OpenCharities

This text was generated using OCR and may contain errors. Check the original PDF to see the document submitted to the regulator.

2022-12-31-accounts

(Registered charity no. 1169251)

TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT

AND RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2022

CONTENTS

Legal and Administrative information 1
Trustees' Report 2
Independent Examiner's Report 9
Receipts and Payments Accounts 10
Statement of Assets and Liabilities 11

TOOLS FOR INNER PEACE TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2022

Trustees Minna Maaria Jarvenpaa (Chair)
Kristina Hemon
Susan Meirion Owen
Bryan Wayne Dalton
Charity Reg. No. 1169251
Working name TIP
Registered Office Flat 13, Pilgrims Cloisters
116 Sedgmoor Place
London
SE5 7RQ
Independent Examiner Charles Ssempijja, FCA
NfP Accountants Ltd
3rdFloor, 86-90 Paul Street
London
EC2A 4NE
Bankers Barclays Bank Plc
1 Churchill Place
London
E14 5HP

1

TOOLS FOR INNER PEACE

TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2022

The trustees present their annual report and financial statements of the charity for the year ended 31 December 2021. Reference and administrative information set out on page 1 forms part of this report. The financial statements have been prepared on a Receipts and Payments basis, and they comply with current statutory requirements and the charity's governing document. The Trustees’ Annual Report has been prepared in compliance with the Statement of Recommended Practice: Accounting and Reporting by Charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102). The financial statements have been prepared on a Receipts and Payments basis, taking advantage of provisions available for smaller charities.

OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT

Charitable objects

  1. To promote, develop, nurture and protect mental, physical and emotional health of individuals, for the public benefit, focusing in particular but not exclusively and without limitation, on people working in conflict zones around the world, as well as civilian victims of war, and children and youth suffering from transgenerational trauma, by the provision of yoga and associated or other services such as, without any limitation whatsoever, training, counselling and support.

  2. To provide public education and training in the therapeutic use of yoga to alleviate trauma and mental suffering.

Activities

The charity offers yoga as a means of coping with stress and trauma. The charity's primary beneficiaries include refugees and other disadvantaged and marginalised people, such as homeless street youth.

Statement of public benefit

The Trustees confirm that they have complied with their duty to have due regard to the guidance on public benefit published by the Charity Commission in exercising their powers or duties.

The Trustees have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit when reviewing the charity’s aims and objectives and in planning its future activities. The Trustees consider how planned activities will contribute to the aims and objectives that have been set.

ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE: REVIEW OF ACTIVITIES FOR THE YEAR

In 2022, Tools for Inner Peace has continued to offer yoga to conflict survivors and vulnerable populations on three continents: in Europe (UK and Finland), in the Middle East (Lebanon) and Africa (Sierra Leone). Our focus is on alleviating mental health problems among refugees, marginalised populations and homeless street youth through sharing tools and techniques from yoga that help calm the mind and regulate the nervous system. We have stepped up efforts to train people from the communities we work with to share yoga practices with their friends, family, neighbours and networks, as we believe no-one is better placed to bring yoga to support the wellbeing of communities than someone from within the community itself.

2

TOOLS FOR INNER PEACE

TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2022

With the pandemic, the need for mental health and well-being interventions has increased dramatically across the globe. We continue to focus on alleviating mental health problems among refugees in the UK, but in Lebanon we have also begun to reach out to broader segments of the population, beyond refugees, as Lebanon is suffering from multiple crises simultaneously: the Syrian refugee crisis, the aftermath of the Beirut blast that took place in August 2020, and political and economic collapse. We have also joined in a partnership with Yoga Pura Vida to provide a Classical Yoga Teacher Training to a group in Sierra Leone that includes former refugees, orphans, street youth and other disadvantaged people who will be instrumental in bringing yoga to support the wellbeing of their communities.

United Kingdom

In the UK, classes for refugee men and women living in London and Liverpool were conducted online until the relaxing of Covid-19 restrictions in the second half of 2021. Since then, we have aimed to get back to face-to-face teaching as the primary means of yoga instruction. During the height of Covid-19 restrictions, we also ran an online training for refugee and asylum seeker mums to learn to teach simple yoga practices to children in their family circle, to neighbours and within their communities; this training took place in early 2021 in partnership with the Happy Baby Community. With the influx of large numbers of refugees from Afghanistan starting in August 2021, we were approached by a number of charities in London, Liverpool and Hull to provide free yoga classes for refugees. In the Liverpool area, we have responded to this demand with new refugee yoga classes for both male and female asylum seekers. Another class is due to be started in London in the course of February 2022.

“You made it very simple and easy, planting the seed of desire to continue the classes, as it resonated positively with my emotions and mental health. I can safely say that if it wasn't for those classes during last winter I would be sure to be a mental patient by now.” - Participant, Liverpool

“You have been a very big support for me during this tough time when we haven’t been able to go outside and have been stuck at home and feeling stressed about everything. I always look forward to joining your class and having a little chat, then doing amazing yoga which takes all my stress away and gives me more energy to be a more productive person.” - Participant, Manchester

Classes and training were funded by the John Younger Trust, the UK government’s Coronavirus Community Support Fund, Sport England’s This Girl Can fund, as well as the National Lottery Community Fund, in partnership with the Barrow Cadbury Trust. Partners in London included the Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants, the South London Refugee Association, and the Happy Baby Community. In Liverpool, classes were held with Refugee Women Connect and Serco, and an open class drew attendance from among beneficiaries of the British Red Cross, Asylum Link, the Medaille Trust, A Better Tomorrow and church groups. Facilitators and yoga teachers delivering Tools for Inner Peace UK activities included Nicola Birch, Kerry Gallagher, Lynn Mooney and Catherine Nelson.

Besides weekly classes, we organised a two-day workshop on Yoga for Trauma in Battle, UK, as well as offering a one-day Yoga for Trauma workshop for Ukrainian refugees living in Finland. Our aim in 2023-24 is to train a number of the UK-based refugees themselves to share simple community yoga and Yoga for Trauma to other refugees and their wider communities.

3

TOOLS FOR INNER PEACE

TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2022

Classes and training in the UK were funded by the John Younger Trust, Sport England’s This Girl Can and Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Activity Funds, and the National Lottery Community Fund. Partners in Liverpool, where most of the classes were held, included Refugee Women Connect and SERCO, and an open class drew attendance from among beneficiaries of the British Red Cross, Asylum Link, the Medaille Trust, A Better Tomorrow and church groups. Facilitators and yoga teachers delivering Tools for Inner Peace UK activities included Lynn Mooney, Kerry Gallagher and Catherine Nelson.

Lebanon

Community Yoga Teacher training

Tools for Inner Peace launched its first Community Yoga Teacher Training in Lebanon in April 2022. This training is being held over one year and consists of 15 residential weekends, with daily home practice given in between weekend modules. The training will be completed in March 2023. The aim is to give participants from some of Lebanon’s poorest and most marginalised communities, as well as Syrian and Palestinian refugees, the skills to share yoga in their communities.

Our 17 trainees come from communities in particular need of mental health support: conflicttorn neighbourhoods in Tripoli and Arsel in the northern and eastern parts of Lebanon, Palestinian camps in Beirut that have received a further influx of refugees from Syria in recent years, marginalised communities in the south of Lebanon, as well as neighbourhoods affected by the 2020 Beirut port blast. We assembled this diverse group of future yoga teachers with the intention that they will in turn offer free yoga sessions in the Arabic language within their communities. This way we will be able to reach people who would otherwise not have access to yogic techniques for balancing the nervous system and letting go of stress, anxiety and trauma.

Our training weekends have included physical postures (asana), breathing practices (pranayama), deep relaxation (yoga nidra) and concentration practices, alongside lectures on yogic lifestyle, the various branches of yoga, health benefits of yoga, simple anatomy and physiology, and teaching methodology. Participants have also started practising their teaching skills on each other, and have been asked to report on their daily home practice to make sure that they have solid personal experience of the effects of the yoga practices that they will be teaching in their communities.

We are already getting heart-warming feedback from our participants about the transformation they are seeing in their own lives by committing themselves to the daily yoga practice. The following testimonial is from Lea, who is a survivor of the Beirut blast:

“After the explosion, I was not able to relax. What was hard for me to accept was the difference between life being good and normal and that silence just after the explosion… that mute silence that lasted for a few seconds before the screaming started… Sometimes my heart would start beating very fast without apparent reason, I would suddenly start feeling unsafe while doing something very ordinary… like grocery shopping… Since I started practicing yoga things have gotten better. The blast had disconnected me from myself, from my body. Yoga helped me to come back to my body, to learn to let go again. I am relearning to relax. I’m still not there yet, my heart still starts beating very fast sometimes or I get anxious for no apparent reason, but I’ve been practicing yoga regularly now for three months and it’s

4

TOOLS FOR INNER PEACE

TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2022

incredible how much I have changed since. The more I learn and the deeper I go, the more I feel the change.”

Because of the nature of the traumatic experiences that our yoga teacher trainees and their communities have lived and experienced, we have also made ‘yoga for trauma' a key topic in this community yoga teacher training. By the end of the training all participants will be expected to be able to teach simple yoga sequences or ‘capsules’ in their communities, including beginnerlevel asana and pranayama and a deep relaxation practice.

The group of trainees has been open and receptive to the teaching, and our team of teachers is motivated by their capacity to absorb the teachings. The core team running the training has been Cara Khatib, Lebanon, Zena Takieddine (Syria) and Minna Jarvenpaa (Finland), supported by those in Lebanon who have completed a four-month training at the Bihar School of Yoga in Munger, India: (Lina Shuman), Sandy Boutros and Dalal Harb. Visiting teachers have included Kaanchan Adhikary (Nepal/USA) and Lena Setterwall (Sweden).

Besides this Community Yoga Teacher training launched in April 2022, Tools for Inner Peace will also complete in March 2023 a three-year yoga instructor training for two Syrian refugee women, Roza and Shukreya, which has been held in Bekaa valley since early 2020. This simplified training has been tailored to the needs of illiterate participants and has been conducted by Minna Jarvenpaa in person and using video materials to support the home practice of the trainees.

Yoga for Children training

In 2022, we also trained 30 facilitators in Yoga, Songs & Games, our Research on Yoga in Education-inspired methodology for bringing yoga to children. We organised two 6-day trainings that were led by Kerry Gallagher (UK), who was supported by the Tools for Inner Peace team in Lebanon. In these trainings we shared yogic tools and techniques with two Beirut-based organisations that work with children from refugee and other disadvantaged backgrounds. Seenaryo specialises in theatre, music and play-based learning, while Alsama has set up education centres for refugee teenagers who lack access to formal schooling. Alsama’s curriculum consists of English, Arabic, Math, Cricket and Yoga; every one of their 400 students participates in a yoga class each week.

Alsama has asked Tools for Inner Peace to give additional training to two of their current yoga teachers, who are part of the community yoga teacher training, and to train a further group of 15 of their teenagers to become yoga teachers. This will be a project for 2023 that will be based on a model of children teaching yoga to other children, and this way instilling in them confidence, self-esteem, balance and focus.

Yoga for Trauma workshops

The Tools for Inner Peace team in Lebanon organised a three-day workshop for 18 survivors of the Beirut blast. This workshop took place in Beirut in February and was facilitated by Minna Jarvenpaa and Zena Takieddine, who is also a somatic experiencing practitioner with extensive experience in somatic trauma release. We also collaborated with Lisa Alessandra Gautschi, founder of the Isha Institute, in hosting an online workshop that was targeted at war survivors around the world and drew an audience that included refugees in the Middle East, Europe and the United States.

5

TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2022

TOOLS FOR INNER PEACE

Sierra Leone

Tools for Inner Peace has been supporting a group of 15 community yoga teacher trainees in Sierra Leone with biweekly online yoga classes throughout 2022, as well as conducting ten additional training days in Freetown in June 2022. We are offering a monthly stipend to the most vulnerable trainees to enable them to support themselves while carrying out yoga outreach to homeless street youth.

Four of the yoga teacher trainees supported by Tools for Inner Peace have founded a group called YAMA (Yoga and Music Arts project) to offer yoga, music and poetry sessions to homeless street youth in Sierra Leone. Each member of the group has his or her own experience of sleeping rough on the streets of Freetown. The YAMA yoga facilitators have been giving free yoga sessions for as many as 60 street youth from the Black Street neighbourhood since January 2022; first these were held monthly, but as demand increased, they have become weekly. The weekly yoga sessions are combined with poetry/music activities and close with the serving of a hot and nutritious meal.

The YAMA members are committed to sharing yoga with some of the most marginalised and vulnerable members of society because of their own direct experience of the benefits that yoga can bring. The originators of the street youth yoga classes told us: "We have used yoga to transform ourselves. Now we want to help others on the street in Sierra Leone - the homeless, gang members, street workers and drug addicts - live a more positive life.” Many of the participating street youth have already noted changes in their mental, physical and emotional wellbeing and increased engagement in life and the capacity to make wise choices for themselves.

Organisational matters

At the end of 2022, trustees of Tools for Inner Peace were Bryan Dalton (secretary), Kristina Hemon, Minna Jarvenpaa (chair) and Susan Owen (treasurer). Minna Jarvenpaa continued as Safeguarding Lead to ensure implementation and monitoring of our Children and Vulnerable Adults Safeguarding Policy. One of our aims for the coming year is to bring on board as trustees and volunteers people with personal experience of the UK asylum system.

FINANCIAL REVIEW

The Charity achieved net receipts for the year of £31,148 (2021 - £13,378), details of which are shown in the Receipts and Payments Accounts below.

Total receipts in 2022 included a total of £2,559 in contributions from individual donors around the world, £1,029 in payments for trainings, as well as £27,070 in new grant funds from the National Lottery Community Fund, Sport England, the John Younger Trust and the Fresh Leaf Foundation.

The total value of payments amounted to £29,685 (2021 - £15,949). These included payments of yoga teachers’ and retreat facilitators’ stipends, purchase of yoga mats, accommodation, food and transport expenses for retreats, as well as web hosting costs and other administrative expenses.

Cash at bank at the end of the financial year was £16,995 (2021 – £15,532), £8,436 of which were unrestricted funds.

6

TOOLS FOR INNER PEACE TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2022

Reserves policy

The charity does not currently have a reserves policy. However the board will discuss this and put one in place during the coming financial year.

Going concern

The Trustees have a reasonable expectation that the charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. For this reason, they continue to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the financial statements.

STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

Constitution and governing document

Tools for Inner Peace is a registered charity, number 1169251, constituted as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) and was registered with the Charity Commission on 19 September 2016. The charity is also referred to by its working name, TIP.

The charity is governed under its Constitution logged with the Charity Commission on 19 September 2016. The governance of the charity is the responsibility of the Trustees.

The charity currently has no staff. The day-to-day management of the charity is delegated to one trustee who acts as a managing trustee.

Method of appointment or election of Board of Trustees

Trustees are elected and co-opted under the terms of the charity’s constitution. Regular reviews are held to identify gaps within the knowledge and expertise of the Board of Trustees and appointments are made where required to strengthen the Board.

When it is necessary to appoint new Trustees, due to either a Trustee stepping down or a gap of expertise in the board is identified, recruitment will initially begin through the networks of the board and management team. Applicants will be reviewed by Trustees and the successful applicant will be invited to attend a Trustee meeting. Following this, on the provision that the board are satisfied and the applicant still wishes to join the Trustee board, they will be appointed.

No other person or external organisation is entitled to appoint any Trustees of the charity. The Trustees who served during the period and after the year end are shown on page 1.

Policies adopted for the induction and training of Trustees

The charity provides new trustees with an induction pack and mentoring from the Chair. The charity has limited resources for formal training of the trustee body. However, on-going training opportunities are announced to Trustees when these become available pro bono.

7

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2022

TOOLS FOR INNER PEACE

TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT

Related party relationships

The charity has no related party connections with other organisations. The Trustees consider that members of the board and their close connections to be the only related parties of the charity. During 2022, one trustee received payments amounting to £1,699 in reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses made on behalf of the charity (2021 – one trustee was reimbursed a total of £462).

Remuneration policy for key management personnel

The Trustees consider the Board of Trustees and the managing trustee as comprising the key management personnel of the charity in charge of directing and controlling the charity and running and operating the charity on a day-to-day basis. All Trustees give of their time freely and no trustee remuneration was paid in the year.

Trustees are required to disclose all relevant interests and to withdraw from decisions where a conflict of interest arises.

Risk management

The Trustees fully accept their responsibilities for ensuring that the major risks to which the Charity is exposed are identified, and that there are systems and procedures in place to mitigate those risks.

APPROVAL OF THE REPORT

This report was approved by the Board of Trustees on …………………... and signed on its behalf by:

………………………………………………………. Susan M Owen Trustee

8

TOOLS FOR INNER PEACE

RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2022

Section A Independent Examiner’s Report

Report to the trustees/ Charity Name members of Tools for Inner Peace

On accounts for the year 31 December 2022 Charity no 1169251 ended (if any)

Set out on pages appended

(remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets)

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31 December 2021 .

Responsibilities and basis As the charity trustees of the Trust, 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 the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER'S

STATEMENT

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention ( ~~other than that disclosed below *)~~ in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:

I have no concerns 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: 30 March 2023 Name: Charles Ssempijja Relevant professional FCA, ICAEW qualification(s) or body (if any): Address: NfP Accountants Ltd 3[rd] Floor, 86-90 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4NE

9

TOOLS FOR INNER PEACE

RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2022

Charity Name

Tools for Inner Peace
Charity Name

Tools for Inner Peace
Charity Name

Tools for Inner Peace
Charity Name

Tools for Inner Peace
No (if any)
1169251
CC16a
Receipts andpayments accounts
For the period
from

Period start
01/01/2022
To

Period end date
31/12/2022
Section A Receipts and payments
A1 Receipts Unrestricted
funds
to the nearest
£
Restricted
funds
to the
nearest £
Endowment
funds
to the nearest £
Total funds
to the nearest
£
Last year
to the nearest £
Charitable activities 25,070
-
-
-
-
12,380
998
-
-
-
Grants 2,000 - 27,070
Individual donations 2,559 - 2,559
Training 1,029 - 1,029
Workshops 490 - 490
Other
Miscellaneous - - -
Sub total(Gross income for AR) 6,078 25,070 - 31,148 13,378
A2 Asset and investment sales,
(see table).
- -
-
-
- - -
- - - -
Sub total - - - -
Total receipts 6,078 25,070 - 31,148 13,378
A3 Payments
Stipends for yoga teachers and retreat
facilitators
2,354 10,155
-
376
1,748
-
12
-
383
600
8,695
-
- 12,509 11,261
362
800
-
-
-
1,189
826
-
1,511
-
Internet services and web hosting - - -
Purchase of goods - - 376
Purchase of services - - 1,748
Independent examination 720 - 720
Mobile services - - 12
Return of unused grants - - -
Transport & travel 947 - 1,330
Venue hire - - 600
Workshop costs 3,695 - 12,390
Sundryexpenses - - -
**Sub total ** 7,716 21,969 - 29,685 15,949
A4 Asset and investment
purchases, (see table)
- -
-
- - -
-
- - -
**Sub total ** - - - - -
Total payments 7,716 21,969 - 29,685 15,949
(1,638) 3,101
Net of receipts/(payments) (1,638) - 1,463 (2,571)
A5 Transfers between funds
A6 Cash funds last year end
-
-
5,458
- - -
18,103
10,074 - 15,532
Cash funds this year end 8,436 8,559 - 16,995 15,532

10

TOOLS FOR INNER PEACE

RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2022

Charity Name No (if any) Tools for Inner Peace 1169251 CC16a Receipts and payments accounts For the period Period start Period end date To from 01/01/2022 31/12/2022

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
Categories
B1 Cash funds
Details
Bank account
Petty cash
Unrestricted
funds
to nearest £
Restricted
funds
to nearest £
Endowment
funds
to nearest £
Bank account 8,436 8,559 -
Petty cash - - -
(agree balances w ith receipts and
payments account(s))
Total cash funds
8,436 8,559 -
OK OK
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of
all the trustees
B2 Other monetary assets
B3 Investment assets
B4 Assets retained for the
charity’s own use
B5 Liabilities
Details Unrestricted
funds
to nearest £
Restricted
funds
to nearest £
Endowment
funds
to nearest £
Accrued income - - -
- - -
- - -
Details Fund to which
asset belongs
Cost (optional) Current value
(optional)
- -
- -
- -
Details Fund to which
asset belongs
Cost (optional) Current value
(optional)
- -
- -
- -
Details Fund to which
liability relates
Amount due
(optional)
When due
(optional)
Inedependent examination Unrestricted 720
-
-
-
Signature Print Name Date of
approval
Susan Owen 28.03.23

11