Wild about our Woods CIO Charity Number 1173958
Report of the trustees for the year ending 31 October 2020
We have been set up as a Charity Incorporated Organisation
OUR AIMS
To create more social opportunities for people to engage with, enjoy and enhance our local woods for mutual wellbeing.
OUR OBJECTIVES
(a) to promote for the benefit of the inhabitants of the London Boroughs of Barnet and Haringey and the surrounding area the provision of facilities for recreation or other leisure time occupation of individuals who have need of such facilities by reason of their youth, age, infirmity or disablement, financial hardship or social and economic circumstances, or for the public at large, in the interests of social welfare and with the object of improving the condition of life of the said inhabitants;
(b) to advance the education of the public in the use and conservation of natural resources, and in the role of woodlands in promoting emotional, social and physical wellbeing and cognitive development;
(c) to promote for the benefit of the public the conservation, protection and improvement of the physical and natural environment; in particular by encouraging and facilitating access to woodlands and by organising recreational, educational, therapeutic and social activities within woodlands.
REVIEW OF ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS
In the last year we have worked with over 850 people across Barnet and Haringey to support their well being via nature connection activities. We have forged new contacts and worked in new areas. Learning from funded programmes has supported Janine to thrive by developing and diversify our work through the pandemic. Successful pilots from past years has allowed us to go for long term funding this year resulting in new and exciting work for the year ahead.
Following the recommendations of the Board to continue in the development of delivering Forest School training has given WAOW an important trading stream of money and also new trained up staff to support the further delivery of programmes in years to come. We are proud to have been able to subsidise training for individuals to develop their skills, 50% of which are from the BAME community where representation of trained Forest School staff if low.
Programmes Undertaken
Forest School Training
With the development time from a grant last year Janine set up Wild about our woods as a training centre to deliver level 2 (Forest School Assistant Award) and Level 3 (Forest School Leader Certificate) qualifications. This was seen a useful development tool for the charity as a form of raising funds and develop capacity on other local people to deliver Forest School and reach our objectives above. A total of £10,760 was raised through this new trading arm of the charity.
WAOW were successful in getting a grant from Haringey Education Partnership to deliver the first round of training. 8 people started the programme in October 2019 and completed the face-to-face training in January 2020. Three of the delivery days took place in the financial year and all payments from HEP were received in this time too. The students were supported in the next stages of their learning in completing their portfolios. Some of the money received from the programme was used to develop the level 3 programme and also supported one of the trainees move onto the Level 3 course. Most of the money was spent on delivery and ongoing support, assessing and associated costs to the training.
In September 2020 we ran a new course which would fund the charity’s work. It was a combination of level 2 and 3 trainees. Two had subsidized places, one then upgraded to the Level 3 course and another trainee from a previous programme joined the programme. 5 of the 9 delivery days took place in this time period. Because of Covid 19 restrictions most of these trainees are still working on completing their portfolios.
School of Social Entrepreneurs
Janine was successful in gaining a place on the School of Social Entrepreneurs Trade Up Programme. The Lloyds Bank Social Entrepreneurs Trade Up Programme is for those who have already established a social enterprise, and plan to increase their income and impact in the year ahead. They incentivised us to become more sustainable by developing our income from trading, supported by a Match Trading grant. We received the full £4,000 as we were able to demonstrate that we were able to gain traded income to that value but it turned out to be really important programme to support Janine through Covid 19 lockdown to continue in her development work.
The programme supported her to develop a practical project for the duration of the programme and beyond. She participated in 10 Learning Days, many of them virtually and 4 facilitated, and 1 self-facilitated, Action Learning Set (ALS) meetings. The network of delivery of the programme supported her to continue to develop the work of the charity even when we were not able to do face to face work. The money raised was used to further develop the training arm of our income generations and time spent writing funding bids. With some money left over to develop the training assessment area further. Once a whole cohort of training has successfully been completed there are plans to use the remaining money to become an Forest School
Association Endorsed Trainer. For a cost of £400 it will carry the prestige which will bring more interest to our training offer.
National Lottery Community Fund
We were successful in our application to National Lottery Community Fund Covid Response Fund and was award £9,235 to deliver two remote programmes. To reduce the feeling of isolation that the lockdown was affecting both older people and children in low income families we repurposed two successful activities created elsewhere but offered to us to use through successful networking during lockdown. The programme were as follows:
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To address health, mental health and wellbeing ‘The Great British Bug Hunt’ supported 500 people over 65 who are self-isolating due to the pandemic. Providing them with purposeful and communicative activities based around nature to help them pass the time, we enabled them to feel valued, give them a sense of purpose and deliver social interaction to reduce feelings of loneliness and long term mental health issues. Each person received two large pollinator plants to plant in their garden, one to attract bees and the other to attract butterflies. These were accompanied by a beautifully illustrated A4 32 page nature booklet. The packages were distributed equally in both Barent and Haringey via community groups and sheltered housing programmes. The feedback from those giving out the plant packages was really positive. It also helped us to establish our organisation with older people’s support agencies as we have to date focused on children, young people and families.
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For 300 children aged 7-11 on free school meals we created a weekly family pack for 6 weeks with seasonal based ideas of nature connection games and activities which they could do in any indoor or outdoor space. The nature craft packs was mainly distributed via foodbanks providing on connecting with themselves and community through nature. Materials for craft activities were included and again those offering them out said take up was high.
Programme endings
The work with Totteridge Academy was delivered until the end of March. This was all within the funding agreement from the Young Barnet Foundation. But when Covid 19 closed the school the programme which would have been funded by Grow to continue to the end of the year did not take place.
2 volunteers at Grow did however sign up to be trained up as Forest School Leaders in the September 2020 training.
We had a student from UCL’s Arts, Nature and Wellbeing module evaluate part of the programme at the Totteridge academy. The module ‘Non-clinical Interventions in Health’, is a module currently being taught at University College London. The aims of this course is to challenge students to identify and critically assess connections between health, wellbeing and current cultural activities/interventions. A student was assigned to the Forest School project, with a focus in particular to do an impact
evaluation of this project. The final report offered us some really good evidence of how the programme was impacting on participants. It also offered us a literature review in the area of working with secondary students as well as introducing some useful methodology to gather impact information. The final report was well received from the funder too
Programmes deferred
The following two programmes were differed because of Covid 19.
Barnet Wellbeing Community Chest agreed to award your organisation the sum of £1770.00. in partnership with JOY (joining old and Young) to run Our deep shoots, new roots 2 pilot programmes bringing children or young people and older adults together with the aim of improving intergenerational relationships. It will provide a variety of explorative play, walking trails, music and nature discovery sessions for adult of grandparent age, parents and under 5s to enjoy together. This has never been undertaken in Barnet and we are excited to be able to pilot it. It was due to start in April but unfortunately it was put on hold once the rise of Corona made it obvious this would not be a safe thing to do. We plan to carry this over to Spring 2021. The money hasn’t been accessed as yet.
In October 2019 we were told that we had been chosen to benefit from the Co-op Local Community Fund. The funding round opened on 27 October 2019 and close on 24 October 2020 and was based on local supports choosing to support tour cause through their membership and shopping . We were given £1062 in this time period (from a total of £3,225.54 , the rest given in November 2020). We had planned to launch the work in April 2020 after the initial funding was deposited in our bank but this had to be put on hold because of the pandemic. We have been trying to negotiate with the local authority about booking space in the woods as our insurance is invalid without it but have not been successful in sorting this out yet. We have sought the support of the Young Barnet Foundation to help us in the quest.
At the end of October we gained £500 from Magic Little Stars via Local Giving. This will contribute to the Coop programme above when it starts up
New programmes for next year:
Hammerson and the Brent Cross Community Support Scheme ,
We were successful in gaining £2000 to provide support services to people affected by domestic violence and abuse in a woodland setting. This will be led by another Forest School Leader with experience of working with survivors of abuse. With an emphasis on eco-therapy and well being we will deliver nature based outdoor activities, learning traditional skills, and experiencing Barnet’s green spaces in a safe setting. We aim to improve self confidence and change dynamics to a group of 6-10
individuals (including their children). Often physical outdoor space is needed to create a micro transformation within oneself, and an opportunity to view oneself and others in a different and capable light. We will help those affected by domestic violence, either individuals or families – we are open to both. Possibly those from an existing project or a single Refuge. Activities will be for a whole (3 hour) morning once a week, for a period of 6 weeks. We will have one Forest School Leader (with experience in working for Women’s Aid) staff member and one volunteer for this project. This is an exciting pilot as it will be the first set up and led by an associate other than Janine. The programme roll out will be from march 2021. The remainder of the money £500 will be given upon completion of the report.
Funding obtained
| communityBarnet | £1,500.00 |
|---|---|
| LOCALGIVING LTD, | £500.00 |
| School of social entrepreneurs | £3,250.00 |
| HEP | £5,000.00 |
| Jackson's lane | £240.00 |
| BigLottery | £9,235.00 |
| YoungBarnet Foundation | £287.00 |
| coop | £1,062.13 |
| Forest School Training | |
| Norfolk House | £1,485.00 |
| Eldon school | £1,700.00 |
| Charlotte | £450.00 |
| Coppetts Wood | £425.00 |
| Grow | £1,700.00 |
| Total income for 2019/20 |
£26,834.13 |
There were other trusts that we were not successful in gaining from but we also developed a good relationship from 2 fundraising specialists who helped us sourced and copy read funding bids
FUTURE PLANS
We will be commencing a few new programmes carried over form last year and one that was successfully funded to this year. We have put in a few more funding bids which we await to hear from.
We will continue to develop our Forest School training delivery and work towards assessing and supporting the qualification of new Forest School Leaders. We want
to apply to become an endorsed Forest School Training provider with the FSA. We want to continue to identify and support local individuals from BAME communities and lower incomes to pursue Forest School training by offering bursaries and mentoring.
We want to diversify our funding streams beyond one-year grants programmes. We have made new contacts and possible avenues for collaborative work in both Barnet and Haringey which we would like to develop. By making time work through the funding streams that are available for marginalised children and young people and green programmes to establish a 3-year funding pot (such as the National Lottery Community Fund or the John Lyons Trust) to develop such programmes to establish themselves with staff and impact. By piloting public fund-raising campaigns via the Big Give as a means of diversifying our funding streams in the future.
Continuing on last years objectives we want to widen our geographical reach. West Barnet has some of the most deprived pockets in London, as well as Graham Park Estate and Dollis Valley so would like to base new projects in and around these areas. Similar in Haringey working in the East side of the borough is very appealing to reach our charity objectives. All have access to green and wooded spaces. We’d like to reduce well being inequalities and creating stronger, healthier communities in the wider community in the east part of Haringey too which also suffers from deprivation in comparison with its more affluent west side. Working in such areas will support our aspirations to secure funding from both Barnet and Haringey Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs)
OUR FINANCES
We successful obtained £26,834 from November 2019 to end of October 2020 (this was only £5,943 in the previous year). Of this money £12,500 remained in the account and has been allocated to current programmes running after 31[st] October 2020. The Full end of year accounts can be accessed as well.
CHARITY TRUSTEES
Natasha Walter (Treasurer),
Sonya Karafistan (Chair),
Alison Stafford (Safeguarding Lead)
Simon Davies
CONTACT DETAILS
Charity: wild about our woods. Email; waowcio@yahoo.com Bank: Santander account: Wild about our woods CIO Insurance: Axa Policy SALSALIA/J178979/0332/20
Wild about our Woods CIO charity number 1173958
| Charity Commission Acounts November 2019 - 31st October 2020 |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name: | WAOW CIO | Project name: | overall budget | Date completed: | 31.10.20 | ||||
| Finance Report | |||||||||
| Budget Heading 1: | e.g. project costs/equipm ~~ent~~ |
Budget Heading 2 | e.g Running costs |
Income | from grants and trading |
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| Actual Spend to date | from 1.11.19 | ||||||||
| Upshot evaluation system | £240.00 | communityBarnet | £1,500.00 |
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| BigLotterycommunityfund | £4,007.95 | Website domain | £30.00 | LOCALGIVING LTD, | £500.00 | ||||
| Forest School training | £3,322.17 | Website hosting | £150.00 | School of social entrenpeneurs |
£3,250.00 |
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| Insurance | £351.00 | HEP | £5,000.00 | ||||||
| Grow | £78.96 | Jackson's lane | £240.00 |
||||||
| staffing costs of delivery ofprogrammes |
£13,498.40 |
BigLottery | £9,235.00 | ||||||
| total cost | £7,409.08 | total runningcosts | £14,269.40 | YoungBarnet Foundation | £287.00 |
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| coop | £1,062.13 | ||||||||
| Forest School Training | |||||||||
| Norfolk House | £1,485.00 |
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| Eldon school | £1,700.00 |
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| Charlotte | £450.00 | ||||||||
| Coppetts Wood | £425.00 |
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| Grow | £1,700.00 | ||||||||
| TOTAL spend to date |
£21,678.48 |
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| Actual TOTAL remaining in bank |
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| **Total income for 2019/20 ** | £26,834.13 | by these figures | £11,750.39 | ||||||
| Money in account atyear start | £6,594.74 | ||||||||
| total | £33,428.87 | ||||||||
Details
none
| Fund to which liability relates |
Amount due (optional) |
|---|---|
| - |
B5 Liabilities
(HARITY COMMISSION i FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Independent Examlner's Report Report to the trusteesl members of Wlld about our wood8 CIO On accounts for the year ended 2020 Charity no lif any} 1173958 Set out on pages I report lo the trustées on my examination of the accounts of the above charity {"the Trust'l for the year ended 3111012Q20. Responsibilities and basis of report As the chanty's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Chanlies Act 2011 I'the Act'l. 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 all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under seclion 145(Sllbl of the Act. Independent I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have examiner's statement come lo my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect.. the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Acl., or the accounts did not accord wilh the accounting records,. or the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements Concerning the form and Content of a¢eounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a 'lrue and fair. view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination. I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which allenlion should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts lo be reached. Ple888 d818t8 the words in the brackets if they do not apply. Slgned: Date.. 24--08- 21 Name: CT)fA LttDSL4x. Relevant professional qualificationls} or body (If anyl- Addre81: IER Ocl 2018