Family and Youth Support Association
Formerly Waltham Forest Somali Women Association
ANNUAL ACCOUNTS & REPORT
2021-22

Directors Foreword
The year April 2021 to March 2022 was a successful year for the organisation. We supported our
local people tI￿ough our various services and activities.
The effect of the Pandemic highlighted many situations of need in our community, there were issues
of confidence in authority, fear and anxiety of getting the right help, doing things alone without
direction and advice
But finally coming out in public and rcjoining the activities of the organisation was a very satisfying
event for all of us
These reports set out in detsil how we continue to help build strono academic foundation for our
children and young people through our supplementary school classes. How we supported adults with
their difficulties in getting housing, financial welfare support including diffjculties with the
introduction of Universal Credit which has now rolled out in the borough.and through our support
surgeries.
With the funding from Yapp charitable trust We helped adults gain vital skills and qualifications
through our courses and classes. as we sensed increased opportunities for employment for our young
people.
Most of these activities were organised between September 2021 and March 2022 while observing
social distancing which resulted in high costs due to restricted class sizes and the nos of young people
who were interested
Our volunteers played very important roles in supplementing the paid tutors in all activities
We hope next year activities will be even more effective and beneficial to all who will take
part
Services - Advice surgeries
One of critical services include the advice surgeries to local residents. This involves support to help
with issues like homelessness & housing, immigration, welfare.
Although support is available during any time the office is open, there is a dedicated session on
Wednesday's. This short session has seen support given to over 18 individuals with just under 100
cases. Done through telephone contacts and zoom meetings The most common cases in the past year
include:
Welfare: This includes various topics like disability issues, tax credits and housing benefit.
We are now starting to see an increase in Universal Credit queries. This has recently been
rolled out to Walthamstow
and some residents have come to us to understand it and for help with issues revolving
around the use of the online system and incorrect process of inforniation.
Housing: This has mainly been repairs but also includes rent. It still continues to
surprise us at how slowly the council, housing associations and private landlords
deal with repair issues. We have made progress on issues when staff continue to help tenants
pursue queries, We do not have the
resources to do this on all cases. But thankfully the council has new contractors who are
providing repair services with good monitoring of progress.
Immigration: Due to a lot of uncertainty, we have had a lot of queries related to immigration.
People are generally keen on getting a settlcd status and/or British citizenship.
We also M'ould like to thank the contributions from other organisations like Citizens Advice Bureau
and the local MP/councillors for their support.

Services - Supplementary Classes
The supplementary Classes ¢onlinued to run as in the past >'ears and have supported children and
young people build their skills and lay a foundation to be 5ucccssful in a¢ad¢mic work. Classes have
been run to primary and secondary sn￿ents in the wre subjects. Maths, English and Science.
The success of the classes is in part due to excellent t¢a¢hers we have
supporting the children. They are qualified 8nd eX￿rienced professionals
who leach in schoolOcol_1eges luniversities. This means that we provide a better
level of s¢rvi¢e compared to other privately run tuition s¢rvices.
Our support to children and young people extends from just the classroom. We suptKyrt parents with
their ¢hildren by visiting with them to school meetings to understand student needs as well as help
with any issues. We continue to maintain strong networks with schools.
School break and holiday activities
Due to the reduction in funding we have not been able to these exciting and beneficial sessions for
ComEnunity Youth Program as extensively as prcvious. W¢ managed to run One day at the
Ih'illiam Morris Community Centre and this was not very well attended duc to wi¢ertainty as to
whether it will be allowed to go on So publicity was not intensive
But it was a pleasant m¢eting and the young people enjoy
Cultural Classes
Children and Young people have also attended our cultural ¢lasses. This helps students build an
Lind¢rst2nding of their culture and history. We have seen greater community cohesion from the
Children and young people that have ben¢fit¢d from this serv&ce over the y&ws.
Services- Courses for Adults
In the I￿1 year we have run a v￿lets. of cours¢s for adults to support in the development of
our users to help th¢m gatn tbe skills to increase their chances of employment or starting their
own business.
Health and Social Care-
This has run at level 3 and has seen 18 students enToI throughout the year. We have supported
students find work related to the course in schools and local organisations.
Childcare-
This has at level 3 and has seen io students enrol throughout the year. There were
stud-nts who enrolled after successfully completing Level 2 previously. We have also
supported S￿deThts r￿d work related to the course in schools and local organisations.

ESOL alld sewing-
This innovative combination of learning was run during the past year with support from the
William Morris Big Local Fund. Feedback from the course was positive with people saying
they gained some useful skills and felt more confident in their English. We hope we will be
able to run a similar session as soon as finances permit.
Our Finances
We have a long way to go to get back to our past year,s achievements Our volunteer Co-
ordinator is under pressure to secure funding for her post without which she, of necesssity,
cannot commit herself to full involvement as she has to find means of supporting herself.
The work of the volunteers have been indispensable and to great extent have prevented the
organisation from closing. But there is a new found desire to work harded
The concentration now is towards securing funding and the committee will be directing their
efforts to that end
Our Plans for the future
Our main effort will be directed towards fulfilling our commitment with Yapp Foundatioii
and delivering on the projects We will continue to run the cultural classes, the supplementary
schools and the English language classes We will try to run the Esol & the Sewing classes for
the parents wishing to improve their English and learn a new skill
To date we are not sure whether Waltham Forest & Tower Hamlet councils will be restarting
funding after the pandemic and we will contacting other funders
The William Morris Centre will be ceIebrating the Queen's 70 years on the throne in 6 June
this year with a street party andwe will betaking part
Signed on behalf of the Trustees
Dr Faduma Hussein (Chairperson)
Date 25 May 2022