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2023-03-31-accounts

Neath Port Talbot Black Minority Ethnic Community Association

Annual Report 2023 - 2024

Registered Charity Number: 1182825

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Contents

Page 3: Introduction Page 4: Trustees who served Page 5: Ysgol Cwm Brombil Parent Network Meetings

Page 6: Neath Chai and Chat Page 7: Windrush Coffee Morning Page 8: Vision Exercise with CVS/Comic Relief Project Celebration Page 9: Black History Wales 365 Page 10: Hate Crime Information Session/Zumba Fitness Project Page 11: Citizens Advice Project/Young Peoples Questionnaire Page 12: Tenovus Cancer Care Information Session Page 13: Trading Standards Training Session Page 14: Financial Report

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Introduction

The situation over the reporting year continued to be challenging as the post-pandemic period and cost-of-living crisis continues to impact local communities. However, the Association has made further progress and I am pleased to highlight the good work that has been achieved in this report.

The Association welcomed two new Trustees, Suvithraa Paramasivarasa and Julius Shalders, who both joined the Association in March 2023. We look forward to working with them as Trustees and thank them for offering their time, skills, and knowledge for the Association.

Thanks go to all those that have funded the Association over the reporting year which has helped us take forward and implement many of our project ideas. Without the support of our partners in the third sector, we would not have been able to deliver as an Association.

I take this opportunity to thank all our Trustees for their time, dedication, and commitment in governing and directing the work of the Association.

The arrangement between the Council’s Community Cohesion post and the Association has continued to have a positive impact in taking forward important elements of the Association’s work. Thanks also to all our other volunteers who work closely with the Association. They all have busy lives and, like all great volunteers, give of their time freely and with no expectation of return.

Thanks also to all those in the community who have attended and made contributions to the range of in-person activities, remotely held meetings, workshops, training, and the Chai and Chat sessions.

We look forward to the year ahead as we feel the impact of economic and social challenges. We will work with all our partners, including the Council, Police, Health Board, third sector organisations and local schools, in designing support and interventions that will help support our community.

I would like to thank Neath Port Talbot Council, which has made the work of the Association possible through its third sector grant and to Neath Port Talbot CVS for its administrative support, advice, and guidance.

Farida Patel, Chair

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Trustees who Served

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Ysgol Cwm Brombil Parent Network Meetings

The Association continues to work with Ysgol Cwm Brombil in the Parent Network Meetings and have built a strong relationship with the school and teachers.

These meetings have been set up to celebrate and educate on the culture and traditions that are held within our community. Throughout the year, we have seen sessions on Ramadan, Disability Awareness, Christianity & Christmas and a Food, Faith and Culture Celebration.

Having these regular meetings have opened discussions on other topics like anti-racism sessions and Halal food options at the school and what the school can do to ensure that issues relating to this are dealt with.

We are now planning the 2024 Parent Network Meetings and are hoping to focus on topics like GCSE Curriculum Pressures, Health and Wellbeing, Hate Crime and Racism.

We would like to thank the Ysgol Cwm Brombil Staff for working with us on this initiative and to all the parents who have made every effort to attend the sessions.

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Neath Chai & Chat

After the success of the Port Talbot Chai & Chat sessions, the Association has been supporting Neath Port Talbot CVS, Neath College and Neath Port Talbot Council in setting up the Neath Chai & Chat group.

The group started up in May 2023 and takes place every Thursday morning in Neath Library. The purpose of these sessions is to bring individuals together to have a chat all while learning about important topics from the weekly guest speakers.

Since starting the sessions, the group has continued to grow and is now welcoming between 15-20 attendees every week who have all become great friends, even joining other groups and activities outside of Chai & Chat.

Over the year, the group has welcomed a range of important guest speakers including Tenovus Cancer Care, Race Equality First, Neath Port Talbot Council Employees and Jeremy Miles MS, Minister for Education in Welsh Government.

The planning is now in place for the 2024 Chai & Chat group sessions and there are already some great guest speakers booked in for the next few months.

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Windrush Day Coffee Morning

Back in June 2023, the Association arranged a Coffee Morning to mark the 75th anniversary of Windrush.

The session took place in Port Talbot Library and was opened with a speech from the Deputy Mayor of Neath Port Talbot.

The morning opened with a presentation on the history of Windrush and was followed by an arts and crafts session on flag keyring making.

The event was a great success with attendees all engaging in discussion and sharing their own personal stories of them and their families moving to Port Talbot.

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Vision Exercise with CVS

In August we were joined by Liz Randall from Neath Port Talbot CVS who facilitated a visioning exercise with the Association. The purpose of this session was to look at the future vision for the Association and what we would like to achieve moving forward.

We were split into groups and discussed what we thought the vision for the Association was. One example was, “To promote culture and diversity in Neath Port Talbot by empowering, advocating and being the voice of ethnic minorities leading to prosperity”.

We then discussed what the short and long term goals were for the Association in order to achieve our vision. This session was very beneficial and helped us get sight of the future and our next steps moving forward. A massive thank you to CVS for coming along to provide this session for us.

Comic Relief Project Celebration In August, we held an event to celebrate the end of the Comic Relief Project. Throughout the project, we have seen our volunteers and communities arrange and get involved in a range of activities to promote both physical and emotional well-being.

These activities included Zumba classes, walking groups, running groups, boxing classes, Bikeability sessions, arts and crafts sessions, educational trips and hair and beauty classes.

The celebration took place at St Pauls and gave us a chance to look over the photographs from the activities and celebrate the achievements. A special thank you to our dedicated volunteers who took their time to arrange the different groups and classes and who made the Comic Relief Project a great success.

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Black History Wales 365

In October 2023, in partnership with UNISON and Safer NPT, the Association arranged an event for Black History Wales 365 which took place at St Pauls Centre in Port Talbot.

The event consisted of guest speakers, information displays of our Welsh Black role models, biographies of the descendants of the families that moved to Port Talbot in the 1950s/1960s, and a film screening of “Just ah likkle piece of Jamaica inna Port Talbot.”

There were around 50 attendees and we have received some very positive feedback on the event. Following the event, we posted extracts of the biographies on our Facebook page throughout the month of October, for which we received brilliant feedback.

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Hate Crime Information Session

To mark Hate Crime Awareness Week in October, we arranged a Hate Crime information session. The session took place in Port Talbot library and was delivered by the South Wales Police Hate Crime Team.

The session focused on what a hate crime is and how to report it. Alongside this, attendees were provided with local statistics of hate crime so that they could get a picture of what type of hate crimes occur in the local area.

The session went well and attendees were very engaging by asking questions which the Hate Crime team were happy to answer.

Zumba Fitness Project

The Association has been awarding funding from the National Lottery to provide Zumba classes for those within our community.

The Zumba Fitness Project will unite individuals from diverse backgrounds to encourage a healthy lifestyle. This will have an impact on both their physical and emotional wellbeing.

The classes should be up and running within the next few months.

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Citizens Advice Project

The Association is now working in partnership with Citizens Advice Swansea Neath Port Talbot.

Some members of the Association have received training on the referral system, where they are able to refer individuals who may be seeking advice on a range of topics.

We have opened this up so that individuals who are seeking advice on benefits or general advice can come to us and then be referred to Citizens Advice.

Young People’s Questionnaire

As an Association, we have been looking at ways that we can engage with the younger generation.

We have created a questionnaire to find out about what the young people within our community would like to see in Neath Port Talbot. The questionnaire focuses on what they do in their spare time currently, what they would like to see and how the Association could support them.

The questionnaire has been distributed to the schools and colleges within Neath Port Talbot and has also been shared with the Youth Council Team for distribution.

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Tenovus Cancer Care Information Session

In January, we arranged an information session for the men within the BME community on Tenovus Cancer Care.

The session took place in Viva Port Talbot and was delivered by the Tenovus team who spoke about what they offer as an organisation and the signs and symptoms of prostate cancer.

The Tenovus team was able to share statistics and risk factors and were open to answering any questions that those in attendance had.

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Trading Standards Training Session

In February we arranged a training session on Food Allergens for those who work within the food industry in Neath Port Talbot. The session was delivered by the Trading Standards Team and took place in Neath Civic Centre.

The session was very informative and covered Food Allergen Information, Food Traceability and Meal Descriptions.

Attendees all found it useful and were able to ask the Trading Standards Team questions throughout.

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Financial Report

Reports and accounts for the period 1st April 2022 – 31st March 2023 Charity Registration Number 1182825

Income Receipts

Donations

Grants: NPTCBC: £11,897.56 Comic Relief: £5,000 MIND: £3,248 Total receipts: £20,145.56

Reports and accounts for the year ended 31st March 2023 Staff Costs: £6,129

Other expenditure Wellbeing Day August 2022: £841.64 Chinese Community: £35 Employment Fair: £453 Insurance: £427.68 Comic Relief: £300 Total: £2,057.32

Total Payments: £8,186.32

Net surplus/deficit for the year: £11,959.24

Net Assets: £40,129.55

The Board of Trustees has approved the above Statement and Account as making up the annual accounts for the charity for the year to 31st March 2023, which the Trustees have elected to prepare under section 42(3) of the Charities Act 1993 in accordance with the provisions of that section.

Farida Patel Chair

Neath Port Talbot Black Minority Ethnic Community Association