Annual Report for Small Non-Company Charity – Year to December 2024 Charity Name : The Romani Foundation Registration Number : 1181483 Address : Sunnybank Farm, Whitehall Road East, Birkenshaw, West Yorkshire, BD11 2LL
Trustees : Mrs Julie Romani Mrs Jenna Romani Miss Chloe Arnold Mrs Elizabeth Harwood
Overview of the Year :-
CHARITY COMMISSION - ANNUAL REPORT 2024
The Romani Foundation (Help For Dependency) is dedicated to helping those experiencing dependency or addiction, their family and friends - helping to beat dependency and addiction by improving their mental/emotional health and wellbeing. By providing information and help to better understand substance use, addictive disorders, dependency and addiction, we hope that you will be able to make better lifestyle choices and get the right help.
The Romani Foundation operates from the founders/CEO’s home/office and comprises a CEO, PA and a Board of four trustees. Family members and close friends volunteer their time to help and support the day to day operation of The Romani Foundation.
The Founder/CEO has supported the Charity financially via charitable contributions from her business enterprises and will continue to do so.
During 2024, The Romani Foundation continued to facilitate the grant funding received from the Give Bradford in 2023. In July 2024, the charity was awarded a micro grant from The Bradford Creative Communities Fund. Both projects have also received contributions from our CEO :
The Give Bradford Fund - Art Therapy Project
This grant was received in June 2023 to identify the need in Bradford for art to be introduced as part of the recovery mechanism for those recovering from substance use disorders. addictive behaviours and associated mental health issues.
As part of the process The Romani Foundation worked closely with the other local community organisations to establish access to people in recovery who may want to take part in this trail project
In February 2024, we commenced work with a group of men in recovery from Alpha House. Over a six week period, a group of men in recovery from dependency/addiction took part in an art therapy course. The course was facilitated by a trained art psychotherapist and members of our team. Each week different techniques and mediums were introduced. The participants were encouraged to address various stages of recovery and their feelings through creativity.
Any ‘triggers’ experienced by individual participants during the sessions were addressed on a one to one basis by the psychotherapist and at the end of each session everyone gave feedback.
The Bradford Creative Communities Fund - Art Therapy
Via the Bradford Year of Culture 2025, The Romani Foundation was awarded another micro grant to undertake further art therapy sessions with women in recovery from Evolve Recovery Homes. This commenced in October 2024 and covered more diverse use of art mediums from clay to flowers; with painting and drawing and the use of textiles.
Again an art psychotherapist therapist was engaged to work alongside The Romani Foundation.This enabled the effective management of any ‘triggers’ and any mental health issues that arose during the sessions.
Due to funding still being available, The Romani Foundation were authorised to organise some yoga evening sessions at The Loft in Bradford. These sessions were facilitated by a Yoga Master and our staff. The sessions were advertised throughout Bradford and attracted a diverse representation from the local community, including some of the women we had worked with previously.
Both of the grant funded projects were successful and garnered positive feedback from participants.
From the Autumn of 2023 to Spring 2024 The Romani Foundation continued to work with a PSHE (personal, social,health,economic) Education Consultant to further develop the presentation for children and young people (11- 16yrs) on - Positive Choices - Understanding The Risks of Cannabis and Vapes; along with Help and Support information and Evaluation sheets.
As part of this process the charity engaged with people in recovery to work alongside us to pilot this education in schools; it was well received by students and teachers.
The Local Services database on The Help for Dependency website has further developed with more organisation/services being added. The information is accessed on a regional
basis and covers the whole of the UK. Information is not only accessed via county/area but is further categorised into the categories of Alcohol, Alternative Therapies, Behavioral Addiction , Counselling, Drugs, Friends and Family, Gambling, Homeless/Housing, Mental Health, Online Support, Other, Recovery,Recovery Groups, Residential Rehab and Suicide Prevention.
To accompany this the CEO also funded the addition of an Apps page that directs users to apps that may be useful to support their recovery and continued well being.
Once again our insurance company has supported the charity by donating our annual insurance premiums. Another donation was also received from a local building company.
The Help for Dependency website and social media platforms continue to be a great success and have enabled connections with a wide demographic as well forging new relationships with organisations in the dependency/addiction sector.
Social media continues to be an effective way of sharing information about all different aspects of dependency/addiction, physical and emotional wellbeing, diet and exercise etc. As well as linking with a UK audience; we still have a growing global following and made connections with other organisations in our field.
The interactive sharing of information of the latest news/research is essential to helping and supporting people make better lifestyle choices around dependency/addiction and associated issues.
The website and social media platforms have enabled us to signpost/direct an increasing number of people to help and support for their substance use disorders, other addictive behaviours and other issues associated with dependency/addiction. We have also been made aware of some incredible recovery stories that are a direct result of our intervention.
Through the ‘power of connections’ The Romani Foundation has continued to build partnerships and relationships with other organisational bodies (both charitable and public). This enables us to network and work more effectively with the sector and enables work/projects to be more targeted.
During the next year (2025) The Romani Foundation will:
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Apply to the Community Lottery fund to facilitate the delivery of education on cannabis/vapes to children and young people will be a priority. This will also involve engaging with schools in the Bradford area initially and the appointment of additional staff should the funding be successful.
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Continue to grow and develop the database of ‘ Local Services’ on The Help for
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Dependency website, monitor its usage on a monthly basis and ensure information is relevant and up to date. This will be an ever growing service to provide a free ‘One Stop Shop’ of signposted services/organisations for those struggling with addiction, dependency and their associated issues; as well as support for friends and family.
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Extend and develop the Apps page to enable users to access self help and information on continued wellbeing
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Review and extend the website content to address emerging topics such as ketamine, porn dependency/addiction and other subject matter as necessitated by the ever changing demographic of substance misuse and addictive behaviours.
The ease of use and functionality of the website will also be audited and amended where necessary, with the support of our web providers.
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Continue to expand links with other charities, businesses and public services to embed our work within a diverse range of communities, through the ‘Power of Connections’ the organisation will
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Prioritise applying for external funding to support the running costs of the Foundation and to extend project work in communities.
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Continued importance will be given to the knowledge/training of those involved in the day to day operation of The Romani Foundation; as well as networking with our peers - both national and locally
Date: 04/06/2025 Time: 12:34:15
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The Romani Foundation
Profit and Loss
From: Month 1, January 2024 To: Month 12, December 2024
| Default Layout of Accounts [PARTIAL] Chart of Accounts: Period Sales Donations 6,380.03 Grants 3,625.00 Fund Generation - Fund Raising 863.92 Other Income 242.88 11,111.83 Purchases Charitable Expenditure 1,453.90 Cost of Charitable Activities 3,361.56 4,815.46 Direct Expenses 0.00 Gross Profit/(Loss): 6,296.37 Overheads Support Costs - Travelling Expenses 1,169.49 Support Costs - Printing and Stationery 58.00 Support Costs - Computer & Website charges 1,954.68 Support Costs - General Expenses 723.51 Management & Admin - Gross Wages 2,570.50 Management & Admin - Professional Fees 246.00 6,722.18 Net Profit/(Loss): (425.81) |
Year to Date 6,380.03 3,625.00 863.92 242.88 1,453.90 3,361.56 1,169.49 58.00 1,954.68 723.51 2,570.50 246.00 |
11,111.83 4,815.46 0.00 |
|---|---|---|
| 6,296.37 6,722.18 |
||
| (425.81) |