2023-03-31-accounts

Registered charity no 1185239

REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES AND AUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023

FOR

PRUDHOE YOUTH PROJECT

Prudhoe Youth Project

Report of the trustees for the year ended 31 March 2023

The trustees present the directors’ report and audited financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2023

Reference and Administrative Information

Charity Name: Prudhoe Youth Project

Charity registration number: 1185239

Registered Office and operational address:

Spetchells Centre

58 Front Street

Prudhoe

NE42 5AA

Website: prudhoeyouthproject.org

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prudhoeyouthproject

Trustees

Dorothy Dickinson (appointed 17[th] October 2019)

Vesta Moore (appointed 28[th] April 2022)

Jessica Hosking (appointed 18[th] November 2021) Kirstie Sample (appointed 6[th] September 2021) Paul Davenport (appointed 15[th] October 2020) Brenda Grey (appointed 11[th] June 2020)

Cllr Angie Scott (appointed 13[th] February 2020)

Cllr Gerald Bernard Price (appointed 19[th] September 2019)

Donald Hutton (appointed 21[st] March 2019)

Cllr Christopher Barrett (appointed 21[st] March 2019)

Stephen Thompson Thorburn (appointed 28[th] September 2023)

Company Secretary

Gemma Nixon, Youth Project Manager

Independent Examiner

Digital Accountancy

Spetchells Centre 58 Front Street

Prudhoe NE42 5AA

Bank

Unity Trust Bank plc

Nine Brindleyplace

Birmingham

B1 2HB

Our Aims and Objectives

PYP helps young people reach their full potential by providing activities and support for young people in Prudhoe in ways that:

• Are based on what young people say they need

• Are delivered on their own terms

• Integrate young people with additional needs

• Recognise the increasing mental health issues among young people

• Support LGBT+ young people

• Provide support and guidance to vulnerable young people

• Promote wellbeing generally among young people

Meeting the public benefit requirement

Trustees are aware of their duty to have due regard to the Charity Commission’s public benefit guidance when exercising any powers or duties to which the guidance is relevant.

In meeting their purpose ‘ to help young people reach their full potential “’ they have run centre based and offsite visits for young people and work with other youth groups to improve provision of services for young people.

Chairs report from Dorothy Dickinson

At the end of my 4th year PYP chair, I look back with an overall sense of satisfaction and pride for what we have achieved.

You will be fully aware that PYP’s aims and objectives are to help young people reach their full potential and to do that we as a charity provide activities and support for our young people in Prudhoe.

Throughout 2022/23 Gemma and her team have worked hard to organise and plan activities that are based on:-

• What young people say they need

• Made sure their needs were based on their own terms

• The integration of young people with additional needs

• The recognition of the increasing mental health issues among young people

• Great support for LGBT+ young people

• Provision, support and guidance to those vulnerable young people

• Promoting wellbeing generally among young people

From ice skating trips, DJ skills workshops and the numbers of the junior youth club increasing in January. There has been progress made with seniors and developments in mental health activities to support those in the girls group. Flourishing west wylam youth club so much so being split up into two groups.

There have been great advances with the Lego Club which has been just fantastic as funds have been set to employ a new member of staff!

There has been positive inroads into the high school with the health drop in having a steady flow of young people being sign posted to other health groups such as mental and sexual health.

A fantastic year, however a whole year cannot pass us by without the odd disappointment for example losing NCC Youth Service groups from the town and some unsuccessful applications for funding for the charity but Gemma and her team continue to strive with their great efforts to support the young people of Prudhoe.

Finally I must extend my gratitude to Gemma and her team for all of their hard work as PYP’s success is linked to dedication, commitment and hard work. This has been provided by Gemma and her team making excellent progress this year.

Report on Activities

We have had a fantastic year creating new projects, developing stronger connections with the community and we have seen an influx in young people attending our sessions.

PYP have been busy delivering new projects which include Lego Club and PYPSS (Prudhoe Young Peoples Support Service). As well as supporting our existing clubs, West Wylam Youth Club and Junior Youth Club by expanding its delivery to meet demand.

Here is our roundup of the year's events, projects, activities, residentials and trips just for you to gain a snapshot of the work we've been doing from April 2022 to March 2023.

April 2022 – March 2023 Statistics

We have seen 290 members join this year. 45% of them identify as male while 54.5% identify as female and 0.5% identify as they/them.

We have worked with young people 4,079 times year.

Our busiest sessions are Junior Youth Club with an average of 31 attending each week and West Wylam which sees on average 20 young people a week.

We have delivered support to 58 young people individually and over 900 through group/lunchtime/ assemblies addressing sexual and mental health.

We have delivered 15 trips and 2 residentials to 200 young people this year.

Easter Residential

We took 23 young people away to Hawkhirst Scout Activity Centre, Kielder. They took part in adventurous activities which helped young people gain new skills including teamwork, confidence, trying something new, challenging themselves and learning a new skill. These were just a handful of outcomes from this 2-night 3-day trip away.

The group really benefited from spending two nights away from home. It was clear some young people lacked confidence and were upset at first. By the second night all young people grew in confidence and developed their social skills post pandemic.

Junior Youth Club

Our Juniors have been busy getting crafty, playing games, enjoying outside time, and cooking each week. We have split the session into two different age groups to reduce numbers in any one session and to help us make sure we have good quality sessions.

We have split the first session into school years 4 and 5 and many of those young people enjoy playing games, making arts and crafts and cooking. It is a fun place to get together with peers from the current school or other schools within their community. Allowing young

people to mix and widen their social networks and peers. We see many young people attend on their own and after a few weeks they seem to find new friendships within the group.

Juniors encourages young people to find new interests and hobbies as well as gain new skills, this does include tidying up, washing dishes and general practical life skills that will help them in the future.

Our second Junior Youth Club session is for school years 6, 7 and 8. This session is aimed more at older young people who prefer to sit and have conversations with staff members and their peers. We have worthwhile conversations about friendships, family life, money, society, and the community in which they live. This group enjoys cooking and playing board games, but the focus is always around conversations. Many of the young people attending this session have worked with PYP for the past three years and this helps us develop trust between the young people and the youth workers. We support them to grow and inspire them to believe in themselves.

Senior Youth Club

Senior Youth Club is held on a Tuesday in the Methodist Church basement room for young people in school year 8 or above. The session offers a relaxed informal environment where young people can gain access to the pool table, sofas, free Gregg’s food and a small kitchen.

During young people's teenage years, they come across many issues including sexual health, alcohol and drugs, bullying, friendship problems, relationship issues and family issues. We use these sessions to support young people with the information and the advice they need to make informed choices. For example, we may talk about young people’s sexual health and give them the information required to make safer choices. We have given them information on vaping, smoking, alcohol and drugs, including their long-term effects where possible. This information has been shared with young people so they can make informed choices when they come across these substances in their day-to-day lives.

West Wylam Youth Club

West Wylam Youth Club has been set up in the West Wylam area of Prudhoe. This area has more deprivation and economic issues than other parts of Prudhoe. This club was set up as we identified a need to provide activities for the young people who do not currently access our provision in the center of the town. We find that there is a divide within the town, we want to be able to support young people to access all sessions.

We provide food at these sessions to help address food poverty. We provide a basket of essentials and toiletries such as water bottles, hairbrushes, toothbrushes, and sanitary products to enable young people to access items that may not have at home.

The session has allowed us to meet many new young people which we have not had contact with before. Because of this project they have engaged in our activities during school holidays which has seen them attend our activities in the centre of the town. Therefore, breaking down the barriers to them accessing central sessions, trips and residentials. We now have continued crossover in young people attending West Wylam Youth Club and Junior Youth Club.

Our attendances have risen so with the same set up as Junior Youth Club we provide 2 sessions to ensure we have lower numbers attending. This has helped ensure the Youth Work we provide is to the best quality. We feel this project is a vital service to a community who may need more help than other parts of Prudhoe.

Girls Group

Girls Group runs from the Parish Hall on a Wednesday. A group of young women come together to take part in supportive activities that empower young women to feel safe, address women's health issues, talk about self-esteem, safety and offers a place to get practical advice on all women's issues.

This year the group has supported one another to have in depth conversations about the menstrual cycle, social media, and its negative connotations on women's body images. This session allows the young people to gain new skills such as cooking from scratch and gives them the opportunity to get involved in group work.

We have worked with the girls supporting them to think positively about friendships and how to manage any conflict which has been extremely helpful for them.

Lads Group

Lads Group has been running weekly sessions at the family hub. Although a relatively small group, we have a high number of young people with additional needs integrated into this session. The lads enjoy doing sports, cooking and playing games. The staff listened to the lads to make sure we plan sessions around their interests and hobbies and many young people within this group have made new friends, have developed their communication skills and consider this group as a way to engage with their local community.

Lads Group is a wonderful safe environment for young people to talk to trained and qualified youth workers and gain the support they need to help them deal with any extra issues that arise during their everyday lives.

Lego Club

Lego Club was established in this financial year as a new project, supporting those young people who may not feel able to attend our youth club sessions. We identify a group of five

or six young people each half term to work with. These five or six young people may not feel able to access our current sessions due to additional needs, low self-esteem, anxiety, mental health issues or a variety of those issues.

Over the past year we have worked with three groups of young people exploring a particular project. These have been the Christmas project, summer holiday vacation and the freestyle project. Once the young people have finished their models, they have been displayed in the Prudhoe Community Hub window. We use Lego as a tool to really engage those young people in conversations about their lives and any difficulties they may be having. Our skilled and trained youth workers unpick those difficulties to try and allow them to see a way past them. This gives young people the confidence and determination to work through these issues which then allows them to access other sessions, have a more fulfilled life, benefit from the opportunities available to them and allow them to reach their full potential.

Summer Holiday Activities 2022

Over the summer we offered 2 summer camp sessions and 1 trip each week for the whole 6 weeks. We wanted to offer longer sessions, so we extended the time from the previous year and we wanted to make sure each child got a meal while they were with us.

Summer camp sessions were held at different venues, Eastwood Park, The Methodist Church, and the Parish Hall. This was done to break down barriers between different areas of Prudhoe. We hoped that this would allow our sessions to be more accessible.

Each venue had different assets that we would utilise, for example we would always use the kitchen at the parish hall to provide young people with cookery sessions and a hot meal, Eastwood Park gave us the outside space to play games and provide sporting activities and the Methodist basement room has a chilled vibe with a pool table and games tables to promote socialising time. The total attendances for our Summer Camp sessions were 212.

We provided 5 successful trips which included Kirkley Hall Zoo, Falconry Days (bird of prey centre), Canny Crafty and ice cream at Wheelbirks, forest school with Natures Living Room CIC and Surfing at South Shields.

Our trips were aimed at our current term time users with remaining spaces filled by new young people. We wanted to offer trips out of the area, give young people new experiences and promote positive time with peers and youth workers. We know that this may be the only time they get these opportunities potentially as a young person. The trips were heavily funded and we only asked for a small contribution from parents/carers. 131 young people attended our summer trips. Altogether we worked with 182 young people over the summer holidays.

Here is some parent feedback from the summer holidays:

‘These sessions were a lifesaver this summer. With budgets tight and the cost of living rising so high we weren’t able to take * a lot of places in the holidays so your days out were

so welcome and so affordable. * loved them especially the surfing and we can’t thank you all enough. Keep up the good work * mum xx’

‘The activities in the holidays we fantastic thanks very much. My son has grown in confidence so much because of your groups. His interactions with the other young people have come on great as this can be a particular problem for him. He loves your sessions and looks forward to coming. I can't thank you all enough.’

Community Events and Project Work

We took young people to collect a High Sheriff Award at Alnwick Playhouse. These young people were chosen by PYP for their achievements at our youth sessions and in our group work activities.

PYP is an active member of Tynedale Youth Forum and we took part in a joint residential with other youth projects from the West of Northumberland. We took six young people to Whithaugh Park where young people took part in a variety of challenging activities including zip wire, canoeing, mountain biking and archery. These young people got to socialise with others that are from different youth projects in the area. We would like to thank Tynedale Youth Forum for inviting us!

PYP worked with the Red Brick Care Home to play games with the residents of the care home. Our young people really enjoyed working with the older people and were paired up, so they supported each other during the games. It was a lovely opportunity for young people to engage in intergenerational work. During the session we saw the care home come to life with young people's influence and enthusiasm.

PYP produced a piece of artwork for the arts trail. It was a fantastic piece of artwork to go on show produced by young people for the whole community. Thank you to Prudhoe Community Partnership for the opportunity to get involved.

PYP worked with Tyne Valley Canoe Club to provide a water safety and canoeing session for young people. Water safety is vital in a town that has seen real tragedy. It gave the young people the opportunity to try something new and we hope that they go on to work with Tyne Valley Canoe Club in the future.

PYP continued its work supporting young people with mental health needs through PYPSS (Prudhoe Youth Project Support Service). We saw a number of young people at our drop-in sessions and on a one-to-one basis throughout the year to help them work through the mental health issues they were experiencing. Some of these were just several sessions of support with a youth worker, other sessions led to further referrals into children's services, the NHS, and other services.

PYPSS has developed and now works directly in schools. We delivered assemblies to 800 young people, talking to them about Mental Health. These assemblies gave young people the opportunity to think about their own mental health issues and we talked about how they may find support. We then established our Health Drop In Session at Prudhoe

Community High School, supporting young people through a lunch time drop-in session where they can talk about anything that they were worried about. This included mental health, sexual health, relationship problems, friendship issues, bullying and family issues.

PYP continues offering support to Happy Faces by employing 2 members of staff on their behalf. We train, supervise and support these members of staff to ensure they deliver high quality youth work in Happy Faces sessions.

Christmas Activities

The lead up to Christmas was busy with a total of 129 attendances and over 60 young people attending trips before we broke up for the Christmas holidays. It was great to see young people having fun, challenging themselves on the ice or on the climbing rope courses. We saw real benefit to our lad’s group social night bowling. It was a lovely way to end the year.

During Christmas 2022 we worked with Angie Scott's Christmas Appeal to put a call out to families who may have needed extra support over Christmas. We had seen the cost-of-living crisis gripping the UK and we knew that we had families who were experiencing financial difficulties. After some communication with families, we identified 5 families needing extra support this Christmas. These families were not going to have presents for their children on Christmas Day and they also did not have the money to cover the cost of Christmas dinner.

We worked with a number of organisations including the Angie Scott Christmas Appeal, Darras Hall Primary School, Stocksfield Baptist Church and Feeding Families to provide packs of food and presents to deliver to family’s doorsteps so that no young person went without a present or a Christmas dinner. This was an extremely moving piece of work and really highlighted some of the hardships our families are experiencing.

Our 2023 new year party was attended by 20 young people on the 3rd of January. The young people enjoyed playing games, catching up with one another and eating some party food. We had food and prizes that were donated by Gordon Stewart.

Financial Review

PYP received grants from many different funders, these include; Community Foundation Lawrence Campbell Community First Fund, Community Foundation Wide Open Road Fund, Prudhoe Town Council, Sir James Knott Trust, Community Foundation Wellesley Trust, Community Foundation High Sheriff Award, Ballinger Charitable Trust (on behalf of National Lottery Fund), Community Foundation Cost of Living Grant, Prudhoe Community Partnership Grant from NCC for Youth Work, Tesco Community Grant, Co-op Community Fund, Northumberland County Council Holiday Activities Fund and Northumberland County Council Jubilee Grant.

PYP benefited from small grants and fundraising efforts. We would like to thank the people who play the Northumberland Lottery, Aldi at Prudhoe, Wilton Holmes and Prudhoe Football Club, Lloyds Bank and PayPal Gift Aid.

In the financial year April 2022 to March 2023 income totaled £89,603, of which £78,345 is restricted funding and £11,258 is unrestricted. Expenditure was mainly staffing costs £50,639, room hire £6,002, activities/resources £9,822 and trips/residentials £13,066 and finally bank charges of £72 totaling £79,601.

There was a balance of £79,994 at the year end, of which £ 65,994 is restricted funds for projects and £14,000 is unrestricted funds.

Assets

PYP does not yet have any fixed assets but held assets in cash at the year end for future activities.

Plans for Future Periods

PYP have developed and extended several projects this year to meet local need. These projects each have an individual importance for young people from Prudhoe and it’s surrounding areas. We wish to continue each of these projects and will seek funding to do so.

PYP will continue to plan trips and offsite activities with young people to ensure we address the hobbies and interests of young people.

We want to maintain our staff team of 7 and ensure they receive annual safeguarding training. We wish to bring our team together at staff meetings to ensure we have a crossover between our youth sessions, allowing us to consider young people’s needs, share resources and support each other.

We will involve young people in decisions we make about the service we run and seek feedback from young people and parents/carers annually.

Risk Review

PYP has reviewed all policies including safeguarding. Staff and volunteers have completed safeguarding training annually and one first aider is always on site of any organised activity. We have reviewed the risk assessments for each building to ensure we reduce the risks during our centre based sessions. We have consent forms from parents/carers, off site visits are risk assessed and emergency contacts are available for each trip/residential. These measures reduce the risks in working with young people.

The main risk is attracting sufficient long term funding for staff and activities. To resolve this the trustees and staff will aim to source funding that is awarded for a duration of 3 years and larger grants where possible.

Governing Documents

PYP became a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) established on 9th September 2019. The charity submits annual accounts to the charity commission that have been independently audited.

Structure, Governance and Management

PYP is governed by the trustees who are elected by current trustees. There may be up to 10 trustees and two Prudhoe Town Council representatives who are also Trustees. Trustees meet bi- monthly.

Since the AGM in September 2022 Brenda Gray and Paul Davenport have stepped down as trustees and we have welcomed Stephen Thompson Thorburn to the board of trustees.

Related Parties

PYP receives funding from Prudhoe Town Council. Prudhoe Town Council has appointed two Councillors as representatives.

Accountants and external examiner

Digital Accounting was appointed independent examiner at the 2022 Annual General Meeting.

This report has been prepared in accordance with the Statement of Recommended Practice: Accounting and Reporting by Charities (issued in March 2005) and in accordance with the special provisions of Part VII of the Companies Act 1985 relating to small entities.

Approved by the trustees on 7[th] November 2023 and signed on its behalf by:

Dorothy Dickinson (Chair) Jessica Hosking (Treasurer)

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CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES I Independent examinerfs report on the accounts Section A Indepèndent Examiner's Report R•port to the tNstees1 ' members of pn￿hOe Youth Project On accounts for the year ended 31 Marth 2023 Charlty no (if any} 1185239 Set on pag I rèport to the trustees on my examination ofthe accounts of the above charrtyllhe Trusf) for the year erKl8d 31103 12023. ResponsFbilities and As the charity trustees of the Tnjst, you are responsibk for the preparation basls of roport of the accounls in a¢¢ordan wrth the requirements of the Charities Ad 2011 {°the W. I report in respect of my examinatr.on of the Trusys a¢¢ounts caTTTed OLrt under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable fAreGtions gNen by the Charfty Commission under section 145(5){b) of the AL#. I have ci>mpleted my examination. I confiftn that no material matters have come lo my attenlion in cknnnection with the examination whic gives me cause lo believe that in, any material resFed.' accounts.ng records were not kept in accordance section 130 of theArtor the accounts do not xcord *ryth the accounting records Independent examinerfs 8tatemant I have rKJ concems and have come across no other matteTS in connection wth the examination to which attentlon should be drawn in order to enabl8 a proper und&rslanding of the accounts to reached. Sign•d: 31.10.23 Name: Karen Saddington - Digital Accountancy Relevant professional qualifieation{s} or body {rf any): ICAEW Addr¢ss: Room 2.05. The SFelchells Centre, 58 Frort Street. Prudhoe, Northumt¢rland NE42 SAA IER October 2018