## Annual Report year ended April 2023 ## for Kent Kindness Unincorporated Registered Charity 11679 ## Charity address Jubilee Cottage, Frittenden, Cranbrook, Kent. TN17 2EJ Phone: 07773 196697 Email: contact@kentkindness.org.uk ## Trustees Jo Taylor, Chairperson Susan Roeder, Treasurer Emma Copplestone, Designated Safeguarding Lead, DSL Margaret Curran, Deputy DSL Peter Braggins Henrietta King Emma Griffin Greer Harris Kurshid (Mina) McPhee Ian Stewart Viji Kumar Melissa Bloom All the trustees and Officers of Kent Kindness give their services voluntarily. The organisation has no paid staff and owns no property. ## Governance Kent Kindness has 12 trustees and approximately 30 active volunteers ## Kent Kindness policies Safeguarding Volunteer Management Complaints Management of Risk Whistleblowing All active volunteers have the required enhanced DBS checks The trustees are elected annually at the AGM ## Objectives The relief of children and young people who are unaccompanied asylum seekers and refugees, in particular by the provision of basic support education including classes in English and life skills and the provision of recreation and leisure time activities provided in the interest of social welfare, designed to improve their conditions of life. ## **Activities April 2022 - April 2023** During the summer of 2022, some changes were made to the roles of the trustees: Huthrie (Emma C) becoming the Safeguarding Lead and Melissa took over the website. Margaret maintained her role of arranging the weekly teaching rotas. This was ratified at our AGM on 19 October 2022 when all the trustees were again voted in. The main activity of Kent Kindness is providing lessons in basic English language and customs to the young unaccompanied asylum seeking boys at two Reception Centres in west Kent. These lessons run every Monday to Thursday from 10:00 to 12:00 in two classes at one of the Centres and three classes at the other. This is determined by the number of volunteers available and the space available at the Reception Centres. The classes can range in size from 3 or 4 boys to 20 but 20 is the maximum we can teach even with the positive support from the support workers at the Centres. Kent Kindness finances monthly outings for groups of boys from both Centres to the Port Lympne Animal Park and the Hollywood Bowl in Ashford. The boys all love these outings and the Centres use them as encouragement for boys to attend classes: they can only go on an outing if they have been regularly going to Kent Kindness lessons. Regular purchases are the textbooks which are needed in the classes. The boys keep these when they transfer into the community. Other general interest books are given as a prize to a named boy at each Centre every month. This celebrates his high level of effort and achievement. We also purchase various bathroom necessities, night lights and a torch, all in a useful tote bag to be given to every boy when he leaves the Centre, We also give a small present to each boy resident at both Centres at Christmas and every boy, no matter what his religion, is given an Easter egg. These purchases are always well received. ## Other gifts Over the year Kent kindness has received other gifts for the UASC. A primary school in Ashford donated some sets of simple reading books which were very popular and frequently used in the classes and beyond. Most of the Christmas gifts were donated by the boys at a Prep and Pre-prep school near Bromley. Not only did they donate toiletries, socks, woolly hats, gloves and scarves but they also delivered them to one of the Kent Kindness trustees. A charity called We Are With You collected many sacks of shoes, trainers and clothing for the boys. These were handed out on a fair basis by the staff at the two Centres. A local supporter of Kent Kindness donated freshly picked apples and plums and the boys all enjoyed this extra fruit. And one of the volunteers donated a couple of road bikes which another supporter repaired and delivered to one of the Centres. Kent Kindness purchased bike hats and gloves to make it safer for the boys to use these bikes. Another volunteer was given two pieces of original artwork to be sold to raise funds for Kent Kindness. This proved very successful and raised £465. ## Party In January 2023, Kent Kindness ran a party for all the boys from both centres at the centre with the larger dining room. There was a series of old fashioned party games such as Pin the Tail on the Donkey and Spot the Ball. A magician was also hired for the occasion. The party was a resounding success. ## Ramadan The lessons continued as normal throughout Ramadan. This is used as part of our education about customs in the UK where everyone still attends school and goes to work despite fasting. ## Bike repairs Again one of the Kent Kindness supporters spent a day at one of the Centres repairing bikes to make them roadworthy again. Kent Kindness is indebted to its trustees and volunteers for their ongoing time and support. The praise received from the staff and the residents at both of the Reception Centres is testament to the success of what we do. On behalf of the Kent Kindness Trustees Jo Taylor Chairperson Registered Charity No. 1167921 Receipts and Payments Annual Accounts 07.04.22 – 06.04.23 ||||| |---|---|---|---| |Receipts|Expenses|Balance
in bank|
Total
capital| |Unrestricted donations from:

Schools : £500

Other charities : £9550

Local organisations : £250

Business £261

One-off donors : £2022

Regular donors : £1225
Total donations £13808|1. Gifts (Leaving, Christmas, Easter) : £8776
2. Outings + sports equipment : £5284
3. Books : £3577
4. Educational equipment : £ 218
5. Insure, website and IT : £ 287
Total expenses : £18142|£13572|£13572|