partner school
Driving a holistic approach with adults supporting young people
We delivered 10 workshops to parents/carers and professionals in a number of schools and community venues. This benefitted 191 adults with responsibility for supporting a young person, equipping them with advice and tools. Over the year 103 people signed up for our online Flourish Hub (37 for our young people’s resources and 66 for our parents and professionals resources). Of those parents/carers and professionals who attended workshops:
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98% felt better equipped to support their young people.
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88% felt more confident to support their young people.
Attendees said that they found the following impactful:
“Learning to understand the teenage brain and the right language to use. The experienced and helpful trainers who were very relatable and have lots of experience to share which was really helpful.”
“Learning about the triangle of behaviour, thoughts and feelings. This really resonated and I think is something I'll be able to use with my daughter.”
“All of it was excellent. The information on the Resources Hub was particularly helpful.”
“This was really useful for all of our staff as there is a lack of training specifically on selfesteem. The listening activity we did was really eye opening and will help me when I talk to students in future.”
Performance against our Aims and Objectives
We are pleased to have made progress in all areas, whilst learning valuable skills and knowledge for the ongoing growth and development of our charity along the way. Highlights are mentioned below against each objective.
- Extend Flourish services to reach more vulnerable girls across our community. This includes new services to meet girls' evolving needs (i.e. reaching girls who are out of education/employment; on NHS waiting lists; transitioning from primary to secondary/secondary to employment);
Our overall reach through direct beneficiaries for 1:1 and group mentoring increased by 97 to 279.
Reflecting the escalating number of girls with multiple and complex needs in our community, we worked with double the number of girls who had a social worker assigned to them, or early help intervention, had experienced loss and were at risk of child sexual exploitation. Double the number of girls were experiencing challenges managing anger and four times the number of girls we saw had experienced parental separation. One of the key developments for Flourish was the securing of a three-year grant award from the Henry Smith Charity enabling us to recruit a Specialist Trauma-Informed Delivery Lead who is delivering training on trauma-informed mentoring and effecting a cultural shift, as well as herself being able to deliver support to girls with the highest level of risk that we mentor at Flourish.
We began to trial a new workshop for year 6 girls, delivering this to 20 girls, focussed on the transition to secondary school. We also delivered assemblies in a local primary school to all KS1 & 2 pupils (180 girls) to help them understand what positive self-esteem is. We were also delighted to deliver our first Flourish Course in a local primary school to 8 girls in year 6 to help prepare them for the transition to secondary school. We plan to develop all our transition programmes further next year based on girls’ and partners’ feedback.
We have reflected through the year on our impact data, and notice that some of our quantitative data is not as strong as it has been in previous years, despite the fact that all the qualitative feedback we receive tells us that we are delivering what we set out to do and are providing relevant, timely and effective support to girls through our mentoring, which is in turn impacting their relationships in families, schools and the communities they are in. So we have decided to reexamine our impact questionnaires and methods of data collection to identify any changes that need to be made, especially in the context of working with more younger children, including those still in primary school.
- Grow multi-year funding relationships with a range of funders (companies, regular givers, companies, grant makers and individuals).
We have been activating our three-year fundraising strategy and as well as the multi-year award from Henry Smith, have also secured multi-year funding for core costs from BBC Children in Need, 29th May 1961 and a new local church supporter for three years. We have continued to invest in community fundraising through another wreath-making event, a choir performance and a raffle at Christmas, as well as working in partnership with other local charities to fundraise together including the Soroptimists of Kenilworth, Leamington Round Table, Leamington Rotary, St Nicholas Church Kenilworth and Castle Hill Baptist Church Warwick. Our trustees arranged a challenge event for us which was a very successful fundraiser. We have slowly grown our donor base to 19 regular donors and 24 one-off donors.
It has been time-consuming to arrange fundraising events as a team, and progress has been slow to develop relationships with corporate donors, and one of our partners ceased to trade last year. We plan to recruit an in-house
Fundraising Manager next year to focus on growing all income streams alongside a continued whole staff team effort.
- Develop new training products for Professional, Parents and Community Partners to improve outcomes of young people in the wider community.
We have delivered a total of 10 workshops this year to 191 adults, which has provided parents and professionals with tools to support the girls in their care, built relationships and our reputation in the local area, and provided a modest source of income. We estimate that each attendee shares their learning with 1.5 young people/family members/friends so we estimate an additional 248 secondary beneficiaries.
We developed training on Understanding Trauma which we delivered to our Volunteer Mentor team in October, and are developing a bespoke training session on Self-Harm which we plan to deliver in June 2024.
- Develop referral channels to accept more girls through self-referrals, GP services, social workers, youth networks and extend mentoring contracts with new schools and community spaces.
This year Flourish worked in 21 local schools and community venues, compared to 13 in 2022/3. We have strong relationships with local referring partners, working with them prior to, during and after mentoring takes place, providing them with reports on progress with recommendations for ongoing support. One school partner commented: “ I always love reading what a positive impact the course has on our girls. Please pass on my personal thanks to the team this year for everything they have done.”
We are providing more 1:1 mentoring in community spaces to support girls who can’t currently access mainstream education, and have delivered three community-based group courses locally. We are receiving more referrals directly from or recommendations from GPs and Family Support Workers as well as a self-referral from a young person and we continue to develop relationships with healthcare professionals to increase direct referrals from the NHS/local authority. Next year we have plans to streamline our referral process with schools to increase our efficiency in managing our referrals for 1:1 mentoring.
- Embed young voices across our organisation and provide opportunities for more girls to raise their voices, and advocate for themselves within the community.
We concluded our biggest ever (to date) FAB project in collaboration with local art gallery/park and gardens at Compton Verney. 5 girls learned new skills growing plants, creating plant dyes, making their own artwork and writing messages to display in a new sensory garden. Four sessions ran this year including a final exhibition to the public. Girls chose to express their voice and concerns about the environment and climate change in their final piece, and gave the following feedback. “It is my favourite thing I've done with Flourish. I learned a lot, like how to dye fabrics.” “I was really nervous to come to the first session but I loved it. It has helped me feel more confident.” “I really want to do more stuff like this.” “I feel really proud of what we have made.”
We also worked with a young person to help tailor our resources to make them more accessible to girls who are neuro-diverse.
A further 6 girls have been involved in beginning a new project which they would like to develop to support younger girls and share some of their experiences.
In November we were pleased to run workshops at the Warwickshire Youth Conference involving 20 girls to hear their experiences and opinions on how to make Warwickshire safer. We helped them to understand what their own strengths were and how they could use them in a local setting. Girls fed back their ideas to Warwickshire County Council and helped to create a patchwork quilt to celebrate their strengths and demonstrate how when we join these together we can make a difference in our communities.
Our co-CEO had the opportunity to represent Flourish girls’ experience of body image anxiety at the House of Lords ahead of the Online Safety Bill.
- Drive the mobilisation of many more inspiring local women from all backgrounds, to support local girls as volunteers and supporting the development of a sustainable model of delivery.
We have welcomed a further 10 brilliant volunteer mentors, bringing our total volunteer team to 35. We were thrilled with this increase compared to the 4 we
recruited last year. We connected new volunteers with more experienced volunteers through social events and informal networks with opportunities to share best practice and encouragements. Alongside their training, supervision and resources provided by Flourish, this helped our volunteer team to deliver the best possible well-being and mentoring support to girls locally.
Development and Depth
As part of our overall strategic objectives Development and Depth, we planned to develop our internal systems to more effectively underpin our charity organisation so that we can better serve our beneficiaries and communities, and to increase the effectiveness of our fundraising. We therefore decided to invest in our first CRM and having researched a variety of options have chosen a provider and applied for a grant to fund the implementation of this important tool. We plan to manage data concerning our beneficiaries, community and school partners and fundraising contacts within this system.
We also planned to improve our own office space to be fit for purpose for our growing staff and volunteer team, with the dream of also having a warm and welcoming space where we could welcome girls and their parents/carers and deliver mentoring in the community. After a long search we were delighted to secure a new rental agreement for office space within an established and well-respected community centre in the Sydenham area of Leamington Spa. Our new home in the Sydni Centre provides suitable and spacious office space as well as a meeting space for training events and workshops, and two small meeting rooms which we will use to mentor girls who are unable to access our support at school.
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3. Financial Review
Income
This year we continued to activate our three-year (2023-6) fundraising strategy aiming to grow and diversify our income streams, with the support of a freelance fundraising consultant, a comprehensive funding pipeline and a whole-team approach to fundraising.
Flourish received £211,914 this year, representing a 75% growth in income compared to 22/23 (£121,301). The majority of this growth has come from grants, which represented 67% of income (£141,659). Of these grants, £120,759 were restricted (57% of income). We are very grateful to the following trusts and foundations who generously supported our work:
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The Henry Smith Charity £33,900 (£101,700 over 3 years 2023-6)
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BBC Children in Need £19,689 (£115,799 over 3 years 2023-26)
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King Henry VIII Endowed Trust £14,000
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Comic Relief £9,000
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Charles Hayward Foundation £7,000
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Warwickshire Youth £5,000
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Project Spark £5,000
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The Newfield Trust £5,000
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The Big Give £4,959
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The Allen Lane Foundation £4,000
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The Anthony Bourne Foundation £3,000
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29th May 1961 £3,000
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Westhill Endowment Fund £2,000
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Leamington Town Council £1,711
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The Soroptimists of Kenilworth £1,500
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Leamington Round Table £1,500
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Co-op Helping Hearts £500
We developed relationships with new funders including national and local grant-making trusts and foundations, other local charities and individual contacts in our networks, as well as continued to grow existing relationships with faithful long-term funding partners. Overall we received grants from 26 funders compared to 14 last year.
Our unrestricted income (£91,155) remained static compared to the year before. Although we were successful in increasing our number of regular donors, raised more through community fundraising, donations from churches and from service income, we raised less through individual donations. We were extremely grateful for the generous support from our corporate partners UK Sedation, Bravissimo and MP Lewis.
We received £9,414 in donations from local churches including a new three-year partnership. We raised £10,485 in fundraising (68% growth) through community and individual challenge events. Unrestricted grants were gratefully received from:
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The Trusted Executive Charitable Foundation £5,000
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Warwickshire Police Community Fund £4,000
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Graham Griffiths £3,000
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IM Properties £2,500
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St James’ Place £2,500
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Owen Highway Trust £2,000
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Baron Davenport’s Charity £1,000
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Richard Cadbury £500
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Asda Green Token Giving £400
We received £23,336 in service charges and from schools/agencies and contributions from parents. This continued growth (compared to £17,933 last year) is a result of increasing our delivery capacity and developing partnerships with new schools, but we are also seeing the average contribution per beneficiary reduce, as we believe the cost
of living crisis has impacted individuals’ ability to contribute and we know school mental health and well-being budgets have been reduced.
£21,140 was received through generous individual one-off or regular gifts, (we were encouraged that we increased the number of regular donors from 19 to 24), and Gift Aid reclaim (compared to £31,474 last year). We plan to develop our stewardship of donors further over the coming year, and the recruitment of an in-house fundraiser and implementation of a CRM will support us in our plans to grow our income in this area.
Expenditure
In the pursuit of the vision set out above and our charitable aims and objectives, Flourish has expended £210,757 this year (compared to £122,527 last year, representing a 72% growth). The costs of salaries for our project staff and resources to run our programmes made up the majority of our expenditure (56%), with a further 21% spent on salaries for our leadership and administrative staff and 7.8% on office overheads. We have continued to benefit from a very favourable rent arrangement from our generous landlord, but as we move into the Sydni centre our rent and service charges will increase significantly to reflect the larger fit-for-purpose space we will be using. Part of the increase in salary expenditure was as a result of salary increases following benchmarking in the sector and the trustees’ decision to award increases to staff to fairly reflect their incredible contribution to the success as Flourish and improve our ability to recruit and retain high quality staff into key roles. We invested £25,871 (12% of income) in fundraising for our charitable activities.
We continued to benefit from gifts in kind from corporate partners who donated IT equipment (DCA Design International), office furniture and equipment (NFU Mutual), the provision of training and development for team (Sally Leese Associates, Akanbi Consulting, The Wellbeing Focus), strategy development training and consultancy (Tribe Business Coaching, Make Good Grow), venue and hospitality services for beneficiaries (Ashorne Hill) and legal services (Gowling WLG). The generosity of these individuals and organisations enabled us to spend more of our funds on service delivery and less on core costs, and we are incredibly grateful.
Reserves
We ended the year with £61,875 in unrestricted reserves and carried over £25,325 restricted funds for expenditure in 2024/25. Our policy is to hold four months’ reserves,
which would enable us to complete any programmes started with our beneficiaries, and as we enter our next financial year with increased expenditure planned we aim to build our reserves to be in line with this policy.
Review of Risks
The Trustees and co-CEOs hold a risk register which is regularly reviewed and steps taken to mitigate risks. Appropriate insurance has been obtained including for public and employer’s liability.
A summary of some key risks and plans to remove them or reduce their impact:
-
Funding shortages affect our ability to continue to deliver our activities: we have reserves in place and a comprehensive fundraising strategy and plan in place involving staff and volunteers
-
Staff / volunteer turnover or absence means we have to limit our delivery of services: we recruit volunteers annually and seek to engage and motivate them by providing high quality training and support, and a network of fellow volunteers. The co-CEOs focus on staff wellbeing and development as well as providing generous holiday entitlement and a TOIL policy for our dedicated team
-
Staff/volunteers are working 1:1 with children in school and community settings and may not act appropriately or manage potential disclosures effectively: we have a comprehensive safeguarding policy and procedures in place and deliver regular training (in-house and via the NSPCC and local authority) and supervision. Risk assessments are carried out and shared for team members who are working with children in various settings.
-
Sensitive personal information is handled inappropriately or leaked: we have policies and procedures in place for handling data securely and safely, and have taken out cyber insurance.
Flourish has a comprehensive suite of policies for staff and volunteers which are regularly reviewed and updated by trustees, staff and HR professionals. These include a comprehensive Safeguarding Policy, Staff and Volunteer Code of Conduct, Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Policy, Lone Working Policy, Whistleblowing Policy, Bullying and Harassment Policy and a Financial Management Policy.
Plans for the Future
At Flourish this year, we have further refined our focus and expertise recognising the wealth of experience and insights we’ve gained supporting and listening to girls over the last 9 years. We continue to deliver our ‘best in class’ services locally and begin to share our learning and resources more widely. Our motivation, mission and drive remains the same: for girls aged 10-18 to be supported early, have access to girl-shaped services, feel confident and resilient and have their voices amplified. Our ultimate aim is to be the goto centre of excellence for girls locally and nationally by 2028, and with a revenue target of £450,000 by then. Over the next year our plans are to:
Service Delivery - Further embedding our 'best in class' local services offer through geographic growth, expanded referral channels and new girl-shaped services by:
-
Increase our beneficiary reach to 430 girls through mentoring and workshops
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Expand our mentoring services to Stratford-upon-Avon schools and surrounding areas
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Expand our of school mentoring services
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Grow our school partnerships and contracts
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Scope and understand better from girls and schools what flourish needs to do to create girl-shaped services in primary school to smooth the transition.
Girls’ Voice - Amplifying girl's voices Flourish wide, creating spaces for girls to be heard by community leaders, develop resources by girls, for girls and informing policy by:
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Establish a core FAB team
-
Refining our FAB approach and methodology
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Creating opportunities for female community leaders to meet with FAB girls.
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Scope the national sector for girls and create an action plan
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Developing resources and workshops informed by our girls
Organisational Development -
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Recruit, induct and onboard a new Fundraising Manager
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Have an organisational structure in place that is sustainable and supports capacity and everyone knows their accountability with individual and team KPIs
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Full team is living and breathing the Flourish purpose, mission and values
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Implement new CRM system and train team members
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Create a brand awareness marketing plan to increase visibility locally
Fundraising
-
Build our streams of unrestricted income and build our reserves
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Build our donor base and improve the stewardship of our existing donors
-
Seek to secure larger, multi-year grants from national funders, with a focus on those providing unrestricted funds or funding for core costs
-
Develop products and services to help grow earned income
4. Structure, governance and management
Flourish is a CIO governed by constitution which was last amended on 22nd April 2016. The Trustees are responsible for charity governance. The setting of the charity strategy as well as day-to-day management of the charity is delegated to the Senior Management Team.
New Trustees are identified through connections made with individuals in the course of Flourish’s activities. Exploratory conversations occur and if the time/skills of the individual and the needs of the Board align, the person is invited to submit a Trustee application form. If this is successful, the person is invited to an interview with two Flourish trustees or a trustee and a co-CEO, where they have the opportunity to ask further questions and introduce themselves. If a synergy is identified, the person is invited to become a trustee based upon the voting of existing trustees. We were delighted to welcome Leila Clare to our Trustee Board as our Chair of Trustees, who was initially recruited as a volunteer mentor, and brings a wealth of commercial experience from the private sector and a passion for supporting girls and women locally.
We induct new trustees using our Trustee Handbook and through arranging meetings with other Board members and the co-CEOs.
5. Reference and Administrative details
| Charity name | You Can Flourish |
| Other name the charity uses | Flourish |
| Registered charity number | 1166721 |
| Charity’s principal address and registered office |
Flourish, Sydni Centre, Cottage Square, Sydenham, Leamington Spa, CV31 1PT Prior to 8th March 2024: 2 Radford Road, Leamington Spa, CV31 1LX |
Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity
| Trustee Name | Office (if any) |
Dates acted if not for whole year |
Name of person (or body) entitled to appoint trustee (if any) |
|
| 1 | Ms Leila Clare | Chair | Appointed 24th January 2024 |
|
| 2 | Mrs Charlotte Lockyer | |||
| 3 | Mr Phil Sewards | Resigned 23 January 2024 |
||
| 4 | Mrs Jennifer Stewart | |||
| 5 | Mrs Lucy Clarke | |||
| 6 | Mrs Johanna Cox (was Faherty) |
Senior Management Team
| Charlotte Bevan | Founder and Co-CEO (part-time) |
| Jenny Dean | Co-CEO (part-time) |
Caroline Boyd Head of Business and Finance (part-time)
Staff Team (employed)
| Helen Laycock | Training and Service Development Lead |
| Emily Larke,_then_Sarah Klein | Group Delivery Lead |
| Ruth Smith | Specialist Trauma-Informed Delivery Lead (part-time) |
| Anna Bird | Mentoring Coordinator (part-time) |
| Lisa Boulby | Admin and Finance Officer (part-time) |
| Accountants | Duo Accountants (Jennifer Gates), 9 Lakin Drive, Bishop’s Itchington, Southam, CV47 2TE |
|---|---|
| Bank | Nat West,Royal Priors, 59 Parade, Leamington Spa CV32 4ZX |
CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Report to the trustees You Can Flourish On accounts for the year ended 31st March 2024 Charity no (if any) 1166721 Set out on pages I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity ("the Trust") for the year ended 3110312024. Responsibilities and basls As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the of report accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 ("the Act"). 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, I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act. Independent examiner's I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have statement come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect: the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act. or the accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a 'true and fair. view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination. I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Date: 0710812024 Signed: Name: Jennifer Gates IER Oct 2018
Relevant professional qualification(s) or body (if any): ICAEW, ACA Address: 9 Lakin Drive, Bishop's Itchington, Southam, CV47 2TE Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight malerial matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners). Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose. IER Oct 2018
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