Cianna’s Smile annual trustee report April 2020 to April 2021
1
Contents
Page 3- administration
Page 4- About us
Page 5- Objectives
Page 6 and 7- Activities
Page 8- Achievements and performance
Page 8- Financial review
Page 9- Our 12 month strategy
2
Administration
Charity registration number 1173030
Charitable incorporated organisation
Charity registration date: 12[th] May 2017
Address: Wykeham Road, Earley, Reading, RG6 1PN
Charity trustees:
Chairperson: Hayley King
Treasurer: Roger Williams Secretary: Melissa Connor
Committee members
Joyce Connor
Ashleigh Ali
Richard Ryan
Elizabeth Giblin-Cook
Sarah Jane Grant
Ashton Massey
Denise Philips
3
About us
Cianna’s Smile is a registered charity that offers information, support, activities and advocates for children in the Thames Valley with Sickle Cell, a lifelong inherited debilitating health condition. People with Sickle Cell often find themselves excluded because of this hereditary life-threatening genetic blood disorder which results in most circumstances with at least one parent being a full time carer and children missing many days of school due to hospital admissions.
Our aims are to reduce the isolation felt by families who are affected by SC and to raise awareness of the condition and to educate both healthcare professionals and members of our community to help better understand the condition.
The organisation was founded by Hayley King in July 2012 and named after Hayley’s daughter Cianna who has Sickle Cell Anaemia. The charity became registered in May 2017 and has gradually progressed and become a familiar name within the community.
4
Objectives
Our mission
To give hope to those with Sickle Cell (SC) who feel isolated to continue breaking the myths and stigmas attached to SC, educating all about SC and offering a voice that is heard to increase awareness and empathy towards those affected by SC.
Our vision
To make SC a condition that is understood and heard of in the UK. To ensure that people with SC are treated efficiently and receive empathy, support, empowerment and understanding from friends, family, education providers, employers and healthcare professionals.
Our values
Everyone deserves the right to be treated with empathy and understanding. No matter what a person's background, religion or ethnicity, we should all be treated with respect. We value and preserve the resources entrusted to us.
Our charitable objectives
-
The preservation and protection of good health and the relief of sickness of people who have SC by such means as the trustees think fit including, but not limited to the provision of information, support, comfort, services, facilities and social events.
-
To advance the education of the public in all areas relating to SC.
5
Activities
Cianna’s Smile activities have been severely impacted by the pandemic, however, we have still continued to support families and even with face to face activities being postponed we have continued to stay in touch, provide virtual meetings and post activity boxes. Our main priority was to keep everyone safe and we limited activities to mostly the distribution of our wellness boxes.
April 2020
We distributed PPE to beneficiaries including face masks, gloves and hand sanitisers. These were greatly received as many of our service users still needed attend hospital appointments.
Posted NHS Parents Guide to managing sickle cell books to parents/carers who wanted to learn more about caring for a child with Sickle Cell.
June 2020
Art therapy box fundraiser. We successfully raised £1896.00 to fund art therapy boxes for children with Sickle Cell.
October 2020
Art therapy boxes were distributed to over 30 people. Each box contained age appropriate art supplies The recipients were absolutely over the noon and s grateful as art therapy plays
6
a huge part in distracting form the challenges people with Sickle Cell face and a therapy that we encourage people to try.
December
Online aromatherapy oils class. We organised an virtual beginners class with a qualified homeopathic practitioner to teach people with Sickle Cell how to use aromatherapy oils safely for pain relief and wellbeing
Taster Pilates class. We organised monthly virtual Pilates classes with a qualified instructor to help people with Sickle explore the possibilities of gentle exercises to help with general wellbeing and encourage confidence when exercising.
January
Winter wellness boxes. We distributed 18 winter care boxes to families. Comprising gloves, bath salts, essential oils, stationary and a few winter comforts as requested by the children we support such as hot chocolate were distributed to beneficiaries of the charity, to help them cope with the complications triggered by the cold weather and provide a small amount of comfort to them.
7
Achievements and performance
Due to limitations during the pandemic many events were cancelled. We still manged to continue to raise awareness and send out lots of activities for families to enjoy at home safely.
As we see our organisation grow we have started the process of applying for various grants to enable us to carry out our future planned activities. Some of these have now been received, and we are in the process of carrying out those plans. We will be reporting on their progress in future reports.
Achievements
Roald dahl charity interview in June 2020
Berkshire Living magazine article in July 2020
Painless universal interview with Lady Ann Welsh in July 2020
Melan magazine interview in September 2020
Pride of Britain award winner in October 2020
Shortlisted for the Thames Valley awards for charity of the year March 2020
8
Financial review
The charity ensures that all funds are responsibly used and policies are in place to continually monitor the charity’s assets. The charity provides for unexpected expenses and takes advantage of changes and opportunities for development when they arise. This is achieved by setting aside income, when the charity can afford it, which is allocated to a reserve earmarked for specific future purposes rather than for use immediately for the charity’s aims.
The trustees regularly assess the appropriate level of reserves to be held in order to avoid putting the charity’s solvency, future development or activities at risk.
This means the trustees:
-
Consider whether the charity needs to keep reserves – the trustees primary consideration is the wellbeing of the beneficiaries that Cianna’s Smile has been set up to help·
-
Have a reserves policy which explains the levels of reserves to be kept and how they can be used.
-
Review their reserves policy on a regular basis. This is done to take account of changing financial circumstances and new operating and financial conditions in order to comply with the annual reporting requirements. The trustees consider the level of reserves the charity holds and why it needs to retain them at that level·
-
Identify which of the charity’s funds have restrictions on their use, i.e. reserve funds that are freely available to spend are distinguished from funds that may have restrictions on their use set by their donors. The trustees consider whether and how reserve funds should be invested, and plan for future development and sustainability.
-
Designate funds for use on future projects where appropriate as a way of setting aside and building up funds separated from the charity’s general reserves.
9
12 month strategy
-
Provide six Sickle Cell Action Group recreational activities for families affected by Sickle Cell to increase companionship amongst people affected by SC.
-
To obtain funding to provide additional educational and alternative support to those affected by SC such as nutritional advice, self- care plans, counselling, transition support for paediatric patients moving to adult care and alternative therapies.
-
To employ three individuals to work on the charity’s programmes including development and improvement of the website and our social media presence. Our plan is to recruit one person under the Government’s Kickstart scheme, and two others preferably from families who care for someone with SC. That way, they will bring their experience to the work of the charity, and we will be helping them further by providing an income to the family.
-
Improve community engagement via fundraising activities and educational talks.
-
Gain further volunteers to help with the running of the organisation and events.
-
To further educate and raise awareness to members of the public by offering two advocacy training days annually and an annual Black History Month talk on SC.
-
To network and form partnerships with more existing SC organisations in the UK.
-
To build on our impact within the community by inviting guests to participate in events and social media.
-
To use the grant of £7,546 recently received to provide a book for children about SC, develop a transitioning handbook for young adults transitioning from paediatric to adult healthcare teams, and a nutritional guide and recipe book to educate families of the importance of diet and nutrition to reduce and manage SC symptoms.
-
To arrange our annual fund raising Ball.
-
To reinstate the family action group days which we were not able to host last year.
10