Spennymoor Youth and Community Association
Annual Report 2024
1[st] January 2024 to 31st December 2024
Spennymoor Youth and Community Association enjoyed another successful year in which we continued to support struggling families, isolated older residents, people with lived experience of mental and physical health problems and residents looking for new skills as volunteers or to learn and train towards employment.
Our National Lottery Reaching Communities funded project enabled us to support over 4,000 centre users and to secure additional funding for new and established activities, adding to our community programme and achieving our ambition to be a 7 day centre for everyone.
Year two Lottery grant spend of £84,834 funded project sta, community café cook/overheads, weekend workers, volunteer costs, oice costs, training, marketing and publicity.
We made significant investment in making our centre greener and more sustainable. Thanks to grant funding secured from Durham County Council, Durham Community Action and SYACA match funding, we were able to install energy saving improvements which included zoned and remotely controlled heating, solar panels with battery storage and FiT energy fed back to the grid, smart radiator thermostats, boiler optimisation, hot water timers and energy reducing equipment on our fridges and freezers.
Awards for All funding allowed us to install ultrafast broadband alongside digital and ICT support for residents delivered from the centre.
Alongside reducing our energy costs, we continued to broaden our funding base with new grant funders matched by continued support from partners including:
| Funder | Amount | Activity |
|---|---|---|
| Awards for All | £11,022 | Community Ultrafast Connect to install broadband infrastructure and YouFibre on a social tari* throughout the centre. The project included digital help for residents with the online world and access to digital equipment. |
| Welcome Space | £3,890 | To open up the centre for isolated residents and families struggling with the cost of living, oering free access to tea, coee, food and emergency food help. As well as help, support and a place to meet. |
| Police and Crime Commissioner Trailblazer, Livin, Spennymoor Local Network |
£18,648 | To deliver in house youth sessions and outreach across Spennymoor and Tudhoe. |
| Livin and Fun and Food County Durham |
£4,018 | For Easter, Summer, Halloween and Christmas holiday activities for children and families with access to food. |
| Spennymoor Town Council |
£652 | Santa doorstep visits. |
| Durham County Council |
£3,000 | Chillax CREE |
| TOTAL: | £41,230 |
Eating Together
Providing food help to Spennymoor residents has been a significant part of our work. The Bread and Butter Thing provided over 1,000 members with weekly a*ordable food surplus. Complemented by weekly FareShare bags and Feeding Families emergency food parcels.
Our community café has given residents access to a*ordable hot food and space to meet others and become part of the centre. Twice weekly term sessions have been popular with older isolated residents and alongside preschool play, our café has been popular with parents, carers and childminders.
Plans for a community pantry will add to our oer in 2025, oering centre users access to low cost groceries, toiletries and fresh food grown on our community allotment.
Working Together
We continued to work with Learning a New Way CIC, as their services grow, in providing a hub for education and support services for SEND and home educated young people.
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Kingdom Culture Church has established itself within the centre and support a number of our projects and services, providing volunteers, involvement and funding.
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We worked closely with Spennymoor Town Team in shaping how £20m of Government investment will be spent over the next 10 years. Chair Barbara Graham representing SYACA and Tudhoe Community Centre on the Town Team Board and Project Co-ordinator Michael Fishwick involved on working groups aligned to our priorities.
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As one of their recognised Wellbeing Hubs, we continued to work closely with Wellbeing for Life Adult Services in providing wellbeing services and support to our own wellbeing groups and the wider community.
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A formal contract with Durham Learn allowed us to host a range of adult learning courses including ESOL as we continue to work with Spennymoor’s growing refugee and asylum seeker population as they become involved and part of the local community.
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As a youth and community centre our membership of the Lottery funded Youth print project led by Auckland Youth and Community Centre brought together youth and community service providers to co-ordinate e*orts and network across the area.
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Our involvement in the CREE network facilitated by Durham Community Action and funded by Durham County Council made our Chillax CREE one of the few CREE groups delivering youth provision for young people with additional needs.
Looking ahead
Our priorities over the next 12 months will be to continue eorts in making our charity and partnership with Tudhoe Community Centre increasingly sustainable by investing in sta and volunteers and ensuring we have robust systems and policies on important areas including; safeguarding, governance, financial management, fundraising, building maintenance and centre development.
Our sta* team will work with trustees, volunteers and partners to evaluate the impact Communities Together Stepping UP in its final project year has made as we develop the
next phase of the project and look to secure funding to be able to sustain what we do well.
Thank you!
We are grateful to our SYACA Team; Trustees, volunteers, sta, partners, funders and centre users who sustain our charity and help to deliver the dierence it makes for so many people across the communities we serve. We couldn’t do it without each and everyone involved.
Trustees
Chair – Barbara Graham
Vice Chair – Vacancy
Secretary – Neil Foster
Treasurer – Wayne Gibson
Committee:
Dianna Charlton
Ian Geldhart (Town Council Rep)
Andy Anderson (Town Council Rep)
Sta*
Michael Fishwick – Development Manager Danielle Clarke – Project Worker
Helen Riley – Centre Administration
Gemma Matthews – Weekend Worker
Kelly Cox – Weekend Worker
Ashley Court – Cook
Val Richardson – Caretaker
Spennymoor Youth Work Team Chris Milner – Youth Worker Claire Peat – Youth Worker David Stow – Youth Worker Sandra Mc Donnell – Support
Tudhoe Youth Work Team Claire Bissett – Youth Worker Danielle Todd – Youth Worker Alyssa Carr – Support
Sedgefield Youth Work Victoria Robinson – Youth Worker Kerry Nicholson – Support Iona Darton – Support
Thank You to All Volunteers who support the centre on a daily basis.
It really could not happen with out your help and involvement.
SPENNYMOOR YOUTH & COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNT - YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2024
| RECEIPTS | 2024 | 2024 | 2023 | PAYMENTS | 2024 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Building Room Hire | 19745 | 16245 | Building & Cleaning | 9053 | 7277 | |
| AAP Youth Connect Income | 5962 | Gas & Electric | 7644 | 5876 | ||
| Fairshare Income | 500 | Water | 906 | 858 | ||
| Paypal Income | 20 | Building Insurance | 1163 | 1148 | ||
| Service Direct Repairs | 288 | |||||
| Telephone & Internet | 797 | 324 | ||||
| Office/General Admin Expenses | 555 | 30 | ||||
| Chillax Sessions | 3000 | 2900 | Christmas 2024 F & F Exp | 1045 | ||
| Accountancy Charges | 354 | 354 | ||||
| T V License | 159 | 159 | ||||
| Christmas 2-24 F & F Inc | 1682 | Living Holidays Activities 21-22 | 120 | |||
| AAP Fun/Food/Healthy Relationship | 15150 | PPL-PRS Fees | 440 | |||
| Ballanger Trust | 17795 | Bank Charges | 124 | 174 | ||
| NCLF – Stepping Up | 84387 | 42193 | NLCF Stepping Up | 578 | 505 | |
| Place for People | 1000 | Tudhoe Youth Club | 7029 | |||
| Sales of Product Income | 90 | AAP Learning Together | ||||
| Sedgefield YC Wages Income | 3380 | /AAP Covid | 8261 | |||
| Clothes Bank Donation | 236 | 56 | Funding | 21609 | ||
| Fun & Food | 5499 | 2110 | AAP Youth/Health/Covid | 2013 | ||
| SYACS – F&F | 1139 | Computers/ICT | 497 | 3814 | ||
| Tudhoe CC Income | 5354 | 9622 | Youth Club Activities | 7651 | ||
| Tudhoe YC 2024 (PointNorth) | 4810 | Grants Expenses | 1820 | |||
| Non Profit Income |
20198 | 25305 | Photocopier Expenses | 1203 | 1000 | |
| Ultra Connect A4A Income | 15097 | Chillax Expenses | 1890 | 1413 | ||
| Uncategorized Income | 31906 | Repairs | 176 | |||
| Vehicle Expenses | 2799 | 2253 | ||||
| Living Holidays | 2086 | |||||
| Fairshare Exp | 600 | |||||
| Grants | 14530 | 24520 | Wages Expenses |
114703 | 104076 | |
| Sedgefield YC Wages | 115 | |||||
| Move It Project | 160 | |||||
| D of E Expenses | 489 | 1635 | ||||
| Reaching Communities | 67 | |||||
| Quickbooks | 858 | |||||
| Co-op Donation | 472 | |||||
| CDCF 2024 Grant Exp | 2399 | |||||
| Covid 19 Take Away | 1200 | |||||
| Eating Together | 1154 | 645 | ||||
| Ballanger Trust | 1678 | 1678 | ||||
| Cassop F&F Summer Exp | 240 | |||||
| DBS Checks | 105 | 255 | ||||
| Defibrillator | 156 | 156 | ||||
| Food & Fun | 4414 | 500 | ||||
| Uncategorised Expenses | 57 | |||||
| Ultra Connect A4A Exp |
11021 | |||||
| Excess of Payments - over | Plus Excess of Receipts - | |||||
| Receipts | ______ | ______ | over Payments |
8571 | 11581 | |
| 185489 | 188941 | 185489 | 188941 | |||
| ====== | ===== | ===== | ===== |
SPENNYMOOR YOUTH & COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION SUMMARY
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2024 2023 2024 2023
Balance as at 01.01.24 170774 159179 Balance as at 31.12.24
Less Excess of Payments Unity Trust Bank 180666 171086
over receipts for the Year Debtors 56036 46237
Creditor (57657) (46863)
Plus Excess of Receipts
Over payments for the Year 8571 11581 Cash in Hand 300 300
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179345 170760 179345 170760
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Approved by
Approved by
B Seah A€ N FOSTER W GIBSON
Chairperson Secretary Treasurer
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We have compiled these unaudited accounts from the books and records of Spennymoor Youth & Community Association and from information given to us. We have not performed an audit therefore we do not express any opinion on the financial information.
45-47 Cheapside Henniker & Co Ltd Spennymoor DL16 6QF 10[th] April 2025