The Net Community Hub Trustees Annual Report 2020/21
The Net Community Hub has been designed to meet the intergenerational needs of the community, providing the basis for positive cohesion sought after by residents and which is considered a safe space with sound examples of good work practice.
Our main focus is to alleviate social isolation in the large number of vulnerable, elderly and isolated residents in the area.
The Net offers activities and opportunities modelled to meet the specific needs of individuals and/or groups, providing stepping stones to improving confidence and expanding the aspirations of the community.
The Hub provides opportunities for:
- Residents to develop as volunteers
- Communication and information
- Residents to develop friendships and understanding
- Specialist groups to meet and expand their knowledge, skills and expertise
- Surgeries to take place e.g Hi Kent Deaf Aid
- Space for activities
- A base for community interest groups to work from
With the loss of some income generating hire groups, a new approach was instigated, with a move away from reliance on private hire to offering funded sessions where groups make a donation for the use of the facilities, which is proving to be a successful approach through which the Hub can continue to operate.
On top of the sessions instigated last year, we now work more closely with our resident volunteering group, Walderslade Together (WALT), and we secured £10,000 in 2019 (carried over into 2021) from the National Lottery fund to cover a new Brunch session, a Reminiscence Club and a re-booted DIY Arts & Crafts club.
Thanks to a Comic Relief grant of £3,977, we now run Brainstormz!, a support group for people living with neurological disorders. The chief instigator of this is a WALT volunteer, Sue, who lives with Functional Neurological Disorder. She’s made a huge success of it in a very short time. These sessions have continued via Zoom.
Naturally, these activities all came to a standstill due to COVID19, although WALT have instigated and improved the online offer to members.
We extended invitations to various service groups to make use of the Open Cafe to reach more people, and are now joined regularly by Hi Kent, Porchlight and Involving Medway representatives.
Pre-Covid we had around 130 people using the space regularly and we are constantly looking at new ideas and ways to engage our local community in order to open the space more often, particularly through working in closer partnership with Walderslade Together.
On a positive note, we were successful in our funding bid to The Clothworkers Foundation, who granted us £4600 to add to the £500 Ward Funds to install a brand new kitchen, which is now operational.
Our future for the next year has been secured by being chosen as the Medway recipient of the Kent Community Foundation’s Core Support Fund. This gave us £12,000 in Year 1, £9,600 in Year 2 and £6,000 in Year 3, with us match funding Year 2 & 3 to the £12,000. This we will do through income generation and additional fundraising.
## **COVID19**
Sadly, all of our activities came to a standstill on March 18th 2020 and we are still not open one year later. However, with the vaccine rollout, all our staff, volunteers and members will have received their second doses by May 2021, and we anticipate opening to small groups and welcoming back external groups. The Medway Youth Service has already returned.
Part time Manager, Jaye Nolan, is working from home, with the focus on raising much needed funds for WALT. She was successful in receiving Kent Community Foundation emergency grants of £14,400, and a further £36k from the National Lottery. For The Net itself, emergency funding was secured from Medway Council of £5,700.
Thanks to the wonderful team at WALT, our regular visitors have not been abandoned into isolation. There are regular befriending and welfare calls, and zoom sessions to bring everyone together again, albeit via video conferencing. Project funding was secured for both WALT and the Net to offer additional services via both Zoom and in person once reopened.
We hope we will be up and running before not too long, but recognise that our demographic at the hub is the most vulnerable to the virus and are therefore prepared for long term disruption. Luckily, our position is not as precarious as some charities, with the core funding we have in place.
## **BALANCE SHEET (Detailed) 2020-21**
|Balance Brought Forward 1/4/2020
**Income**
Donations
Broadband
Coffee Shop
Funding
Donations/Refunds
Sub Totals
**Expenditu**Utilities
Broadband
General
Travel Expenses
Cleaning wages
Manager's wages
Insurance
Building Maintenance
Funded HR Payments
Funded Expenses
Funded Building work
.
Sub Totals
Totals
**Current**
**Account**
**s**
as of31/3/21
Net Balance
Total|£32,430.71
£2,247.00
£506.62
£164.40
£21,306.60
£331.74
£24,556.36
£56,987.07
£36,585.45
£36,585.45
£36,585.45|£32,430.71
£2,247.00
£506.62
£164.40
£21,306.60
£331.74
£24,556.36
£56,987.07
£36,585.45
£36,585.45
£36,585.45|£32,430.71
£2,247.00
£506.62
£164.40
£21,306.60||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|||£331.74
£24,556.36
£56,987.07
£36,585.45
£36,585.45
£36,585.45|£331.74|£2,207.38
£814.61
£560.37
£0.00
£1,460.00
£7,562.94
£474.06
£578.42
£10.00
£1,428.50
£5,305.34|
|||||£20,401.62|
||||||
|||||£20,401.62|
||||||
|||£36,585.45|||
||||||
|||£36,585.45|||