## **Charitable Incorporated Organisation** **Annual Report, and Unaudited Accounts For the Period 1[st] January - 31[st] December 2021** **Reference and Administrative Details** **Charity Name Empower International Charity Registration Number 1168552 Charity Registered Address 49 Normandy Road, Hilton, Derby, DE65 5GW Trustees Mandy Simpson Phillip Edmundson Marie Rogers** 1 ## **Empower International** ## **Trustees’ Report** ## **Introduction** Empower International was granted status as a UK charity on 2[nd] August 2016. We consider it a privilege to work towards reaching, empowering, and resourcing marginalised and disadvantaged people in Romania and beyond. ## **Structure, Governance and Management** Empower International operates within the CIO Foundation Model Structure and Constitution. The charity decision making process is actioned in accordance with the constitution and our working practice document dated May 2017. The appointment and retirement of trustees is to be in accordance with the constitution. The lead trustee proposes the appointing of a new trustee to the trustees, and upon a unanimous endorsement by the trustees, is appointed. ## **Objectives and Activities** The objects of the charity as set out in its governing document are… 1) The relief of unemployment for the benefit of the public, including the provision of training to those socially disadvantaged, to provide them with the skills to improve employability. 2) The relief of poverty (or financial hardship) by offering support services such as advice, coaching, mentoring, to assist individuals to help themselves, in order to enable those individuals to generate a sustainable income and be self-sufficient. Summary of the main activities of the charity in relation to these objectives are… - 1) To provide employable skills training through the Empower Romania project to both men and women of various ages, including (but not limited to) carpentry, construction, sewing and embroidery. - 2) Empower Romania training programmes also include mentoring and assistance in developing wider skills necessary to become a valuable part of the workforce. This includes, for instance, encouraging daily consistent attendance, punctuality, the need to retain a good attitude, respect for authority and colleagues, and teamwork. Empower International have taken the charity commissions’ public benefit guidance into account when making any decision that it is relevant to. 2 ## **Achievements and Performance** As we begin our review of 2021 it may be advantageous to provide a brief summary on the charitable work we have undertaken in North-West Romania. Empower Romania was a project developed over two sites between 2014 and 2020, presenting opportunities to Roma communities in Lazareni and Sanpaul to be involved in training programmes, with particular attention given to developing employability skills. Over time we chose smaller groups of people to create ‘core’ teams with both men and women and did so by providing clear parameters and criteria in which we would make selections about who we could work more closely with, and who would most benefit from the training. This was how we chose an initial team to work with, and we developed and expanded it from there. In short, Empower Romania consists of two separate training programmes, one an apprenticeship in carpentry and construction, and the other for sewing and embroidery called the Lydia Project. The purpose of the training programmes is for the benefit of the public, to help those in financial hardship, and to help marginalised people from Roma communities to learn skills that could help them to become employable, and also in some cases to see the value of employment. Both programmes were designed to teach employability skills by learning to operate tools and machinery and producing various items and completing assignments to a high standard. Whilst training was taking place, mentoring was also taking place, including learning a wider skill set that could help people become a valuable part of a workforce. These projects operated both simultaneously and separately from the point of launch in October 2014 until November 2020. A consideration of a third site within Romania was not made due to the interruption of both Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic, but also training opportunities had become more widely available to Roma communities in Romania through EU funding in recent years, and with the close proximity of the Caleb Foundation and the Corabia Foundation (our former partner organisations) to the communities, adequate ongoing support is available to the people we have had the honour and privilege to work with during our time in Romania. 2021 was a challenging year to be able to offer support packages from the UK to Romania. Schools continued to intermittently close and often only had learning online which created many barriers for Roma communities being able to access online learning. The three Lydia Project attendees who had been enrolled in a sewing school in the city of Cluj-Napoca were unable to attend and complete their course. The women were learning traditional Romanian embroidery patterns for clothing and other items that can be sold locally. The 3 women taught other women what they were learning so that all were able to benefit from this teaching. The ability to create these traditional patterns and clothing is hugely beneficial to the women, creating sustainable empowerment in these women’s lives, with the flexibility to work around their often complex personal commitments. Empower International sent funds to support people in the Roma community during 2021 with the help of our friends in the Corabia Foundation but did not visit or organise any visitors due to coronavirus restrictions and travel uncertainty. During 2021 it was our intention to consider ways to develop our charitable aims through working more locally within a UK context. International projects have become more challenging since the Covid-19 global pandemic and changed how Empower International works within Romania. With the pandemic ongoing it has been difficult to make meaningful decisions about the future directions we intend to develop into. ## **Looking forward to 2022** After the completion of the Empower Romania projects, it is our intention to continue considering ways in which we can add value in a UK context to supporting people suffering marginalisation, 3 oppression and injustice. It may be necessary to repurpose and possibly restructure the charity and further consideration will be given to this during 2022 as we continue to recover collectively from the global pandemic which has affected people’s lives in so many different ways. ## **Financial Review** Our funding was received through individuals and churches who chose to support the charity during 2021. |**Donations**||Unrestricted Funds|Restricted Funds|Total Funds| |---|---|---|---|---| |||**£1,358.12**|**£319.71**|**£ 1,677.83**| |**Expenses**||Unrestricted Funds|Restricted Funds|Total Funds| |**Charitable Activity**||£ 237.87|£ 319.71|£ 557.58| |**Website**||£ 284.52||£ 284.52| |**Accountancy**||£ 288.00||£ 288.00| |**General Administration**||£ 125.33||£ 125.33| |**Legal Fees**||£ 177.87||£ 177.87| |||**£ 1,113.59**|**£ 319.71**|**£1,433.30**| |Carryover from Community Account 31 December 2020||||**£2,405.37**| |Opening Balance|01/01/2020|||**£2,405.37**| |Donations||||£1,677.83| |Direct Charitable Expenses||||£557.58| |Legal Fees, Support &|Administration|||£875.72| |Closing Balance|31/12/2021|||**£2,649.90**| ## **Respectfully submitted on behalf of the Trustees by Mandy Simpson (Chair of Trustees)** 4