## **BEHIND THE SMILE Trustees Annual Return** ## **Charity Number 1184343 C I O Number: CEO18156 For the period: 1st April 2023 to 31st March 2024** ## **Charity Structure** The Charity had 5 trustees Gaynor Pritchard – Co-Founder and Chair of Trustees Andy Pritchard – Co-Founder and Policy Development Jenny McConnel – Secretary Roy Blendell Mary Nettle – Safeguarding officer Paul Dews – Treasurer **Resigned March 2023, still Treasurer until a replacement found** . Holly Winter – Hughes – Resigned January 2024 ## **Activities and Objectives** Behind the Smile is a charity founded by the parents of Zac who ended his life after many years of mental health problems. Our two main aims are: - to support and help others overcome the stigma associated with mental health issues by offering practical face to face support. - to support and help those bereaved by suicide. We believe that everyone has the right to a good standard of mental health and, where they do not, they should have access to timely and appropriate support services. We recognise that the statutory and voluntary service provision in our target area does not always meet the needs of the community: services are stretched, waiting times are long, and sometimes there are no appropriate services available in the locality. Our intention is to work towards filling these gaps by setting up Peer Support Groups where everyone is equally valued. By adhering to the Principles of the Peer Group Charter and in a non-clinical situation people will be provided with a space where they feel accepted and understood. They will use their own experiences to help each other, becoming confident to open up about their feelings, improving their mental and physical wellbeing, and thus helping them cope with their mental health issues. Ultimately, they will establish a sense of belonging in the community. 1 ## **Achievements and Performance** - The support groups continue to grow, during this period, we expanded to more groups in other parts of the city and county. - Had various speakers come to group and people to run activities. - Our one-to-one conversations and meet ups continue to be active, but it has mostly been in cafes as we had to give up our office in Jan 23. - We have advocated for some group members when needed even if it was supporting with form filling or writing supporting letters. - August 2023, we took a group for a day out at Clevedon - Sept 9, 2023, we held our lantern walk, for Suicide Prevention Awareness Day. We walked from the one bridge in Worcester to another bridge, we lit up the bridges with paper lanterns and walked with glass lanterns. The Word Association facilitated a fundraiser; 33 people entered and wrote poems every day of August. Out of those who entered around half came to read poems at various stops throughout the walk. ## **Financial Review** We were also pleased to secure a grant of £2,500 from The Eveson Trust and £500 from Local Giving Fund LTD. **Fundraising** was £3,366.40, which included funds raised by some of us running for Worcester 10k and Birmingham 10K. Special thanks to Martino Ercolani, Yasmin Millward, Gaynor Pritchard. We gained £389.50 from the Worcester Lottery. Other donations came from our website, quizzes etc, and attending various events such as carnival, pride etc... A big thank you to The Word Association for their poetry fundraiser for the 5[th] year since Zac’s death. **Donations** were £2,627.63 from various kind people or organisations, including regular donations from The Business of Mindfulness, Mrs B Heycock. Rushwick village hall raised awareness and funds to donate to us. Mrs E Weager raised funds as she ran a Marathon for her 70[th] birthday and donated to a few different charities including us. St Barnabas Church and Hanbury Church, kindly donated to us to help with our running costs. Following the unfortunate death by suicide the family of Tom Ludwig collected donations at his funeral. Other donations were via our website. This allowed us to provide further support to our target groups. Our financial policy is to provide services and support only within our financial capabilities. 2 ## **BEHIND THE SMILE Charity Number 1184343 C I O Number: CEO18156** Accounts for the period 1/4/2023 to 31/3/2024 **Opening bank balance** at 1/4/2023 – £8359.66 **Income** 1/4/2023 to 31/3/2024 **- £9,452.72 Expenditure** 1/4/2023 to 31/3/2024 - **£12,212.15** **Closing bank balance** at 31/3/2024 - £5605.27 ## **INCOME** Summary INCOME 2023 - 2024 |Grants|£3,000.00|£2,500.00|The Eveson Trust| |---|---|---|---| |||£500.00|Localgiving Ltd| ||||| |Donations|£2,627.63|£870.00|The Business of Mindfulness| |||£284.00|Rushwick Village Hall| |||£100.00|Hanbury Parochial Church Council| |||£200.00|E. Weager, Ran Marathon 70th Birthday| |||£100.00|B Heycock| |||£150.00|Pcc Of St Barnabas| |||£623.91|Donations From Funeral of Tom Ludwig| |||£299.72|Various Donations Via Website.| ||||| |Fundraising|£3,307.70|£1,086.95|Via Just Giving| |||£378.10|Via Give as You Live / Our Website| |||£160.00|The Word Association| |||£1,293.15|Various Fundraising| |||£389.50|Worcester Lottery| ||||| |Refunds|£517.39||Various Refunds from Returns Etc| ||||| |**Total Income**|**£9,452.72**||| 3 ## **EXPENDITURE** ## Summary EXPENDITURE 2023 - 2024 |Peer GroupExpenses|£1,414.59| |---|---| ||| |Room Hire|£1,563.36| ||| |Café meetings / One 2 One's|£392.78| ||| |Volunteer expenses / DBS|£88.55| ||| |Fundraising/ Awareness|£1,800.17| ||| |Training/ Conferences|£309.49| ||| |IT / Website|£2,338.08| ||| |Travel / Days out / Parking|£590.90| ||| |Insurance|£212.80| ||| |Memberships / Subscriptions|£482.25| ||| |Printing|£942.95| ||| |Office Expenses / Equipment|£135.85| ||| |Storage|£1,940.38| ||| |**TOTAL**|**£12,212.15**| 4