Empowerlng Futures - Annual Trustees Report - 4/1 /24 Empowering Futures is registered as a CIO {Charitable Incorporated Organisationl, Registered with the Charities Commission Number 1182139 on 19 February 2019. The first Trustees are; Sarah Harper Maria Needs Susan Farthing The board of Trustees will be required fo serve for a minimum of one year and those named above served throughout this period. Alms and ObJecNves To promote social inclusion for fhe public benefit by preventing people from becoming socially excluded, relieving the needs of those people who ore sociolly excluded and assisting them to integrate into society by providing therapeutic gardening actimties WFthin a community garden and outdoors. For the purpose of this clause 'sociolly excluded, means being excluded from society, or ports of society. as a result of one of mole of the following tactors.. unemployment: finoncial hoidship; youth or old age; ill health (physical or mentall: substance abuse or dependency including alcohol and drugs: discrimination on the grounds of sex. race. disability, ethnic origin, religion. belief, creed, sexual orientation or gender reassignment; poor educational or skills atlainment: relationship and family breakdown; poor housing (that is housing that doe5 not meet basic habitable standards; crime leither as o victim of crime or as an offender rehabilitating into society). Empowering Futures has maintained its aims and objectives of supporting people who are socially excluded from Society. Individuals who need support and cannot access support or independently tackle the issues and borriers presented. Those most vulnerable, disadvantaged andlor disabled are our primary participanls. FOT the public benellt In constituting the charity and conducting the activifies throughout the year. the Trustees have had regard to the Charity Commissions guidance on public benefit. Examples of our delivery for the public benefit can be found in the subsequent paragraphs. which give specific examples of activtty and those supporfed. Tr)e charity is committed to supporting people who ore othewise excluded and isolated from Society for varying reasons. Some are deemed too expensive to support, some wriften off, others because of incorrect assumptions made. We believe everyone can achieve, given the right opportunity. encouragement. time and belief. Our successes evidence our achievements and our aims. both with people and in society. The Setbacks This was a tough year for Empowering Futures. The building we have been fundraising for over many years was finally built. only for us to discover the builders did not follow or meet Building Regs and then took no responsibility to address the issue or reimburse us. After many frantic phone calls to both the NFU and Mcclorron we discovered the legal route to pursuing a case would be economical or fully covered by our insurances. Despite carrying out due diligence checks, nothing could have prepared us for this outcome. The whole team set about fundraising to enable a new building to be constructed and galhered extensive advice from a surveyor, an architect and o builder to avoid any future mishaps. These extra precautions were essenltal to ensure there could be no repeat of the original fiasco. The original building was mostly paid for by team members and the charity os the Trustees have o possion to expand and support more people. The new build was refiant on Empowering Futures accessing funds. The original building was dismantled until 2023, when it was envisaged a new building would be possiblel Throughout the latter of 2022 and beginning of 2023. the team worked long hours to create new income streams, embarked on a journey of applying for several funding grants and worked tirelessly to 'right' the wrong. Unfortunately, we were met wth continual barriers by the planning deportment which all proved costEy and were in our opinion, unjustified. However, the Trustees and fhe staff. with volunteers from lots of Corporate organisations held on. The planning was finally approved, the Local Authority received unprecedenled support for Empowering Futures from local people and its community. This supported us when we most needed help. It also showed the local need was recognised by the community of South Glos and Bristol. The Impacts and Achlevements During the year, we struggled to deliver sessions. as the building was unsafe. However. we made full use of the stoble and a gazebo to facilitate sessions for the vulnerable. Social Care sessions continued to be delivered and people continued to grow in confidence and ability. We dramatically increased our public profile. which triggered multiple new confacts we were unable to meet, which seems to be growing by the month. However. sessions continued to be delivered fo the local primary school Iwice a week and the whole of Yr 6 continued to attend every Friday afternoon to learn new work skills. Many of whom offered odditional weekend help. We commenced a new contract with Pathways. supporting young people who are particular￿ vulnerable and out of the education sysfem. Three young people achieved their Duke of Edinburgh Awards. We facilitated 4 traineeships and all 4 went into employment. Each young person had disabilities and showed tremendous resilience working on the farm to gain their qualification. Each of the trainees came from a background of isolation and have turned their lives around. 4 young people qualified as First Aiders with their first Level 3 First Aid qualification. 2 more staff achieved frheir qualification in Forestry School Leading Level 3. We were chosen as one of the orgonisations to deliver Social Prescribing and delivered over 600 sessions in willow craft. This was a new skill tor many of the attendees who formed from a diverse community. We delivered Willow Croft sessions to the NHS Brain Injury Unit in Frenchay whilsl supporting their Eco Therapy garden os the group had difficulties with transport. The Wesport grant allowed us to buy a polytunnel which has been amazing for early plan*s. Over 10 young people completed a week's work experience at the farm and all thoroughly enjoyed their time. One headmistress commenfed that she hod never witnessed one of the studenfs smile as they did on their return to school. We received tremendous support from Wessex Water Company and together with Network Plus and Bristol Water Company. they set about helping us install o water treatment plant and harvesting system which will allow us to collect rainwater and use it for watering our plants and flushing our toilets. Ultimately it will mean our mains water bill will be minuscule. Donations and o successful Crowdfunder have allowed this work to be progressed. Volunteers from Aviva. Virgin, Ne￿Ork Plus all visited us multiple times throughout the yeaf ond gave Empowering Futures IOO'S of hours in voluntary hours which we were extremely grateful for. We increased our fundraising events in the Community. thereby creating more opportunities for our attendees to integrate with the community whilst improving their confidence. social skills and handling money. Between events multiple new creations were mode to sell at the events. Our successes with people moving into work has now exceeded 54. With 15 people moving into pemanent jobs during the tax year. Each has significant health issues and disabilities and they have all triumphed. Most of these individuals did not feel they would ever work. One with a severe long term condition has commenced working from home and is delighted. as is her famiw. Restricted Funds 2214122 Wesport £7000 May 2022 Crowdfunder £9884 3015122 Boshier Hinton £2(K)O 716122 Express Grant £5000 716122 National Lottery £io.oox) 231612022 Edward Gosling £10,000 318122 Quartet- Megawatt £4000 Sept 2022 Crowdfunder £14,855 3110122 Clothmakers £35,OC() 6111122 Garfield £10,000 6111122 Nineveh £5000 15111122 Quartet- stoke Pk £￿c0 15111122 CLA £50(JJ 21112122 Leonard Laity £2000 12122 Wesport {Hoppy Doys} £225 1/23 Pebbles £3500 Total Restricted Funds £126,464 During this year. we purchased 2 valais blacknose sheep to keep the grass in check. Valais blacknose need sheoring ￿lce yearly so we will get more produce to use from their old coats. Much of fhe fencing around the boundary was installedmultiple trees were planted fo enhance the biodiversity. A book was produced by people with disabilities in partnership with volunteers from Organic Blooms to demonstrate the steps taken to mitigate climate change and we also began identifying new species on the farm. Outdoor Cooking was established using the outdoor kitchen and new pizza oven courtesy of Boshier Hinton. Foresfry School began with children who have additional needs. The parents watched their children participating and were amazed to see the steps they took. One child with attachment issues engaged in o woy she never had before, the parent was in tears. The impact for children with additional need in a green spoce is particularly significant and address the parity of access belween those with and without disability. Looklng Ahead All in all, a fantaslic year despite the setbacks. The nexf year looks promising with lols of new confacts and networking opportunities, our new building will be erected and the old one dismantled. We hope to use this to make other products at the farm. New sessions are constantly created to ensure we stay innovative and all of our aclivities remain meaningful and purposeful. Ultimately Empowering Futures is enabled to deliver more support to more people to improve their lives. A consultant conlocted us to prepare a social impact report which will collect our impact from July 22 to July 23, free of charge. This is of the utmost interest to us as we know we must have a huge impact but do not have the expertise or time to evaluate this. Our work with people and nature improvement5 will all be evaluated and evidenced. this will raise awareness of the impact the smaller voluntary organisations and charities have. The results won't be available until around Oct 2023 so the detail will be included in Ihe next annual report. CHARITY COMMISSION fOR INtiIANb' AND WALt5 Receipt8 and payments accounts CC16a For th• p•rlod 814r2022 $1412023 Section A Receipts and payments Unia*rict&d funds Re¥trtrt•U funds ndDwm•iit fund• Tot41 funds L••t >xr •[4 th• n•¥••t£ lo th• i••rn•t E A1 R•¢al t• rt*d Fundrai%n Lbn•bon R•8trclèd Gift *1 EIRIC4HTS,,L CROlhDFUNDER 1J16 27 111 Acth¥i $T.114 Sl,1JO 126,414 14,618 126,4•4 14,616 1.373 Sub total(Gross income lorAR) A2 A¥••i •nd Inve•lm•nt •alM, 110,1a6 111.4•4 23a,M• Sub total Total recelpts 110.123 126,464 79.agl AJ P•yrn•nts Tradin9 Atrmy EqJiwivnl 1A17 2MZ CCXX R1 amints (ss) 01rd024 Mric BANK CHARGES PLANNING INgJFiANCE PPE Chertaiable Staff Co Adinin $06 90 21 aol 90 3•4 &76E RE￿TRIcTED TRhlNING 71132 33 71 71,40• Sub tot*1 11.•14 70PJ2 A4 All￿ and Inv••tffj•nt purcha•••, (•tr• talAel Sub tot•1 94614 172.446 Not of r•c•lpts/(paym•nts) AO Transfern botwe•n ￿n￿0 A8CIAh fuThdB last y•ar •nd Colh funds thls y¢•r •nd 14511 532 14898 30,5711 49,632 532 84,14J 433 16.396 80.7Jg 16,161 16.5 50,164 Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at Ihe end of the period ilnrn8irt¢t•d R••trfctJd lun lundi Endowm•nt fund• n*+JU• 81 Ca$h fund• SANTfvNDER T Y￿ST JOA fj0,181 CCKX P2 ISSI 2610112024 Tot•1 cash funds J.S75 $0.164 Unr••trf¢t•d lund• R•#nGtsd fund• Endowm•Dt fund• *) TreAr•rt£ C*ii•d Fo￿￿￿ Irom 21.?2 6,873 to a•M¢ b•loni$ Co•1 lopkn•kl lop¥o••ll 03 InvHlm•nt a•••ts F￿d to •wol 84 A8s818 r•tsln•d for th• ¢harlty'• own u•• 26101r2024 CCXX R3 *wunlO188) Fund tr• whkth B6 Llabllhl•• I•￿10n S'gnéd by on• ￿ t*f trust￿ on b•h•ll ol •ll lh• Iruth•B Signalufe Pdnl Ngrn• Dalo of appfoval M N••d• 211QQ24 CCYX R4 aCc￿nIS ISSI 261D112024 ## **Independent examiner's report on the accounts** **Section A Independent Examiner’s Report** **Report to the trustees/ members of** Empowering Futures **On accounts for the year ended** 5 April 2023 **Charity no** 1182139 **(if any)** **Set out on pages** CC16a 1 and 2 (remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets) I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 5 April 2023. **Responsibilities and** As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation **basis of report** of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act. ## **Independent examiner's statement** I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect: - accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or - the accounts do not accord with the accounting records I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. **Signed: Date:** 26/01/2024 **Name:** Susan Rickerby **Relevant professional** ICAEW **qualification(s) or body (if any):** **Address:** 118 High Street Staple Hill Bristol BS16 5HH ## **Section B Disclosure** Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners). **October 2018** 1 **IER** **Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose** . **October 2018** 2 **IER**