Trustee’s Annual Report For Period ending 15th April 2021
Charity Number: 1181538
Objectives and Activities
ELI Project is a charity that supports families of children who have additional needs in the UK and Africa, and who are socially excluded from society, or parts of society, as a result of these needs.
In the United Kingdom, ELI Project organises social events to encourage participation in the community and help reduce the social isolation faced by such families. Public benefit activities include ‘Family Nights’, in the Swansea and Neath area. These are events to which all family members are invited to connect and share food and fun activities in a calm and inclusive atmosphere.
The charity also works with LifePoint Church, Swansea to run a weekly parent/carer toddler group called KidStop for preschool children who have received a diagnosis or have an emerging diagnosis of an additional need. The public benefit of KidStop is in enabling parents and carers to connect and find acceptance and encouragement during the often painful and stressful experience of receiving their child’s diagnosis. The atmosphere is managed to avoid overwhelming the children and specialist toys hired from a local toy lending library so they can play, communicate and socialise to the best of their ability, as their peers do in mainstream toddler groups.
In addition to organising social events, the charity also runs a ‘buddy system’ in partnership with LifePoint Church, Swansea. This is a system of 1-1 support for children who have additional needs, providing them and their parents an opportunity to engage in Sunday church meetings.
To relieve the needs of children with additional needs, and their families, in Kenya the charity provides education and medical equipment. In response to discovering financial needs while supporting these families, the charity also provides micro-business opportunities to increase their livelihoods. To be considered for support, the charity’s Kenyan director has a clear set of criteria to pre-approve a beneficiary.
The Charity Commission's general guidance on public benefit has been referred to when reviewing aims and objectives and in planning future activities to ensure they conform with that guidance.
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The charity has a new website which, along with the open Facebook Group, ELI Project Wales, and new Facebook Page, KidStop - A Toddler Group for Preschoolers with Additional Needs, continues to profile the charity’s work in the community and support it’s communication.
Figure 1: Images from ELI Project’s new website www.eliproject.co.uk
Please visit www.eliproject.co.uk , www.facebook.com/groups/ 108143382547702/ or www.facebook.com/KidStop-A-Toddler-Group-for-Preschoolers-with-Additional-Needs -102983168837653/ for more information about what we do!
Achievements and Performance
In accordance with Covid restrictions operating at the time, ELI Project was unable to run their typical face to face Family Nights during April 2020/21. To continue its activities to meet the public good, supporting families of children and young people with additional needs, the charity took advantage of Covid specific grants to help towards creating themed, activity and food hampers. The funds granted were used for wellbeing activity hampers to encourage whole family engagement, enabling focus on relationship building and confidence building as well as therapeutic hampers for mental health.
By June 2020, over 70 such hampers were distributed, predominantly around the Neath area. At Christmas 2020, 30 food and gift hampers were distributed to families in the Neath and Swansea areas and again at Easter 2021 using a “Movie Night” theme. Our Facebook Group, ELI Project Wales, helpfully captured the response from families, some of which are displayed overleaf.
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Figure 2: A sample of responses from families receiving activity, food or themed hampers, April 2020 to 2021
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During the main lockdown season of mid 2020, and inspired by some of the beauty products included in the hampers being sent, ELI Project set up a mum’s group called ‘Mums in Masks’. This was a weekly, online group where local mums of children and young people with additional needs were welcomed for conversation, pampering, games and support, thereby maintaining the public good offering of support through relationships with these families.
Eleven ‘in person’ KidStop sessions were achieved between September and December 2020, in partnership with LifePoint church, Swansea. Each one was underpinned by thorough, ongoing Covid risk assessments, based on Welsh Government guidance and others at the time.
KidStop was particularly important for the parents of babies born with additional needs just prior to or during lockdown in March 2020. Many of these families reportedly suffered the trauma of labour and subsequent hospitalisations without the support and visits of loved ones. They also experienced a significant reduction in face to face services, which they would otherwise have had access to in normal circumstances. This was across the board in statutory and third party/voluntary services.
Image 1: KidStop, December 2020. Shared with kind permission.
In December 2020, 12 family units were invited to an outdoor, Christmas themed horsemanship activity, run in association with Coeden Bywydd Horse Project. This is a Neath based project who offer well-being and mentoring horsemanship sessions to young people.
Families who came were incredibly blessed after a tough year of isolation, and whilst they were unable to meet with other families, having been allocated time slots for their family unit only, they enjoyed being made to feel special, connecting with the horses and seeing the volunteers after many months.
Image 2: Horsemanship session,December 2020. Shared with kind permission.
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With church meetings moving online for much of 2020/21, the ‘buddy system’, run in partnership with LifePoint Church, Swansea, became redundant. The charity aims to re-establish this as soon as Covid restrictions allow.
After many years of operating out of the home of it’s founders Todd and Stephanie Presley, and in view of the significant need for social connection after 2 years of limited social contact, ELI Project has decided to put into action it’s long held desire to own a building in or around the Neath/Swansea area. The purpose of the building is to be able to consolidate and increase the services the charity offers, increase the number of families it supports directly and provide a base to support other churches along the M4 corridor to take up the vision of the charity. Despite the significant impact of Covid, ELI Project believes these are exciting times for the charity!
Public benefit activities undertaken in the 2020/21 period in Kenya was limited to support of the charity Love Your Neighbour through the online assessment of a child with additional needs for a self propelled wheelchair. Having identified his needs, ELI Project were able to refurbish, set up and deliver a second hand wheelchair to this charity, who are based in Pembrokeshire. They then delivered it to the child via a shipment destined for Kenya.
With a view to further developing working relationships, ELI Project UK, ELI Project Kenya and Love Your Neighbour met together via Zoom to discuss ways of working together in Kenya in the months and years ahead.
Image 3: Delivery of wheelchair destined for Kenya, April 2021.
Despite the limited financial input of ELI Project UK to the work of ELI Project Kenya during this period, Marion Wathingira has been able to bless and support an increasing number of families who have children with additional needs through other funding sources. Her work has included helping families set up micro businesses, funding school fees and providing grants for essential home improvements. Her work is outstanding and we look forward to working more closely with her in the coming years.
Financial Review
The charity relies upon voluntary donations from the generosity of both families that access our activities and friends. It has sufficient funds to meet all its financial requirements and to fund all current projects. The charity monitors income and expenditure every month and considers this during trustee meetings.
With regards the aforementioned purchase of a building, the goal of the charity is to raise the majority of funds through American based supporters of Todd and Stephanie Presley. It is anticipated that a small mortgage would be required, but the charity seeks to pay this off within a few years through the hire of the building amongst other things.
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A small amount of cash (£91) was held in reserve as typical activities planned are predominantly self-funding. Families are motivated to bring donations of food to social events and use of the venues was provided free of charge by LifePoint Church and Coeden Bywydd Horse Project.
The total income of £2,012 was spent on direct charitable expenditure totalling £2,184, with the shortfall being covered by donations made in the previous financial period. Administration costs were £nil.
Unrestricted funds totalled £1,012, with restricted funds totalling £1,000. Restricted funds received were in the form of Covid specific grants, with £500 being donated by Tescos Supermarket and £500 by Neath Port Talbot Voluntary Services Emergency Fund Scheme, administered by TSSW on behalf of the Welsh Government.
All £1,000 of restricted funds were spent on activity hampers by June 2020, with £77 of unrestricted funds being transferred to cover additional spending on this. £500 of unrestricted funds was spent on Christmas Hampers and £567 on Easter hampers. The Horsemanship Event in December 2020 was cost neutral. £40 of unrestricted funds was spent on replacement parts for the wheelchair donated to the charity, Love Your Neighbour.
ELI Project does not have any outstanding potential liabilities nor any outstanding debts.
The charity has been gifted a range of assets for use at our regular social events including music equipment, craft supplies and games. It is anticipated that these will need reviewing and updating in the coming months and years.
Structure, Governance and Management
The charity is controlled by its governing document, Constitution of a Charitable Incorporated Organisation whose only voting members are it’s charity trustees and constitutes a charitable incorporated organisation.
Recruitment and appointment of new trustees are appointed by the resolution of a quorum of existing trustees. There is no external body that has the entitlement to appoint a trustee. All new trustees are given an induction and provided with both the ELI Project governing document and the Charity Commission Guidance on Public Benefit. Trustees are appointed for the particular skills that are needed for the organisation and training needs are regularly assessed by the trustees and support is given when appropriate.
In the UK, the charity operates predominantly but not exclusively in South Wales, holding social events in Swansea and Neath.
In Kenya, the charity operates in Kiambu County, just north of its capital Nairobi. In the pursuit of its objectives, ELI Project’s Kenyan Director has worked to establish ELI Project Kenya as a Non-Governmental Organisation there. After an apparently unusually speedy process, ELI Project Kenya was registered as an NGO in Kenya on 30th April 2020! As such, all activities relating to funds received directly by ELI Project Kenya are reported separately as part of governance requirements in that country.
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Reference and Administrative details
| Charity name | ELI Project |
|---|---|
| Other name the charity uses | N.A. |
| Registered charity number | 1181538 |
| Charity’s principal address | 27A School Road, Crynant, Neath, SA10 8NS |
Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity:
| Trustee name | Office (if any) | Dates acted if not for whole year |
Name of person (or body) entitled to appoint trustee (if any) |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Mrs Rhiannon Carpenter | N.A. | N.A. | N.A. |
| 2. | Mr Harold Presley | N.A. | N.A. | N.A. |
| 3. | Mr Jonathan Kirk | N.A. | N.A. | N.A. |
| 4. | Todd Presley | Founder and CEO |
N.A. | N.A. |
Corporate trustees – names of the directors at the date the report was approved:
Director names
Todd Presley, Founder and CEO
Stephanie Presley, Founder and COO
Marion Wathingira, Kenya Director
Declarations
As trustees, we declare that we approve the trustees’ report above. Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees:
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Signature(s)
Full name(s)
| Full name(s) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Todd Presley | Harold G. Presley | Jonathan Kirk | Rhiannon Carpenter |
| Position(eg Secretary, Chair, etc) | |||
| Founder and CEO | Member | Member | Secretary |
| Date 25th January 2022 |
|||
| 25th January 2022 |
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