2022-03-31-accounts

Trustees’ Annual Report 01/04/2021 – 31/03/2022

COMPAS Charity (Charity number: 1176025) Registered office: 19, Fitzwilliam Street in Peterborough, PE1 2RU

Annual Review & Financial Statement 2021-2022

CONTENTS

Legal and administrative information	3
Board of Trustees’ report	4
Overview of activities and projects	8
Financial Report	10
Independent examiner’s report on the accounts	11

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Legal and Administrative information

Board of Trustees	Beverley Carpenter
	Hana Rafajova
	Zdenka Kolbabkova
	Denisa Gannon
	Helena Ground
Chief Executive Officer	Petr Torak MBE
Charity number	1176025
Registered address	COMPAS Charity
	19, Fitzwilliam Street
	Peterborough
	PE1 2RU
Bank	HSBC bank Plc.
Accountant	Money Talks Accountancy Ltd
Independent Examiner	Joanna Fox ACMA
Constitution adopted	10thMarch 2018
Number of Members	17
Affiliations	1.Consortium of Peterborough Community Groups (CPCG)
	2. Peterborough Community Group Forum (PCGF)
	2. Association of Czech and Slovak Schools (ACSSUK)
	3. Peterborough Council for Voluntary Sector (PCVS)
Policies in place	Safeguarding, Equal Opportunities, Code of Conduct,
	Data Protection, Financial Procedures, GDPR, H&S,
	Web privacy, Whistleblowing, Fire procedure, COVID
	policies

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Board of Trustees’ report

The Board of Trustees submit their annual report and the financial statements of COMPAS Charity for the period of 1[st] April 2021 to 31[st] March 2022. The Board of Trustees confirms that the annual report and financial statements of the Charity comply with current statutory requirements, including the Charity Act 2011, as well as the requirements of the Charity's governing document.

COMPAS (previously known as Community Partnership Group) was established in 2010 as an un-incorporated community group. In 2017 COMPAS became a Charitable Incorporated Organisation.

Objectives of COMPAS Charity and examples of activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objectives are:

OBJECTIVES	EXAMPLES
Relief in need of members of migrant communities by the provision of advice, support and information or in any other way required; and by engaging with service providers, public bodies, institutions and organisations to enable those entities to better adapt their services, policies and activities to the needs of the migrant communities.	• Advice centre • Workshops • Advice over the phone and via social media • Assistance to schools, social services, Council etc
Promotion of social inclusion for the public benefit by working with people who are socially excluded on the grounds of their ethnic origin, religion, belief or creed (in particular, members of the Roma community) by developing the capacity and skills of members of that community to assist them to integrate with and participate more fully in society.	• Roma mentoring projects (‘ROGA’) • Food bank • COVID-19 aid
The advancement of citizenship and community development by promoting a better understanding within British society; and by promoting civic responsibility, good citizenship and volunteering.	• Providing regular updates on COVID regulations • Cooperation with police on COVID patrols • Assistance to NHS with increasing vaccination uptake
The advancement of education (including social and physical training) of people in such ways as the charity trustees think fit, including by promoting the learning of native languages (including but not limited to Czech and Slovak); supporting parents to engage with their children’s education; and mentoring and coaching young people.	• Czech language classes for children. • ROGA mentoring project • Sport & nutrition classes for children and youths

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The achievements of the past year would not have been possible without the support from the following organisations: Tudor Trust, Barnardos, Kent CCG, Cardiff Council, Newport Council, Peterborough City Council, Queen Katherine Academy, Romodrom, MZV, Essex University, Sport, Lottery, HAY, DWP and other supporters.

We are also very grateful to all volunteers, staff, members and other supporters promoting the work of COMPAS Charity.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, COMPAS Charity has been finding new, innovative, and more effective ways in supporting local communities and providing essential support to local authorities and educational establishments.

As in the first year of the pandemic, COMPAS worked with the NHS and Councils in Kent, Cambridgeshire and in Wales to support the most vulnerable and marginalised communities. We have been doing so in various ways – raising awareness, training community ambassadors, conducting LFT testing at COMPAS venue, supplying masks and other essentials, organising webinars and raising COVID vaccination uptake.

In April 2021, COMPAS had been successful in securing funding from Kent CCG to conduct research within the Roma communities to establish the best ways for NHS and the Council to engage with the communities and to promote vaccination against Covid-19. COMPAS conducted over 80 semi-structured interviews in Gravesend, Chatham, Margate, Dover and Folkestone; and at the end produced a comprehensive report outlining the main reasons for low vaccination uptake, for sources of fake news and the key influencers. The research was led by Romani Studies Expert Michal Mizigar and researcher Denisa Dufkova.

Due to various factors, including fake news, fear of potential health problems and conspiracy theories, the vaccination uptake amongst Roma has been very low on national level. COMPAS has played vital role in increasing the vaccination uptake by creating a pool of ambassadors and engaging with local and national media.

Paul Bristow MP participated in a debate in the House of Commons entitled “Covid-19: Community response. During his speech, Mr Bristow MP said:

“It is a special place, Peterborough, with the Sikh community, the Hindu community, the Nepalese community, five big mosques, churches across the city, the East Timorese community and Petr Torak from Compas, which provides support to the Czech, Slovak and Roma communities.”

Picture 1 – LFT testing in Peterborough Picture 2 – Conducting community Picture 3 – Awareness raising research for NHS

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The other area of our work, that has become one of the biggest work streams of the charity, is ROGA (Roma of Great Abilities).

In 2011, COMPAS had developed a mentoring project called ROGA that aims to motivate young Roma to access further education (Level 4 and above) and to develop useful skills that will enable them to take up front line jobs in teaching, law enforcement, NHS and other areas of public life.

Since 2018, COMPAS has been working with the Queen Katherine Academy (QKA) on supporting Roma pupils from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania.

We were able to implement the ROGA project and to provide bespoke mentoring to Roma students and support to their parents.

Daniel George Mihai provides support to Romanian pupils, and Marko Strbak and Irena Strbakova support the Czech and Slovak students.

The partnership between QKA and COMPAS and our work with the Roma pupils had been recognized in the way of The Award for Impact through Partnership - The Roma – Narrowing the Gap Team, securing the Gold Award in Pearson National Awards 2021.

“The award is testament to the hard work of all the team at Queen Katharine Academy and our partner Compas who work to really transform lives as an inclusive centre of educational excellence.” Lynn Mayes Principal of Queen Katharine Academy.

ROGA methodology offers a holistic approach to mentoring and raising aspiration of Roma children and young people. It involves all the stakeholders – learners, parents, teachers, school management, community groups and leaders and public authorities.

Thanks to the partnership with QKA and the Award, other schools and colleges expressed their desire to join the mentoring project. We are currently working with 21 schools across the England and Wales and there are number of schools in the pipeline. The ROGA team now consists of 7 members of staff, covering the Czech, Slovak, Romanian, Polish and Portugues languages.

As part of the CPD (continuing professional development), we also offer teachers educational trips to Central and Eastern European countries. The first trip, since the beginning of the pandemic, we have taken 4 teachers from Cardiff to Eastern Slovakia, where the teachers were able to visit schools, Roma settlements, Ukrainian refugee camps and engage with community leaders.

Picture 4 – Award ceremony Picture 5 – Mentoring Picture 6 - Team

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Overview of other activities and projects conducted in the reporting period (in no particular order)

NAME OF PROJECT / EVENT	DETAILS	PHOTO
Advice Centre	Free advice provision in the areas of job finding, EU settled status, COVID-19, housing, employment, education, social benefits, etc. We are now also offering advice service in Folkestone and soon also in Cardiff. During the past 12 months, we have assisted over 1600 people. We are very grateful for the financial support from Romodrom, without their support we wouldn’t be able to support that many clients!
New branch in Folkestone	With the support of Kent CCG and NHS, we have been able to open a new COMPAS Charity branch, led by a local manager, Jarka Badzova. The branch is currently offering free advice provision, and we are planning to add new services in months to come.
Sport activities	For the past 12 months, we have been offering: • Table tennis sessions • Boxing – led by Vojtech Balog • Running – led by Premysl Dvorak • Zumba class – led by Jerry Potter • Street dance – led by Evita Balcere • Community gym • Pooltable sessions
St Nicholas Party	On Sunday 5th December, we have organized traditional celebration of St. Nicholas, Angel and Evil that come to Earth to give presents to children.

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Czech & Slovak Club	H.A.Y. Peterborough had funded COMPAS Charity to support minority ethnic groups to improve access to mental health care. During the project period, we have developed and offered the following seminars: CV writing, Mental health, DV, THB awareness, Conflict management, Suicide awareness, Debt management, Substance misuse and gambling, GP registration, Classes for children on Czech history and grammar
Roma Holocaust Memorial Day	Commemoration of Roma Holocaust Memorial Day, celebrated on the 2nd August 2021, led by Romani Studies Expert, Michal Mizigar.
Boxing session	Experienced boxer Vojtech Balog has been leading on the boxing sessions that take place every Friday afternoon.
ORION School	Various activities for children and young people, including music, language, history and culture.
Milfield Festival	Millfield Festival happens is a family-friendly celebration of creativity, arts, culture, and community. The festival welcomes everyone in the area to come together for an uplifting and inspiring event full of interesting music and dance, fun arts & crafts, and amazing performances.

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Never Forgotten	Many Czechs and Slovaks left their homeland to fight abroad during the 1938-1945 occupation of Czechoslovakia with about 6,500 serving in the UK as airmen, parachutists or in the army. During a training flight in October 1940, a fire broke out on board of the plane, causing it to crash near Elton, 20km southwest of Peterborough. Five Czech and Slovak serviceman lost their lives and were buried in the Eastfield Cemetery.
Halloween party	On Friday 29th October, we have celebrated Halloween party with a special guest – famous Roma singer from the Czech Republic, Jan Bendig.

Some of the activities listed above had to be postponed due to structural problems with the building. The metal roof start leaky and the water leak into the building had damaged the electrical system. Combined with other necessary building work that is necessary to make the building more ambient and safer, the cost of repair would exceed £70k and therefore a decision was made to move to start a search for a new venue.

Since the desire for a community venue and the need for community members to meet is shared across the City and there are number of community groups with no venue, COMPAS had decided to create a consortium of community groups that will share the new building. We are pleased to announce the formation of Consortium of Peterborough Community Groups (CPCG). The first groups that joined the Consortium are representing Czech, Slovak, Lithuanian, East Timorese, Roma, Latvian and Romanian communities.

COMPAS Charity had approached the Peterborough City Council and Paul Bristow MP to see if there are any community buildings available for rent. We are currently looking at a community centre and are in process of negotiating the terms of hire with the Council.

Finally, we would like to thank once again to all our supporters, funders, volunteers and employees for enabling COMPAS Charity to deliver the essential work to our local communities and to promote integration and community cohesion.

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Financial Report

Reporting period from 01/04/2021 – 31/03/2022 Incorporating an Income and Expenditure Account

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Independent examiner’s report on the accounts

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