Hungerford Youth and Community Centre Priory Road Hungerford Berkshire RG17 0AL Tel: 01488 685 363 Website: www.hungerford.org.uk Report of the Trustees for the period starting 1[st] April 2023 ending 31[st] March 2024 **Charity Name:** Hungerford youth and Community Centre **Registration number:** 1184692 **Address:** Priory Road **,** Hungerford RG17 0AL Board of Trustees: Charlie Barr Jude Hodge Kelly Leigh Derek Alford ## **Purpose of Hungerford Youth & Community Centre:** To further or benefit the residents of Hungerford and the neighbourhood, without distinction of sex, sexual orientation, race or of political, religious or other opinions by associating together the said residents and the local authorities, voluntary and other organisations in a common effort to advance education and to provide facilities in the interests of social welfare for recreation and leisure time occupation with the objective of improving the conditions of life for the residents. In furtherance of these objects but not otherwise, the Trustees shall have power: To establish or secure the establishment of a Community Centre and to maintain or manage or cooperate with any statutory authority in the maintenance and management of such a centre for activities promoted by the charity in furtherance of the above objects. ## **Achievements and activities:** 2023/24 saw HYCC build on several years of successful progression and truly has reached the point we originally aimed for when we very first designed the project: the youth groups we aimed to open are thriving; we’ve even added a targeted session for home educated people as the need became apparent in our community. Our youth sessions are an ongoing source of fun and education for local young people, as well as providing a safe space fo r young people to be together – so valuable in our rural area. The focus at sessions is on sports, crafts, cooking and general ‘hanging out’, young people’s feedback is at the heart of the activities we provide, with some of the activities run by young people themselves. Highlights this year have been co-ordinating with ‘Sport in Mind’ charity to have a football coach visit once a week. Our aim to support young people’s mental health with activities suited to them matches perfectly with the ‘Sport in Mind’ team and we hope to continue this partnership into the future. We also loved welcoming Swindon & Wiltshire Pride to raise awareness of the LGBTQ+ community, and baking a thousand different recipes of all description! This year we became members of the West Berkshire Children and Young People’s Voices Forum, which meets monthly and provides our staff with an opportunity to connect with other youth organisations in the area. Our engagement in the community continues, we have taken part in many local events including a charity event in a local secondary school, Hungerford Town Council’s Town Meeting and our very own Halloween roller disco. We are thrilled to be working towards an accreditation from the National Youth Agency (NYA). Following an initial assessment when the NYA advised us to reach for the Advanced Level, we have been working towards submitting our progress. As well as updating our policies and procedures, we have spent time evidencing the work we do and documenting young people’s feedback in a systematic way. Overall the process has been of great benefit to us as an organization, a chance to review what we do and put in place time saving procedures. Our amazing director created a signposting page on our website, the Youth Zone: https://hungerfordyc.org.uk/hungerford-youth-zone/ It has advice on everything from mental health and relationships to work experience and careers. In funding news, we were delighted that the National Lottery awarded us £90,000 over 5 years. Alongside a number of local organisations who make consistent yearly grants, and with us raising significant amounts through events fundraising, we feel our financial situation is secure for at least 5 years. We currently run: - #ICE - a youth club for children with additional needs (age range 9 to 15 years). - Home ed youth club – for home educated children (age range 9 to 15 years). - '11s' - a youth club for children in school years 5 and 6. - ‘15s’ - a youth club for young people in years 7 and 8. - ‘Spill the tea’ – a youth club for young people in years 9 to 11 - HAF (Holiday, Activity and Food) – We now run this regularly during the Christmas, Easter and Summer Holidays. Offering FREE places to young people in receipt of school meals and at a very reduced cost for everyone else. This program is supported by West Berkshire Council. - HYCC Days Away – day trips for children aged 9 to 18, low-income families are offered free places and at a reduced cost to everyone else. The work we do is so important and is truly appreciated by its beneficiaries, expressed in the comments from family members below: Mae, 17yrs old: _When I started attending the Home Education group at HYCC, I was having an awful time. As soon as I arrived, I felt as though I’d made the right decision. There’s no way to say how fantastic that was after the couple of years I’d had. The staff and three other young people there were all lovely and inviting, and I had a great time. All in all, HYCC is a brilliant, fantastic, excellent place that I would (and often do) recommend to anyone, whatever their circumstances. I love it very, very much._ Hannah, mother of 15yr old youth club member: _The ICE youth club has provided a safe and reassuring space where my daughter can express herself freely. It is such a valuable resource for children with additional needs within Hungerford. I feel very lucky that she is able to attend and gain so much experience._ ## **A few pictures from 2023/24** **Financial review:** Our main source of income is through grants. Overall our grant income increased from £44,529 in FY22/23 to £50,657 in FY23/24. This is in part due to increased funding from the National Lottery, through a successful application this year which will provide us with £18,000 a year for the next 5 years for the Youth Worker project. We also continue to receive ongoing financial support from local charities, individual donors, Greenham Trust, Hungerford Town Council and Hungerford Town and Manor. In FY23/24 we received £16,694 (FY22/23 £15,000) from the National Lottery Fund for the Youth Worker project. We continue to work hard to find funders who can support our ongoing plans for the development of services which can be provided at the community centre. The community centre is used by a wide variety of community groups. This hall hire has contributed £5,584 income in FY23/24 (FY22/23 £6,544), a reduction year on year, but this is still an important source of funds for our charity. The employment of the HYCC Director directly contributes to this income, without their management of the bookings system this income stream would not be so successful. Youth club sessions continue to go from strength to strength this year thanks to the hard work of our youth workers and the support of volunteers. The income from these sessions was £3,424. We continued to run the holiday and food (HAF) activity program. Places on this program are funded by West Berkshire Council for children in receipt of free school meals. The West Berkshire funding for these places in FY23/24 was £2,552, with other income from this program totalling £1,892. The HYCC staff, trustees and volunteers also continue to fundraise for HYCC ongoing running costs through a series of events including cake sales organised and run by volunteers and young people attending our sessions. We have also received several donations from local supporters, including £500 from Tesco through their local charity token scheme as well as income from West Berkshire Charity Lottery ticket sales (£203). Total fundraising and donations in the year were £1,982. As a charity we monitor our outgoing costs very closely, and our outgoings have reduced from £69,691 in FY23/24 to £65,352 in FY22/23. However, this is mainly due to the FY22/23 costs including one-off costs for our 10 year celebration party (which were matched by income from local funders). Excluding these costs from last year, our like for like costs have increased mainly due to an increase in the service charge the charity has to pay for the centre, increasing from £5,000 a year to £7,900 a year. This increase of almost £4,000 has required additional fundraising and grant applications, as we are also facing increased wage costs due to National Minimum wage rises. The most significant outgoings are the employment costs of HYCC employees which this year were £37,864 (FY22/23 £36,462). In FY23/24 we also incurred an exceptional one-off cost of £1,944 for repairs required to the fencing surrounding the outside playing courts as a result of accidental damage. These costs were covered by an insurance claim, however the income from the insurance claim was not received until FY24/25. Additional ongoing running costs of the centre of cleaning and maintenance as well as equipment costs have all increased, due to the increased activity levels as well as price rises. The provision of youth club supplies, session costs and trip expenses totalled £7,209. We continue to manage our costs whilst ensuring we have sufficient funds to invest and maintain the community centre so it is a safe and welcoming environment for all users. This requires careful planning and management of funds. We finish the year 23/24 with unrestricted cash funds of £42,833. Our reserves have increased to £30,500 (22/23 - £25,000) to cover the equivalent of 6 months of outgoing costs in the case of unexpected hardship (in accordance with our reserves policy). ## **Structure and governance:** Hungerford Youth and Community Centre was registered as a CIO in August 2019, its governing document is a constitution. New trustees are usually recruited by current trustees during the year. They are asked to a first trustee meeting and an informal discussion takes place, after which the trustees decide unanimously to accept the applicant as a trustee. All trustees are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding and to be DBS checked. The Hungerford Youth and Community Centre sits at the heart of its community and as such, it nurtures connections to the local schools, Town Council, police force, leisure centre and family Centre. natures: CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENfjLANO AND WALES Recei tsand ments accounts CC16a Forthe pgrlod To Section A Receipts and payments d* fund• fund• Total fund• A1 RK•l GRANTS HALLHIRE DONATK)NS AND FuND￿S￿fj YOUTH CLUB IN¢OklE EVENT114COME 31. 7,91S Sub totaif AR) $iwJ .iJ• l••• t•bl• Sub rto 31.$39 A3P• servi¢¢ Ch•r 8,1711 es TraiNn Phone Intern ebsrt• Centre Malnten•nce Youth cl￿￿ su mènt 27 08S 982 ¥ertisin Insuiance ¥entt05ts undrai 49J 49) sts J62 Sub to A8 C••h l••t yw •nd 31.871 CCXX Rl •ccwnts ISSI Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Unrestrlct•d R••trlct•d fund• lund• Endo¥m)• lo rwrn81£ 81 C•8h fvnd• J)3J1 31231 nd• lund• fund• Detslh Det•ll• Det•lls ehArlty• own Fw¥Jk+*l*h D&tall8 14 CCXX RI att¥JuAts iSSI 2510912024 CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Sectlon A Independent ExamIn0￿8 Report Report to the trusloe members of Hungertord Youth and Community Centre On accounts for the year ended 31. March 2024 Charity no Ilf any) 1184692 Set out on pages I report to the Irustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity I'the Trust") for the year ended 3111212021. Responslbllltles and basis of report As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparats'on of the accounls in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 I'lhe 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 all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145{5llbl of the Act. Independent I have completed my examination. I confirm that no malenal matt&rs hav8 examiner's statement come to my attention in connection with the examination. I have no concerns and have come a¢ross no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in rd r to enabl a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Signe Date: 1. November 2024 me: JONATHAN SH TFORD Addre SECOND FLOOR, WESSEX HOUSE 127 HIGH STREET HUNGERFORD BERKSHIRE RG17 ODL IER Oct 2018 Section 8 Disclosure Only complete If the examiner needs lo highlight material matters of concern (see CC32. Independent examinalion of charity accounts: directions and guKlance for examiners). Glve here brlef detalls of any Items thai the examlner wlshes to dlsclose. IER Oct 2018