2022-12-31-accounts

Trustees’ Annual Report up to end December 2022 Falmouth and Penryn Welcome Refugees

Charity number: 1181196

(This report should be read alongside the Annual Financial Statements)

Falmouth and Penryn Welcome Refugees

Report of the Trustees for the year ended 31 December 2022

Administrative Information

Charity Name: Charity registration number: Registered office:

Falmouth and Penryn Welcome Refugee Families

1181196

PO Box 25, Jubilee Wharf, Commercial Road, Penryn, Cornwall, TR10 8FG

Trustees

Linda Coles Caroline Cox Elaine Johnson Rufus Maurice Jude Munden Hannah Stephens Bea Shrewsbury (up to 9[th] June 2022) Sue Topf Glyn Winchester Steve Bond (from 9[th] June 2022)

Officers

Chair Jude Munden Vice-chair Caroline Cox Treasurer Bea Shrewsbury (up to 9[th] June 2022) Steve Bond (from 9[th] June 2022) Secretary Jayne Howard

Purpose

The objects of the charity as set out in its constitution are:

• The relief or prevention of poverty and the preservation and protection of health amongst those granted refugee status or who have been granted asylum by the Home Office and who reside or wish to reside in Falmouth and Penryn;

• To advance the education and training of those granted refugee status or who have been granted asylum by the Home Office and their dependents who reside or wish to reside in Falmouth and Penryn and are in need thereof so as to assist them to adapt within a new community.

The purpose of the charity is to sponsor and welcome one or more refugee families into the local area and support them as they rebuild their lives.

Chair's Report

The second Syrian family resettled by the charity arrived in June 2021, and so our primary focus in 2022 was to continue to help this family to settle into the local area. Resettlement activities included:

• Supporting them to access and get the best experience out of school, health, and welfare systems

• Provision of ESOL services to the family by volunteers

• Exploring potential employment opportunities based on individuals’ interests and previous experience.

Additionally, we continued to support the first family we resettled in 2019, whose initial resettlement period was massively disrupted due to Covid restrictions. Our support of this family throughout the year had an increasing emphasis on encouraging independence, with most of the charity’s support targeted towards the children and school experience, for instance helping them to access extracurricular activities, or providing additional targeted learning support.

During the year we increased our outreach activities, offering extracurricular activities to a wider group of refugee families settled in Cornwall. Throughout the school holidays, we facilitated the participation of refugee children from across the county in a variety of activities, including outdoor adventure, water sports, and circus skills workshops. These activities are immensely valuable, not only in enabling the charity to reach more people, but also in bringing the very important elements of fun and learning to displaced families’ resettlement experiences.

We continued to raise funds throughout the year, in order to be in a robust position to support the two families we resettled through the community sponsorship programme, as well as to enable us to offer more opportunities to the wider group of refugees living in Cornwall, and finally, to further the charity’s goal of resettling a third family in the future. With a reduction in Covid measures, we relished in the opportunity to host in-person fundraising events again, which are an invaluable way for the charity to connect with the public and celebrate culture. Among these were magical performances by Syrian musician Maya Youssef; Middle Eastern cooking demonstrations; the Cornish Bank Summer Camp, and many more. Welcome are very grateful to the local organisations and venues who hosted, or raised funds, for us at their events the year. Several individuals and groups also generously undertook sponsored activities for Welcome, with a group of swimmers raising £1,158, and a sponsored walk raising £6000!

The wonderful experience the charity has had resettling our first two families, coupled with fantastic fundraising activities throughout the year, provided us with the

confidence to make the decision in late 2022 to begin applying to resettle a third family under the community sponsorship scheme in 2023.

In September 2022, Welcome hired its first part-time employee. This post was designed to reduce the burden on volunteers running the charity, expand the charity’s capacity for outreach opportunities, apply for grant funding opportunities, and so on. Bryony has been instrumental in helping to create this role, acquiring additional funding to help its future sustainability and clarify the areas of activity so there is a robust framework for future employees to inherit. By the end of 2022, we had approximately 60 volunteers, offering a wide range of skills and expertise, some working directly with the families to support them, some providing ESOL sessions, and others concentrating on fundraising and awareness-raising. These volunteers were supported through training and induction before beginning their roles.

In carrying out its activities, the trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit.

Achievements

Our key achievement during this period was supporting two resettled refugee families to become increasingly independent and confident within the community, whilst continuing to offer them targeted support in order to increase skills and explore areas of interest and enjoyment.

Specific achievements include:

• The ESOL team have continued to work with both families, all of whom have made fantastic progress in their English. The mother from Welcome’s first resettled family continued to see two of her previous ESOL teachers, but as friends, outside of Welcome, and one teacher within Welcome. We helped her to enrol on an online course with the Workers’ Educational Association in September, but the course was discontinued due to low numbers of students. She continues to astound us with her English, demonstrated through passing her driving theory test and volunteering at the Royal Cornwall Museum. Welcome supported the father of this family in his wish to study English with Truro College this year.

• The ESOL team conduct regular reviews with the second resettled family, adjusting our approach to meet students’ needs when necessary. This led to pursuing separate programmes for the parents, with one beginning an intensive 1:1 literacy programme online four times a week, as well as another 1:1 session at home, weekly Adult Education lessons, and twice weekly sessions with both parents. This was reduced in March, with the parents attending sessions together alongside additional light-hearted conversational practise. Alongside this, the father continued with his 3 1:1 ESOL sessions per week and Adult Ed. Both have made considerable progress. Our team of volunteer teachers continues to work quietly in the background, providing lessons throughout the year and ESOL Lead Sue Topf would like to offer her thanks to all of them for their hard work and commitment. With thanks to the

following people, without whom this would all be impossible: Ruth Atkins, Louise Barnes, Sue Cooper, James Craig, Sophie Craven, Caroline Johnson, Jim Lawrence, Sally-Ann Phillips, Caroline Power, Jennie Rawling, Debbie Rogers, Cassie Young.

• The schools team have worked hard to offer targeted support to the children of both families, building their confidence in reading and numeracy. Alongside this, weekly homework club continued, delivered by a core set of volunteers for each family. From Autumn, this was expanded to offer early years activities for the youngest child of the second family. Welcome supported both families to engage with a variety of school clubs throughout the year, including school choir, football, and dance.

• The first family have continued to independently manage their Job Centre appointments and responsibilities, alongside working part-time. Welcome supported the mother to begin a volunteering role at the Royal Cornwall Museum towards the end of the year, building her experience and confidence. She has also made and sold her beautiful baklava on a small scale. The Job Centre appointment requirements for the second family decreased this year, due to the father working part-time. Welcome supported this family in accessing any benefits they were eligible for. Towards the end of the year, with thanks to the ESOL team, the family started to develop the language skills needed to use the online Universal Credit portal independently. Furthermore, the family began exploring the possibility of launching a homemade Syrian cheese business, and Welcome helped to host a very successful market research tasting event in November.

• The health team supported the first family to become increasingly confident in navigating the health system, and they are now able to book appointments independently. The second family have also been supported towards increased independence, with Welcome liaising with health services where necessary. A lack of local NHS dental provision continued to be a significant challenge, with Welcome helping families to access the care they needed through private provision.

Financial review 2022 from the Treasurer

See the Annual Financial Statements for details of income and expenditure during this period.

Bea Shrewsbury did a great job of keeping the charity accounts up to date until June 2022, before Steve Bond took over as Treasurer. Thank you to both for doing such a great job of keeping things clear and organised.

In the year 2022 the charity raised, after expenses, £36,791, through a variety of activities including selling merchandise and Jumble, donations, events, and grants. This amount is over double that raised in 2021, a great achievement! This is thanks to the easing of Covid restrictions enabling the charity to hold events, a wonderfully successful festive period of fairs and other events raising us around £8,000, and the generosity of the public in their donations.

The charity’s costs were slightly higher in 2022 than 2021 (£22,644 vs £20,240). These costs are separated into family & community costs, and charity running costs. This small

increase is due to the growing activities offering we fund for refugee families, supporting unexpected healthcare costs, ESOL expenses, and charity staff costs. Overall, 2022 income exceeded total expenditure by over £14,000.

At the end of 2022 the charity held £40,560. This money has been divided into three funds:

• Money to continue supporting Family 1 in decreasing increments

• Money to continue supporting Family 2 in decreasing increments

• Charity’s funds, including money earmarked for the arrival of Family 3 in 2023, and a robust financial reserves policy to protect essential responsibilities such as Staff Costs and Family Support costs in the event of the charity ceasing to exist.

The Charity continues to fundraise to prepare for the arrival of a third family next year, as well as to enable us to reach out to a wider community of refugees now settled in Cornwall.

Public benefit

Through this work the charity has made a significant difference to the lives of these families with young children, who were displaced by the war in Syria and were living in unstable circumstances that made them vulnerable. We have also supported other refugee families in the area, enabling their children to access a wide range of play and educational opportunities. In addition, the charity has had an impact on the wider community by raising awareness of the plight of refugees, galvanising support, bringing a broad range of people from the local community together and providing volunteer opportunities.

Structure, governance, and management

The charity is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) and was constituted on 13 December 2018. It is governed by a constitution with a memorandum and articles of association.

Trustees are elected from the membership and are appointed on a three-year basis. Each year one third of trustees are required to stand down (normally the longestserving trustees, otherwise drawn by lot). Trustees can stand for re-election. There is a minimum of five and a maximum of twelve trustees.

We were able to continue to provide online training and development for Trustees and new volunteers, including safeguarding training. As the charity develops and new trustees are appointed, they will receive an induction with the Chair and Vice Chair as well as any specialist training or development that might be required. All trustees have a copy of ‘The Essential Trustee’ and the policies and procedures of the charity.

The trustees, whilst retaining full legal responsibility for the operation of the charity, can also co-opt other members to join the board to bring specialist knowledge or skills. During the period covered by this report the trustees co-opted 10 people to support

their decision making with expertise in ESOL provision, Syrian culture and language, housing, communications, health services and governance.

Alongside the volunteer Trustees and Board Members, the running of the charity this year was supported by a newly appointed part-time Development Officer. This individual supported administrative tasks, supporting volunteers, and outreach work.

The charity participates in local and national refugee networks, taking advantage of events, resources and training provided as required.

Volunteers

Volunteers are central to the work of the charity. The Development Officer is the charity’s only paid employee (prior to September 2022 there were none), and besides this post, all of Welcome’s befriending, ESOL teaching and other family support is provided by volunteers.

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report (including directors’ report) above.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees:

Name and position in organisation: Jude Munden , Chair

Date: 6th June 2023

Falmouth and Penryn Welcome Refugee Families Profit and Loss account 2022 For the year ended 31 December 2022

	2022	2021	+/- %
Income
# Donations and legacies	14,906	5,997	149%
# Charitable fundraising activities	14,141	9,800	44%
# Jumble income	1,418	0
# GoCardless income	2,190	2,042	7%
# Grant Income	350	0
# Gift Aid	185	0
20Restricted Funds	4,000	0
# Merchandising income	2,957	1,986	49%
Total Income	40,146	19,825	103%
Fundraising costs
# Event costs	2,903	2,301	26%
# shopify fees	48	79	-39%
# Cost of Goods Sold	404	2,150	-81%
# Direct Expenses	0	98	-100%
# Total Fundraising costs	3,355	4,628	-28%
Family & Community costs
# Rent support	2,760	720	283%
# Business/Career Support	(76)	0
# Healthcare/Dental	704	200	251%
# IT Hardware	207	189	9%
# Housing costs	0	1,215	-100%
# Transport	1,134	81	1291%
# School/nursery costs	438	8	5374%
# General support	2,403	1,898	27%
# Household bills	1,007	660	53%
# Family Arrival Expenses	0	4,411	-100%
# Esol Expenses	2,785	1,212	130%
# Grants to Refugees	0	1,523	-100%
# Activities	4,740	3,539	34%
# Total Family & Community costs	16,101	15,656	3%
Charity running costs
# Advertising & Marketing	400	0
# Bank Fees	197	66	200%
# Volunteer Costs	155	450	-65%
# General Expenses	41	65	-37%
# Insurance	151	151	0%
# Legal Expenses	0	53	-100%
# IT Costs	530	263	101%
# Staff Training	0	1,341	-100%
# Charitable and Political Donations	112	2,027	-94%
# Telephone & Internet	415	0
# Travel - National	0	168	-100%
# Office - Rent	325	0
Staff Costs	4,216	0
# Total Admin costs	6,543	4,584	43%
Proft / loss	14,147	(5,044)

I have reviewed this Profit and Loss and I am satisfied it represents a try and fair reflection of the transactions in the year. Clare Rule

Balance Sheet

Falmouth and Penryn Welcome Refugee Families As at 31 December 2022

Balance Sheet Falmouth and Penryn Welcome Refugee Families As at 31 December 2022	Balance Sheet Falmouth and Penryn Welcome Refugee Families As at 31 December 2022
31 DEC 2022
Current Assets
	Cash at bank and in hand
	Family 1 Account 758.47
	Family 2 Account 2,142.51
	Charity's funds 37,658.62
	Total Cash at bank and in hand 40,559.60 Debtors
	Loans to Refugees/Community 1,339.27
	Total Debtors 1,339.27
Total Current Assets 41,898.87 Creditors: amounts falling due withinone year
Accounts Payable 5.00
PAYE/NICs due to HMRC 410.66
Pensions Payable 37.99
Total Creditors: amounts falling due within one year 453.65
Net Current Assets (Liabilities) 41,445.22
Total Assets less Current Liabilities 41,445.22
Net Assets 41,445.22 Capital and Reserves
Current Year Earnings 14,147.09
Retained Earnings 27,298.13
Total Capital and Reserves 41,445.22

Falmouth and Penryn Welcome Refugee Families

Balance Sheet