THE FRIENDS OF KELLY AVENUE PARK (Charity No. 1181726)
TRUSTEE REPORT 2021 -2022
The Friends of Kelly Avenue Park is a community organization based in Peckham, South London. Our broad aim is to ensure that Kelly Avenue Park and the surrounding area provides a safe, clean, and welcoming environment for the local community.
Our roots lie in the Peckham branch of Citizens UK and the successful campaigning of children in two local primary schools. This campaign earned us our first funding award back in January 2016. It enabled us to organise and host a community fun day to raise awareness of the many negative issues facing the park, the community building within it, and the immediate surrounding area.
Since then, we have gone from strength to strength, winning further funding awards that have allowed us to make the community fun day an annual event, to extend a path right through the park for better access and to increase footfall, and to set up art workshops for local children. We also host monthly "working parties" where we gather to clean up the park and work on the garden to enhance the environment while meeting with other local, like-minded people.
The Friends of Kelly Avenue Park was registered as a charity (No. 1181726) in January 2019, under our constitution, originally adopted on 03.12.16, which sets out its mission and regulations.
STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE, AND MANAGEMENT
New Trustees are recruited and appointed from within the membership, principally those engaged in volunteer activities. As a part of their induction, they receive a copy of the Constitution and Rules. The Friends is run voluntarily and has no paid member of staff.
Names of the Trustees, all of whom served throughout the year 2021 - 2022 set out below:
Tracy Brook
Sagal Guleed
Joanna Ruth Brinton
Victor Bayfield
The principal address of The Friends of Kelly Avenue Park is:
c/o The Copleston Centre, Copleston Road, SE15 4AN
OBJECTIVE AND ACTIVITIES
The objectives of The Friends of Kelly Avenue Park, in summary, are to:
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Bring local residents together to maintain Kelly Avenue Park and the surrounding area as a clean, safe, and welcoming place for local residents and their families.
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Empower ourselves and other local people to make positive change to our local community, working with the local Council to create the safe, attractive and welcoming environment that local people want, to work and play in.
To achieve these objectives, The Friends of Kelly Avenue Park host monthly "working parties" where the Friends’ volunteers undertake practical work such as litter-picking and gardening while socializing with their neighbours. We also host our annual Community Fun Day. We have also provided an outdoor learning environment for local schoolchildren and held creative workshops for families with young children during the summer holiday.
ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE DURING THE YEAR
Chair’s Report for Charity Commission 2021 – 22
It is with great pride that, as I start to write this report, I can say that we are now the Friends of (the officially-named) Kelly Avenue Park! We finally managed to persuade the Council to listen to local people, to hold the required public consultation and, at last, to acknowledge that re-naming the park, to what everybody already knows it as, made complete sense. Our persistence has paid off – we are having to learn to be more patient, as plans and proposals sometimes take a long time to come to fruition.
And, talking of plans coming to fruition, the works commissioned through last year’s Cleaner, Greener, Safer award have resulted in the resurfacing of some of the picnic area, four lovely new picnic tables, new table-tennis tables and a beautiful new sail, providing both shade and colour, once again designed by artist, Jo Brinton, as well as a new noticeboard. Inspired by all this, our volunteers completed the painting of the fourteen blue wooden benches around the park, in a variety of colours, to further enhance the attractive and welcoming feel of the space.
In the summer we were fortunate to be awarded our largest external grant to date, from GrowWild! @kew for our Grow Greener Together project. We were one of only seven projects chosen, out of fifty-eight across England and Wales, and the only one in London. This funding allowed us to initiate the planting of a ‘Wildflower Slope’ alongside the big slide; to plant a fruit tree hedge to mark the boundary of our growing area; to install a willow teepee as a ‘home’ for summer story-telling and puppet-making workshops; to install a tree-seat and to also to host further growing and planting workshops for school and after-school groups, in partnership with South London Urban Growers. This has been such a boost for us as, being part of the GrowWild! Community network, we have connected with groups all over the country, and had access to some excellent online training sessions. We have learnt a great deal!
Ever grateful for the support of our local councillors, who once again awarded us a grant through the Neighbourhood Fund, we were able to welcome the community back into the park once again, for our annual summer Fun Day, providing a fabulous free lunch for all, music and entertainment, henna and face-painting, story-telling, a capoeira taster-session and, this year, a dance opportunity led by local organization, the Bizzy Beats. Councillor Cleo Soanes made a lovely speech praising our efforts, saying “If this isn’t community, I don’t know what is!”
We are proud to be a positive instrument for change in a precious local green space, when so many such sites are being bought up for development. Our vision, having turned around the reputation of the park, is to continue to respond to the needs and suggestions of local people, to create an attractive and welcoming environment where everyone is welcome to relax and play, to exercise, to learn and to connect with other people, engaging in positive activity to enhance their well-being. We still have so much more we want to do, and with your continued support, we will make it happen!
Tracy Brook
Chair of Trustees
Financial Statment for the year ending 1 Dec. 2022
| SUMMERY | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OPENING BALANCE | £ | 1,595.86 |
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| TOTAL INCOME | £ | 4,435.44 |
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| TOTAL EXPENSES | £ | 4,174.71 |
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| CLOSING BALANCE | £ | 1,856.59 |
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| LIQUID ASSET | ||||
| Bank | £ | 1,690.78 |
||
| Petty cash | £ | 165.81 |
||
| TOTAL | £ | 1,856.59 |
||
| INCOME FOR THE YEAR ENDING 10 DEC. 2022 | ||||
| Southwark Grant | £ | 1,200.00 |
||
| Donation Little Rabbit day nursery | £ | 200.00 |
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| Donation Funday | £ | 16.32 |
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| Rafe tickets Sale | £ | 108.20 |
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| Grow wild Grant | £ | 2,000.00 |
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| Loan | £ | 860.92 |
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| Southwark Grant | £ | 50.00 |
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| TOTAL | £ | 4,435.44 |
| EXPENSES FOR THE YEAR ENDING 10 Dec 2022 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Working Party | £ | 128.69 |
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| Fun Day | £ | 1,433.92 |
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| TCV subscribtion | £ | - |
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| Grow wild | £ | 1,996.05 |
||
| insurance | £ | 254.45 |
||
| Loan Tracy | £ | 361.60 |
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| TOTAL | £ | 4,174.71 |
ACCOUNTANTS REPORT TO THE FRIENDS OF KELLY AVENUE PARK
I have prepared the Statement of Financial Activities for the year ended 1th December 2022, based upon my examination of accounting records of The Friends of Kelly Avenue Park information and explanations provided .
I certify that, in my opinion, this to be a true and fair view of Income Funds as of 1 Dec. 2022
Mohamed Jama
Financial Advisor of
Thames Accounts Ltd
100 Dunton Road
London
SE1 5UN
APPROVAL OF ACCOUNTANTS BY THE FRIENDS OF KELLY AVENUE PARK
Approved and signed on its behalf:
Chairperson Treasurer Date