January 2022 to December 2022
Annual Report
To support our guests during the year, we continued to operate a lunch time drop in service 1 pm to 3 pm Tuesday to Friday inclusive at Christ Church Lewes from January 2022 to November 2022. By November 2022 the vast majority of our guests were in emergency accommodation in the centre of Lewes and were finding it too far to walk up to Christ Church and therefore were not making use of the drop in. At that point we took the decision to cease our lunch time drop in at Christ Church. We continued to support around 20 people on and off with food, clothing and signposting to the appropriate advice. This sometimes included taking people to hospital or GP appointments and facilitating dental treatment. We have made use of the Warm Space at Christ Church on a Wednesday to have meetings with our guests and others such as the council or other charities. We are continuing to seek partnerships with the Fitzjohns Food bank and the charity Lewes Homelink to make use of our funds and our volunteers to benefit the most vulnerable in our community and may well seek to operate a drop in service again should the circumstances of our guests change.
We have 2 designated volunteer outreach workers who visit people in temporary accommodation and on the streets, to offer additional emotional and practical support. At any one time we are usually supporting about 20 homeless and vulnerable people in our community. We provide clothing and other essentials as needed. We are lucky to have a place to store our supplies in council premises and during the year handed out a number of tents, sleeping bags, warm coats, boots, socks and underwear as well as toiletries. We have also provided kettles and microwaves to guests in temporary accommodation. We continue to be members of East Sussex Homelessness Forum, whose aim is for all partners to work with the local authority, statutory and commissioned agencies with a vision “To work collaboratively to bring an end to rough sleeping in East Sussex and prevent people from rough sleeping in the future”. We continue to take an active role in bi-monthly meetings, as well as several subcommittees, and believe we are helping to formulate improved strategies and help the voices of rough sleepers and the homeless to be better heard. Rough Sleepers Initiative, including outreach workers and health professionals, have continued to help our guests.
We co-ordinated a visit from the mobile free dental service Dentaid which helped one of our guests who had severe dental problems and was very grateful for the treatment he received.
We continued to offer showers from our shower van to those who were sleeping rough but as our guests had mostly been moved into
accommodation which included bathroom facilities and had no need of it, when the van failed its MOT in November 2022, we disposed of it.
We held a very successful fundraising and awareness raising event in July 2022, a Celebration of Kindness. The venue was provided free of charge by a local brewery who donated some beer as well. We had face painting and music provided by a local ukelele group. We also set up a wish tree where visitors could fill in labels on which they wrote their wishes which they then hung on our tree.
Twelve of our volunteers attended a day’s first aid training. In addition, some of our volunteers completed level two food hygiene training. Others also attended overdose training.
Throughout the year we are especially pleased when we could help guests move into better circumstances. We helped set one couple up in accommodation in Eastbourne and provided kitchen equipment for them. We supported one of our guests who was given council accommodation and has managed to remain drug free throughout this period. We support some of our clients with train tickets or by volunteers driving them to alcohol and drug support agency in Eastbourne. We have helped our guests open Bank Accounts and apply for copies of missing Birth Certificates. We supported one guest, a victim of domestic abuse, by liaising closely with Adult Social Services and the Housing Department and then supporting her with fares, phone, bedding etc to be able to be placed in a refuge.
We supported another client, who had been living in unsuitable temporary accommodation for some years, which was seriously affecting his mental and physical health. We wrote to his GP & liaised with the Housing Department and were delighted when he successfully bid for a local flat.
We were very pleased to be able to help one of our guests who sadly became terminally ill while he lived in the council provided temporary accommodation. We helped him to connect with his family from whom he had been estranged for many years. We went with him to his hospital appointments and helped his final few weeks to be much more comfortable than they otherwise would have been. We also organised his funeral which was attended by his friends and many volunteers from Lewes Open Door.
An indication of the gratitude of our guests was a letter that we had during the year ‘to all the wonderful people who give their time. I am writing to thank you for all the hot meals, coffees, fruit and biscuits and the always warm welcome….It was a great help knowing I could get a regular meal at Christ Church during the weeks I was rough sleeping and that would not have been possible without your efforts and time, once again I offer you a big thank you….’
Charity Name No (if any) Receipts and payments accounts CC16a For the period Period start date Period end date To from 1/1/2022 12/31/2022
Section A Receipts and payments
| Section A Receipts and payments | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1 Receipts Gifts and donations 8,942 Loan repayments and refunds 1,781 Golders Green Foundation 1,000 Lewes Town Councilgrant - Lewes Covid Fund - winter warmgrant - NeighbourlyGrant - - - 11,723 - - Sub total - Total receipts 11,723 A3 Payments Premises rental 3,855 Insurance 404 Telephone and internet 695 Expenses 6,343 Shower van - Training ClothingLewes Council Grant funded - DBS checks - - Sub total 11,297 - - Sub total - Total payments 11,297 Net of receipts/(payments) 426 A5 Transfers between funds - 196 A6 Cash funds last year end 29,474 Cash funds this year end 29,704 Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ Sub total(Gross income for AR) A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). A4 Asset and investment purchases,(see table) |
to the nearest £ - - - 1,880 - - - - 1,880 - - - 1,880 - - - - 2,661 940 - - - 3,601 - - - 3,601 - 1,721 196 1,525 - Restricted funds |
to the nearest £ Endowment funds |
Total funds to the nearest £ 8,942 1,781 1,000 1,880 - - - - 13,603 - - - 13,603 3,855 404 695 6,343 2,661 940 - - - 14,898 - - - 14,898 - 1,295 - 30,999 29,704 |
Last year to the nearest £ |
| - - - - - - - - - |
8,942 | 17,887 | ||
| 1,781 | - | |||
| 1,000 | - | |||
| 1,880 | - | |||
| 1,172 | ||||
| 5,000 | ||||
| - | - | |||
| - | - | |||
| 13,603 | 24,059 | |||
| - - - |
- | |||
| - | - | |||
| - | - | |||
| - | 13,603 | 24,059 | ||
| - - - - - - - - - - |
3,855 | 1,440 | ||
| 404 | 400 | |||
| 695 | 307 | |||
| 6,343 | 4,188 | |||
| 2,661 | 3,475 | |||
| 940 | - | |||
| - | 1,233 | |||
| - | 648 | |||
| - | - | |||
| 14,898 | 11,691 | |||
| - - - |
- | |||
| - | ||||
| - | - | |||
| - | 14,898 | 11,691 | ||
| - 1,721 | - - - - |
- 1,295 | 12,368 | |
| 196 | - | - | ||
| 1,525 | 30,999 | 18,631 | ||
| - | 29,704 | 30,999 |
| Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period | Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period | Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Categories B1 Cash funds B2 Other monetary assets B3 Investment assets B5 Liabilities B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees |
Details General funds Details Details Details Details Signature Total cash funds (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) |
to nearest £ to nearest £ 29,704 - - - 29,704 - OK OK to nearest £ to nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - Cost (optional) - - - - - Cost (optional) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Print Name Andrew Buxton Claire Bell Unrestricted funds Restricted funds Unrestricted funds Restricted funds Fund to which asset belongs Fund to which asset belongs Fund to which liability relates Amount due (optional) |
to nearest £ Endowment funds |
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| OK | |||
| to nearest £ Endowment funds |
|||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| Current value (optional) |
|||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| Current value (optional) |
|||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| When due (optional) |
|||
| Date of approval |
|||
| Andrew Buxton | 5/4/2023 | ||
| Claire Bell | 5/3/2023 |