## **' – Charity trustees annual report London Autism Group Charity** 

## **- April 2020 April 2021** 

Your charity’s name: London Autism Group Charity 

Registration number: 1176341 

Address: 66 Chase Way, London, N14 5DG. 

Trustee names: Dr Chris Papadopoulos (Chair), Morgan Papadopoulos, James Gordon, Emma Lazenby 

Its structure and details of how it is managed, including how it recruits trustees: 

The trustees follow and abide to the Charity’s Governing Document which is based on the Constitution of a Charitable Incorporated Organisation whose only voting members are its charity trustees (‘Foundation’ model constitution). 

The appointment of new charity trustees follows the following rules: 

(1) Apart from the first charity trustees, every trustee must be appointed for a term of two years by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the charity trustees. 

(2) In selecting individuals for appointment as charity trustees, the charity trustees must have regard to the skills, knowledge and experience needed for the effective administration of the CIO. 

## Its activities and objectives in the year: 

Our activities this year have been aligned with our overall charity objective which is ‘to relieve the needs of individuals in London (and surrounding counties) with a formal diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, and their family carers, by the provision of information and support’. 

We believe we can achieve this objective by conducting activities related to the following goals: 

- To provide support for autistic people and/or their family carers living in London or surrounding counties 

- To promote social inclusion of autistic people and family carers. 

- To promote social awareness and acceptance of autism and to reduce autism stigma and discrimination 

- To advance the mental and physical health and wellbeing of autistic people and family carers 

Its achievements and performance, including reporting on its public beneft: 

In the past year, we have conducted the following successful and impactful activities: 

1. Continued management of the London Autism Group. The London Autism Group is a private Facebook group aimed at supporting anyone whose lives have been influenced by autism and reside in or near to London. As of the end of January, we currently have 2327 members with 552 members joining in the past 12 months. The group is extremely popular 



and active, with 1823 of the 2327 members being ‘active’ on the group in the past month (i.e. they have read or interacted with posts). Also, each month, we receive over 50,000 views on posts made. The group consists of a wide and balanced socio-demographic and includes members who identify as autistic, family carers, health and social care professionals, scientists/researchers and more. 

2. The Autism Podcast: The Autism Podcast continues to be extremely successful and impactful. The aim of the podcast is ‘to improve our understanding of autism, boost acceptance, reduce autism stigma, and generate impactful, transformative ideas ranging from practical everyday advice to thoughts on policy, practice, and wider socio-cultural challenges.’ We have been releasing an episode almost every month with a wide range of guests and impactful topics. Our statistics continue to rise; we now have almost 28,900 downloads and a growing membership. We appear among the first results listings when the word ‘autism’ is searched for in most podcast apps (including Apple Podcasts). We also appear among the top Google listings when ‘Autism podcast’ is searched for. We have also been listed in many ‘top autism podcasts’ lists (e.g. https://blog.feedspot.com/autism_podcasts/). Overall, we are confident that our podcast is among the most listened to autism-related podcasts in the world and continues to create considerable impact. 

3. Website: We have continued to improve our website in the past year (londonautismgroupcharity.org) which details our charity’s mission and values, the work that we do, and how to get in touch. As can be seen on - 

the ‘What We Do’ page (https://www.londonautismgroupcharity.org/what we-do), we have also produced several accessible maps that users can gain information about legal services, services, schools and more. These maps have been accessed more than 50,300 times. 

4. Community livestreams: During the past 12 months, to support the autism community during Covid-19, we produced 18 Facebook-based livestreams to provide expert advice and support regarding the support of the community’s mental health and psychological wellbeing during this period. These videos have been watched over 18000 times. We interviewed a range of autistic experts and professionals who answered questions from the community. 

5. London Autism Befriending scheme: We have launched a befriending scheme for autistic adults and the wider autism community. The scheme provides provide friendship for people (16yrs+) living in London and surrounding counties including autistic people, parents and family carers. The scheme to support people’s mental health and reduce feelings of loneliness which is particularly important given the times we live in. It involves people being paired with one of our charity volunteers who make contact via whatsapp and, if you wish, 1-1 conversations over Zoom. 

6. Consultancy services: We provided the UK Government consultant support with a reasonable adjustment request. This was a highly successful exercise for all involved 

7. Funding support: We have funded a range of therapies for multiple vulnerable individuals in the autism community who have required support for their mental health or vital equipment for the wellbeing of their autistic children. 



8. Workshops: Our volunteers have facilitated a range of different free workshops for the community to support their wellbeing. These include a make-up workshop, a train workshop (titled RailTalk), and a Tai Chi workshop 

9. Giveaways: We have conducted multiple giveaways to the community, specifically various items that have potential value in supporting the community (e.g. sensory toys) 

- 10.Supporting research – we have supported multiple research studies by (a) advising researchers on how to work with the community and (b) enabling researchers to access the autism community. In particular, we provided key support to one of the largest studies conducted on the impact of Covid on the autism community (see 

   - https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10101297/). This study led to significant media attention which in turned raised significant public awareness on the challenges that the community experienced as a result of lockdown. 

- 11.London Autism Sibling Support Group: We have very recently launched a new monthly support group specifically for siblings of autistic people. The support group aims to give a safe space for members to share experiences, connect and get advice and support 

- 12.Neurodiversity articles: We have published several articles pertaining to neurodiversity and other themes related to our charitable objectives 

- 13.Stack recruitment: We have supported Stack Recruitment by advertising their excellent service and linking the community with them. This has enabled autistic people to find employment 

- 14.Supporting new autistic advocates: We have helped to support the launch and continued production of two youtube channels belonging to aspiring young autistic people aiming to produce impact (My Autistic Sparkle and Green Streak) 

- 15.London Autistic Students Group: We have recently launched a new private Facebook group aimed at growing the autistic university student community. 

A fnancial review including any debts and details of your reserves policy (if applicable): 

The Charity has raised **£2527.65** in funds and has spent **£1963.48.** 

Current balance as of April 2021 is **£4907.47** 

Details of any funds held as a custodian trustee: n/a 

|||||Account Balance April||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||||2020|4343.30|
|Date|Info|Deposit||Withdrawal||
|20/4/202||||||
|0|PayPal *BeLive|||25.11||
|20/5/202||||||
|0|PayPal *BeLive|||25.81||
|21/5/202|Amazon Europe|||||
|0|(Smile)||24.28|||





|4/6/2020|Facebook payout|250||
|---|---|---|---|
|16/6/202||||
|0|Neurodiverge||83.29|
|22/6/202||||
|0|PayPal *BeLive||25.13|
|1/7/2020|Facebook payout|115.78||
|6/7/2020|Pond5||60|
|14/7/202||||
|0|Amazon purchase||19.54|
|15/7/202||||
|0|Amazon purchase||199.99|
|20/7/202||||
|0|PayPal *BeLive||24.91|
|21/7/202||||
|0|Stripe payments|14.36||
|27/7/202||||
|0|Amazon purchase||12.90|
|13/8/202|Amazon Europe|||
|0|(Smile)|35.32||
|20/8/202||||
|0|PayPal *BeLive||23.80|
|28/8/202||||
|0|Zoom||100.72|
|11/9/202||||
|0|DCHS Central|360||
|25/9/202||||
|0|Amazon purchase||299.99|
|5/10/202||||
|0|Post Ofce||15.53|
|8/10/202||||
|0|Stripe Payments|9.51||
|12/10/20||||
|20|PayPal Jolauzolnik||14|
|13/10/20||||
|20|PayPal payment||46|
|27/10/20||||
|20|Ebay payment||199.99|
|30/10/20||||
|20|PodBean||86.17|
|5/11/202||||
|0|Facebook payout|290.40||
|16/11/20|Amazon Europe|||
|20|(Smile)|29.31||
|20/11/20||||
|20|Facebook payout|282.42||
|23/11/20||||
|20|Amazon purchase||17.58|
|24/11/20||||
|20|Amazon purchase||17.58|
|25/11/20||||
|20|Justgiving.com||18|
|7/12/202||||
|0|Facebook payout|125||
|16/12/20||||
|20|Audible||7.99|
|23/12/20|Amazon Europe|||
|20|(Smile)|72.62||
|29/12/20|Justgiving.com||18|





|20||||
|---|---|---|---|
|30/12/20||||
|20|Paypal payment||40|
|12/1/202||||
|1|Paypal payment||260|
|18/1/202||||
|1|Aubible||7.99|
|20/1/202||||
|1|Facebook payout|105.00||
|22/1/202||||
|1|Audible||1.99|
|25/1/202||||
|1|Justgiving||18|
|9/2/2021|Amazon purchase||68.07|
|11/2/202|Amazon Europe|||
|1|(Smile)|84.24||
|15/2/202||||
|1|DBS check||23|
|15/2/202||||
|1|DBS check||23|
|15/2/202||||
|1|DBS check||23|
|16/2/202||||
|1|Audible||7.99|
|25/2/202||||
|1|Justgiving||18|
|26/2/202||||
|1|Amazon purchase||58.94|
|2/3/2021|DBS check||23|
|10/3/202||||
|1|Stripe Payments|24.07||
|16/3/202||||
|1|Audible||7.99|
|18/3/202||||
|1|Facebook payout|683.68||
|22/3/202||||
|1|Paypal *Belive||22.48|
|25/3/202||||
|1|Justgiving||18|
|31/3/202|Paypal *Believe|||
|1|refund|21.66||
|||**TOTAL**|**TOTAL**|
|||**2527.65**|**1963.48**|
||||Account Balance April 2021:|
||||**£4907.47**|