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2021-07-31-accounts

Safaplace Charity number: 1179202

Trustees’ Report for the year ended May 2021

Structure, Governance and Management

Safaplace is a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) registered on 11th FEbruary 2017 and governed by its constitution. The CIO was established under a constitution, which defines the objects and power of the charitable organisation and is governed by such.

Background

Safaplace was created in 2017 after the deaths by suicide of 16 year olds, Rachel Finke and Harry Lisle within a three month period; it grew from fundraising initiatives by school, friends and family and exists in their memory.

Safaplace became officially established as a registered charity no. 1179202 in July 2018.

As of January 2021 the Trustees are: Jane Acton (Secretary), Salma Asokomhe, Michael Collins (Chair), Annie Gammon, Sarah Finke and Rose White (Treasurer).

Our associate trustees are: Richard Allen, Antonia Canning, Kathy Manners, Tom Moore, and Andrea Watts.

Charitable aims and objectives

The charity’s aims are :

Safaplace’s charitable objects:

The preservation and protection of mental health and wellbeing among pupils of Stoke Newington school, people living in the London borough of Hackney and the surrounding area and throughout England and Wales by the provision of support, education, practical advice and by such other means as the trustees may determine.

Trustees’ report

  1. The pandemic and repeated lockdowns have been hugely traumatic for children, including months away from school, separation from friends and relatives, anxiety about the virus and financial pressures at home taking a serious toll on their and their families mental health. Young people have reported increased feelings of loneliness and worries about school and the future. More than ever, it is vital that we find ways to support our young people in order to help them build hope and resilience for the future.

  2. As a charity over the past year, Safaplace has been examining its role within the community and how we can best be of service to it. We want to be true to our lived experience and for this reason we will be focusing much of our support going forwards on parents. We recognise that resources are primarily directed towards young people who need support with their mental health, especially in a time when resources are so stretched, and services are underfunded and waiting lists continue to rise. But what of the parents of those young people, who often find themselves alone and unable to share or sometimes manage their own fears and anxieties? This is where we feel we can make a difference.

  3. Once again COVID19 has meant our plans for this year have not always happened the way they were expected to but has provided us with the chance to work flexibly with others to ensure events have taken place. For 2020 we took the annual conference online for a day of events with the theme of ‘Mind Body Soul: Finding your Safe Place’. We were honoured to have David Weaver, President of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) as our keynote speaker. The virtual event was attended by 150 parents, carers, teachers and healthcare professionals from the local community and from across the UK.

  4. The free conference, hosted on the online platform, Hopin, explored different ways of maintaining positive wellbeing and mental health, through creativity, staying active, and discussion. Making a return visit to the confer ence was the writer/performer Adisa the Verbaliser who explored how poetry could support positive wellbeing. There were also sessions led by representatives from Hackney CAMHS, Young Hackney, the Amy Winehouse Foundation and Targeted Health. Clinical Psychologists Dr Helen Sharples and Dr Rachel Lee Jones returned with their hugely popular workshop on how to talk to teenagers and there was a free yoga session with local yoga teacher Georgia Myers. Attendees could also book individual counselling sessions with the long established Hackney-based charity “A Space to Talk” (known as”A Space”).

  5. Subsequently, and in recognition of the urgent need to support young people and their carers in the face of the return to school after lockdown, Safaplace funded a number of parent/carer online workshop sessions run by “A Space;” six sessions ran across local secondary schools.

  6. In May, we were delighted to be able to work with the Hackney Mosaic Project. The Hackney Mosaic Project aims to help people with addiction and mental health problems. They engage volunteers, recruited both from the Hackney recovery Services and the local community, in making large mosaics in Hackney Parks and other locations. Founder Tessa Hunkin, joined Year 7 and 8 students from Stoke Newington School to design and start work on a piece of artwork for the reflective garden. The piece was then finished by Hackney Mosaic Works in their studios.

  7. Safaplace is on the steering committee of The Wellbeing and Mental Health in Schools (WAMHS), a project led by the CAMHS Alliance with the support of the Children and Young People's workstream at Hackney Council. This project aims to improve mental health and wellbeing support for children and young people in schools, colleges, specialist and alternative provision education settings. Over the period, three members of the Safaplace team have been working in a close advisory capacity with WAMHS.

  8. Whilst activities in May 2020-May 2021 were necessarily limited by the pandemic, over the period, the team undertook considerable planning efforts aimed to found two future online support groups for parents and carers, and to design a bigger project to support early help for potential service users and their families via the navigation of mental health services and also charity provision.

  9. Funding application proformas for small grants by Safaplace have been made available on our website (Safaplace.org) and this information has been made, available via the Hackney Education Office, to all Hackney schools. We are looking forward to supporting more projects next year.

  10. Finally, we are grateful for the many hours volunteers, including member volunteers, have spent supporting and contributing to the charity’s events and fundraising. Without this valuable contribution of time, energy and expertise we would not have been able to achieve so much.

FINANCIAL REVIEW

  1. The results of the year's operation are set out in the attached financial statements. The net movement in funds for the year amounted to £1889 and the retained reserves as at 31st May 2021 is £39074 compared with £37211 last year.

RESERVE POLICY

  1. The Charity Commission requires charities to determine and explain their policy for free reserves.The trustees have reviewed the organisation's free reserves policy and have turned its entire unrestricted fund into an emergency reserve to enable Safaplace to meet its obligations in the event of a shortfall in income or sudden upturn in expenditure.

RISK MANAGEMENT

  1. The trustees have examined the major risks which Safaplace faces and believe that maintaining their free reserves at a reasonable level, combined with their annual review of the controls over key financial systems will provide sufficient resources in the event of adverse conditions. The trustees have also examined other operational and business risks which they face and confirm that they have established systems to mitigate the significant risks.

TANGIBLE FIXED ASSETS

  1. The organisation has no fixed assets

FUNDS AVAILABLE

  1. The present level of funding is adequate to support the continuation of the charity operations for the medium term, and the trustees consider the financial position of the charity to be satisfactory.and have turned its entire unrestricted fund into an emergency reserve to enable Safaplace to meet its obligations in the event of a shortfall in income or sudden upturn in expenditure.

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