2023-12-31-accounts

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Spennymoor Youth and Community Association Annual Report

January 2023 – December 2023

2023 marks the fourth anniversary of Communities Together supported by The National Lottery Community Fund and the start of the first year of our Communities Together Stepping UP project which is taking our partnership project to the next level; more sustainable organisations, more sustainable community buildings and more involved volunteers and trustees.

Over the last 5 years, The National Lottery Community Fund grant of £296,966 to date has allowed us to secure additional funding of £600,400.

We have continued to develop and deliver a community programme which is supporting increasing numbers of struggling families and adults, isolated older residents, people with lived experience of mental and physical health problems as well as the wider community.

We were delighted to have secured a three year National Lottery Community Fund grant and cost of living crisis uplift of £196,755 for this second phase; Communities Together Stepping UP, which began in October 2022.

In project year 1, we were able to secure £74,451 in additional grant funding which has funded new activities and helped to sustain our established activities. As well as generating £14,670 this year from new projects to make our programme more sustainable.

4,913 project users benefited in Year 1 across our two community venues. This report highlights some of our achievements over the last 12 months and our plans for next year.

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Activities for struggling families and adults have included access to free and affordable food. We are part of the Feeding Families service which provides basic food parcels to residents in emergency need, The Bread and Butter Thing Project providing bags of food surplus to 80 customers every week packed by our Centre Friends, Fareshare food surplus allowing people to fill a bag of food for a small donation and our Eating Together project which provides weekly breakfast, brunch, Cuppa Club and community café sessions.

Activities for isolated older residents have included a programme of Look Out trips for older centre user groups throughout the year, as well as targeted activities providing social space, social contact and exercise as part of a co-ordinated programme to reconnect older people with their communities.

Activities for people with lived experience of mental and physical health problems have included wellbeing group sessions, our young people’s Chillax CREE and partnership working with County Durham Wellbeing For Life, becoming one of their recognised wellbeing hubs, promoting health campaigns and our staff trained to signpost to services and people who can help.

Residents looking for new skills, to become volunteers, learning, training and

employability activities have been delivered in partnership with DurhamLearn teaching ESOL English, Multiply Maths and Business Studies. Eden Academy has delivered Driving Theory training sessions. Triage has delivered employability support and other training partners have delivered construction site certificates, door security courses and Health & Social Care for residents looking to gain sector specific employment.

Project Worker Danielle has supported our team of Centre Friends, a core group of 25 regular volunteers, to identify training and development needs as well as increase their confidence and involvement within the Centre. We achieved Hallmark accreditation during the year which recognises good governance and management. Kitemark accreditation is in progress recognising the work we do with our volunteers which we hope will be awarded later this year.

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Some of the activities and events delivered over the last 12 months:

	Activities	Partners and funders	Beneficiaries
#Eating Together	Food has continued to be a big part of the project. Weekly access to free and affordable food has provided families and residents in food need with emergency food and access to food surplus. We have given out 520 free Feeding Families emergency food boxes. 634 Fareshare food surplus bags in return for a pay as you can afford donation. 12,480 Bread and Butter food surplus bags at £8.50 for three bags per customer (groceries, fruit, veg, meat, fish and dairy). The Bread and Butter Thing hub at Spennymoor Youth and Community Centre is one of their biggest with 1039 members. Twice weekly community café sessions. Café Together offering cooked breakfasts popular with older residents and a family café offering small meals, snacks and kid’s lunch boxes with free Stay and Play for preschoolers and their grown-ups. We were pleased when Café Together was given a Food Hygiene Rating of 5 with a kitchen and Café well managed by Cook Ashley, Project Worker Danielle and volunteers, in particular Josie who commits 12 hours every week in helping us make it happen. By layering up food projects we’ve been able to develop an offer which helps residents with different levels of need; residents in crisis, residents struggling with the cost of living and residents who want to reduce food waste. Café Together has provided a place for residents and parents to meet and eat. It has also created a space where centre users from different activities come together before or after sessions helping people and groups integrate. Our food projects have been our biggest source of volunteer help. 20 regular volunteers are involved weekly in delivering the centre’s food projects. Project Worker Danielle has supported our Centre Friends building confidence and capacity to run activities with minimal staff involvement, developing the group as a team with a commitment to the partnership and involvement in other aspects of	The National Lottery Community Fund Kingdom Culture Church Places for People Feeding Families The Bread and Butter Thing	1,124 including struggling families, older residents and low income isolated residents, residents in food need.

	Communities Together including growing our management committees.
#Growing Together	Our community allotment was used most during the year by children from North Park Primary School who attended weekly growing sessions with Project Worker Gemma and Josh from OASES, a partnership project teaching children how to grow and harvest food. It is hoped OASES will continue to access the allotment for group sessions next year, growing for food, learning, volunteering and offering social contact. Chosen as a Co-op Good Cause, grant funding of £1,239 has paid for new equipment, compost, plants and signage for both the allotment and our Spennymoor Courtyard green space which has been well used by groups for breaks, outdoor eating and by Learning a New Way for play and learning sessions. Volunteers from Durham University, The North East Autism Society and Esh Group have all taken part in action days on the community allotment. A Fun and Food session in October brought together children and their grown-ups on the community allotment to carve pumpkins and access holiday food and North Park Primary students have been back to harvest the vegetables they grew to make soup students.	The National Lottery Community Fund Spennymoor Youth and Community Association OASES Co-op Community Fund Fun and Food County Durham Council Durham University North East Autism Society Esh Group	54 including Key Stages 1 & 2 children, SEND children, autistic young people and employee volunteering.
#Moving Together	Exercise and dance sessions: Baby Movers and Little Movers, sensory, music, movement and dance following Early Years Curriculum for birth - crawling, walking - 5 years, Tuesdays and Thursdays at Spennymoor Youth and Community Centre. Hartbeeps sensory, music, movement and dance for 2-12 months, Wednesdays at Spennymoor Youth and Community Centre. North Park Primary School weekly term time yoga. Multi Sports, games and exercise for children and young people 7-12 and 12 plus delivered by Moors in the Community sport coaches as part of our weekly term time youth sessions at Spennymoor, Tudhoe and outreach. Gentle Circuits for adults with long term health conditions, new to exercise or looking to increase	Sedgefield North Integrated Health Coach Service Little Movers Durham, Seaham, Spennymoor and Peterlee Hartbeeps South Durham Bishop Auckland Spennymoor, Coxhoe and Hartlepool PCP Happiness Hub/NHS North East and Cumbria Welcome Spaces Point North	458 babies, toddlers, adults, parents, carers and older residents.

	mobility and strength, Friday and Monday evenings at Spennymoor Youth and Community Centre.	North Park Primary School Moors in the Community
#Being Together	Improving wellbeing is a priority for the project. For residents who are isolated, we have developed social sessions in both centres which combine with our community café (Café Together), access to free and affordable food and food surplus, Look Out Trips and volunteering opportunities through our Centre Friends programme. We have been able to build a committed community of weekly sessions with good crossover: Breakfast Buddies at Spennymoor aimed at men, offers breakfast buns and round table conversation. The group is well established and growing with 10- 12 Buddies meeting every Monday morning. Kurling in the hall adds a physical activity and regular Look Out trips this year with group member Steven volunteer driving and making good use of our community vehicle funded by the National Lottery Community Fund. The Monday Club is another well established group at Spennymoor for older women offering traditional round table chat, snacks and bingo. The group is attended weekly by 14-16 women and managed by Centre Friends including providing transport where needed. On Wednesdays we open the Lounge at Spennymoor and encourage parents/carers attending baby and toddler classes to stay and have a coffee. We are grateful to Centre Friend Moira for serving and chatting to those who drop in. Open Lounge has also been used for fundraising, as part of our support for local student Amelia to travel to Africa to be part of a community development project with her school and Learning a New Way has used the space for information sessions and as a Warm Space. We have also opened the Lounge around our Gentle Circuits session on a Monday evening as a Welcome Space. And at weekends free pop up Stay and Play for parents/carers and their children delivered 34 hours of social space, music and toys over 17 sessions. Where we have funding and capacity, we are trying to encourage people to stay and socialise as part of a wellbeing group or before and after stand alone activities	The National Lottery Community Fund Cost of Living uplift County Durham Community Foundation Welcome Space Spennymoor AAP 7 Day Centre Places for People	337 residents, parents and carers taking part in regular wellbeing sessions and accessing social space.

	Our Survive and Thrive wellbeing group meets every Thursday with typically 8-10 members attending for people with lived experience of mental health problems and/or addiction. With staff trained in mental health wellbeing, we can offer low level 1:1 support and have worked with mental health professionals during the year to support some of the group members as needed. As a social group, sessions offer snacks, chat and a game of bingo with good friendships formed. A Book Club meets fortnightly at Spennymoor and volunteer efforts have been made to establish a Pride Group with our help and support. Although a group hasn’t yet established within the Centre, it has led to an online social LGBT+ group with 14 members.
#Learning Together	We have continued to host a range of adult learning and training providers, making full use of our improved training spaces and facilities over the last 12 months. Durham Learn delivered ESOL for our group of Arabic speaking refugees. The group has become part of centre life, volunteering, benefiting from food surplus, socialising, cooking and sharing food and celebrations with other Centre Friends. Some of the learners featured in a mural, sketched by Rach (The Live Sketcher) and Hazel (Nocciola The Drawer), as part of Spenny Mural Fest. Other training delivered for residents included Multiply Maths and basic English, Health & Social Care, Sewing, Triage employability skills, Wellbeing for Life cooking skills, Youth Justice restorative cooking courses, learning and employment support with the Educational Development Trust, Eden Academy Driving Theory, Tea & Tech digital drop ins with Digital Durham, Business Support, CSCS and Security. It is a real challenge for many of the training and learning providers in filling courses. Barriers to participation such as transport, confidence and lifestyle often prevent learners from taking up opportunities, but we have found that when people take the first step, the centres act as a stepping stone towards employability and/or further learning and skills. We were able to offer work experience placements during the year in partnership with Employability Durham, The North East Autism Society and directly through our own volunteering opportunities.	Durham Learn Social Prescribers Link Workers Network Durham Community Action Triage Youth Justice Eden Training Academy Digital Durham DurhamWorks Employability Durham Noth East Autism Society E Learning at Work Crafty Kitz	140 adults taking up learning, training, employability ad work experience opportunities.

	Building staff and volunteer confidence and capacity, we have also invested in more training this year on safeguarding, COSHH, trustee responsibilities, good governance and food safety.
#Celebrating Together	Weekend venue hire has increased significantly during project year 2. The employment of two weekend workers funded by Spennymoor AAP and The National Lottery Community Fund at Spennymoor has allowed us hire out the centre for 42 children’s birthday parties, welcoming 1,594 people and generating £3,888 in venue hire. Our party package including large bouncy castle, soft play, speaker, lights and member of staff offers families an affordable large venue to celebrate.	The National Lottery Community Fund Spennymoor AAP	1,594 children, families and friends
#Young People Together	For struggling families, our youth work team has delivered a programme of term time and holiday activities for children and young people. Youth sessions adapted to suit different needs, in particular including SEND, tailoring activities to be inclusive. Open youth sessions were well attended at Spennymoor Youth and Community Centre; Mondays for Juniors and Wednesdays for Seniors offering young people aged 8-11 and 11-16 years 4 hours of traditional youth provision with access to games and crafts as well as space to socialise. Partnership working with Moors in the Community brought in a Sports Coach for Seniors at Spennymoor and the Monday Youth Club session. Outreach youth work has allowed us to engage young people out on the streets. This has been strongly supported by community safety partners as part of multi-agency efforts to reduce antisocial behaviour. Funding from Spennymoor AAP, Livin and Government Trailblazer grant has allowed for 5 hours weekly outreach and pop up activities for young people aged 8-16 in hotspot areas. Chillax continued to be funded by Public Health as a wellbeing CREE for young people aged approx. 8- 13 years with additional needs, SEND, low confidence or anxiety, where a smaller more structured youth session is more appropriate. Learning a New Way CIC continued to operate from Spennymoor growing its activities for SEND children, delivering training for families around autism and ADHD and providing group and 1:1 tuition for home ed young people as well as tea time	The Ballinger Charitable Trust Public Health Learning a New Way CIC Moors in the Community Spennymoor AAP Livin Government Trailblazer Durham County Council	1,206 children, young people and their families.

and lunch clubs for struggling families and children with additional needs. Their programme is meeting a huge need for families with children and young people with additional needs. Learning a New Way which grew out of our Learning Together COVID catch up project for children who had fallen behind with functional skills during COVID restrictions, complements the work of Communities Together with users a key part of other activities and events.

In July we organised the Spenny Youth Fest which brought together 400 young people and their families with 30 youth organisations, clubs and service providers to showcase, signpost and sign up young people with local provision.

We also again took part in the Gala Parade under the theme of diversity. A great opportunity for our young people to create costumes, decorate umbrellas and parade together, raising the profile of who we are and what we do.

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Funding and Sustainability

We increased the amount of grant funding on the previous year and have broadened our funding base over the last 12 months. Smaller grants have been secured from more grant funders, allowing us to develop new relationships with funders.

We have also increased revenue from project activities including funds raised from our Community Café (Café Together), weekend venue hire party packages, venue hire for centre based CIC, Learning a New Way.

Where we’ve had successful activities which were previously 100% grant funded, we’ve introduced charges to help sustain them while keeping them affordable and accessible for beneficiaries:

Eating Together food sales: £6,690

Weekend party package venue hire: 4,888

Youth session membership subs: £1,824

Fareshare donations: £1,26

Grant funding secured during the year included:

Funder	Project	Funding secured
Public Health	Chillax Wellbeing CREE	£3,000
Livin Holiday Actvity Fund ‘24	School holiday youth actvites; Spennymoor and Tudhoe	£2,000
Spennymoor AAP	Youth Connect Outreach	£5,962
Livin and Government Trailblazer Grant	Youth Connect Outreach Dec ‘23 – July‘24	£2,500
Co-op Local Community Fund	Outdoor space and community gardengrant	£1,239
Places for People, Community Connector Fund	Youth session venue hire, Community Café food, Survive and Thrive, learning and trainingrefreshments	£1,000
Spennymoor Area Acton Partnership	Beter Together	£5,178
Spennymoor Area Acton Partnership / Department of Educaton	February Half Term Fun and Food ‘24	£1,005
Spennymoor Area Acton Partnership	7 Day Centre	£6,112
Spennymoor Area Acton Partnership	Spenny Youth Fest ‘24	£2,125
Durham CountyCouncil	SpennyYouth Fest ‘24	£500

County Durham Community Foundaton	Welcome Space	£3,890
Wellbeing for Life	New Age Kurling set and CommunityCafé equipment	£500
ASDA	Volunteer coin collecton	£145
Kingdom Culture Church	Christmas donaton	£200
Kingdom Culture Church	Stay and Play venue hire	£720
	Total	£30,076

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Priorities for the year ahead as we enter year 2 of Communities Together Stepping UP, is to consolidate our programme and work towards a more sustainable project as we continue to step up how many people we support, strengthen our governance, train staff, involve our trustees and volunteers and broaden our income to include directly generated revenue, fundraising, giving and sponsorship, as well as grants.

We have further developed our Communities Together partnership between Tudhoe Community Centre and Spennymoor Youth and Community Centre over the last 12 months. Joint regular Trustee meetings and new members to both management committees have helped us better co-ordinate and share ideas.

Achieving Hallmark has helped us improve governance, policies and procedures. We are working towards Kitemark, working closely to make sure that our volunteers have the support and development that they need to play more active roles in the partnership.

Hiring more space at both centres with Learning a New Way CIC and Kingdom Culture Church, making better use of our kitchen spaces for ourselves and private hire, growing our youth work services, upgrading the boiler management system and funding other energy saving measures recommended in our independent energy assessment are all priorities in progress for next year.

Thank you to all our funders and supporters.

Thanks particularly to our trustees, Centre Friends and staff who deliver what we do.

Their time, energy and dedication made a difference to 4,918 people this year and everything Communities Together has achieved over the last 5 years; helping people get through COVID, supporting struggling families with the cost of living, bringing people together to celebrate, working with children and young people to develop and grow, helping people improve their confidence, health and wellbeing, helping people on their first steps to learning and employment and reconnecting older people with their communities. Let’s keep going!

SPF.NliYMOOR YOIITH & COMMLNITY ASSOCIATION RECEIPTS AND PAYIIFNTS ACCOU￿T- YFAR ENDFD_II DFC.FNIBER 2023 RECEIPTS 2023 2011 PAYMENTS 2023 2022 Rcntal IncoThc 16245 21057 Clcaning CJ&S & El¢rtri Watcr Bllildin¥ In%urdnLL 7277 5%76 85 4453 499X 772 1058 Telephone & Internet 11488 OtTic&CJenernl Admin Expenses 2900 40(h) Sundry Ixpcnses Accounrancy Charges T V License CDCF Food Product￿Ha]I 257 Living Holiday5 Activilic5 21-22 AAP FunlFoodlH¢althy R¢lalion5hip 15150 PPI.-PRS F¢¢5 BlllldngLrTru4t 17795 B￿￿k ('hargL% NLLF- Stcpping Up 42193 3x270 NLCF StCPPlnB Up Happiness H￿b Sports Fundirt¥ AAP LrHrnittWMaki￿B Links 62022 AAP Leyrnirt¥ Together GDig11AI Drivc 1747 IAAP Coiid Clotlies Bank t)on&iion Funding Fun & Food Jubileemuke of FAinburgh SYACS F&F Compu¢¢[￿]rT TUdh￿ CC Income Youth Club Activities irant% F.xp¢ns¢¥ 25305 11208 PhuluLOPlir EXpL￿ Ihillax Lxpcnscs 31Y06 350X RLVair VehiLlc Ixpcn¢L'S 324 30 443 20 2265 354 159 1822 Youth Club Resources CTrullax Sessions 354 159 120 174 505 174 238 8261 25898 21609 56 2333 736 7428 1004 629 29Y3 3814 7651 1820 1000 9622 Non Prvfit InLomL uneatc￿￿ZCd Income 17h 2253 2086 Gran 24520 1774 Wa8c5 Expenscs Your Ncighbour ExsKnse5 2100 tlof F. Fxpen%¢ 104076 78990 75 2n0 fi7 374 LiviDS Holiday Arl PayPal F¢¢5 CDCF Halllcovid 19 Fothl PaLks Ctsvid 19 TgkL Away Lating Together Ballanger Trusi Cassop F&F SuIn￿er Exp tIRS Checks T)efihrillJtor Food & Fun 121K) 645 1678 240 255 156 51K) I6￿) PaymÈnL%- i)veT Plu% F.xLL￿ts l)f RtLeTrPts- (IVLT PaymLnt RLxripL 188941 161431 188941 161431

sPEN￿YmOOR YOUTH & co￿[mLIK1Ty ASSOCIATION IMAR 202.1 2022 2011 2022 Balanco as at 01.01.23 159179 14136 Balancc as at 31.12.23 F.xco5s of Payrn¢nts ovcr rcccipts for thc Ycar Unity Trust Bank T)cbtnr Creditor 46237 323x7 14686311347271 Pllls Excess ofReceipts Over paymenis for the Year C8sh in Hand 3￿ 31M) 170760 141300 170760 1413tAJ Ayprortd B(ab W¢ hAve cornpilLd ihcse unaudited accounts from the books And records of Spennymoor Youth & Coininunity Asswiaiion and from informaiion given ￿ us. We haie noi perfomied an audii iherefore we do noi exprc5s any Opinio￿ on the financial inforniaiion. 4547 Chrap51de SpennyrniK)r DL16 OQF H¢nnik¢r & Co Ltd I￿ MarLh 2n24

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