## **Trustees Annual Reports** **16 November 2019 to 30 November 2021** THE JOURNEY TO RECOVERY HAS BEEN PAVED WITH A LOT OF ADVERSITY We have come a long way as bereaved and survivors families but we have hopes that the road ahead would be much smoother as we have learnt resilience skills and lessons that fostered more opportunities for collaboration and co-operation with all our communities and stakeholders. ## **Foreword by the Chair** , The set-up of The Grenfell Tower Trust was organic and came out many conversations that stressed the importance of bereaved and survivors families having a strong voice where they speak directly to many stakeholders be it government, local authority or community about their issues of concern rather than through third parties. The dedication of its founder and trustees has enable us to overcome adversity and many challenges that were put in our way whilst we should have been taking time to heal and to overcome the loss we have endured. We have learnt valuable lessons of how to turn adversity into resilience and opportunity. The determination of our members and their support gave the impetus to work harder to ensure that all bereaved families get the support they deserve. Our collaboration with NHS Health partners has been quite beneficial as we were instrumental in creating a safe space to explore and develop a more inclusive engagement where diversity and culture are celebrated and respected. The Cultural Reference Framework training programme is now rolled out to the Grenfell clinical and professional staff initially and will be provided to other health and care professional and medical students subsequently. I would like to thank all those who have supported us to deliver a support that is fit for purpose and caters for the diverse community of Grenfell bereaved and survivors families and local residents of North Kensington. **Nabil Choucair Chairman of the Grenfell Tower Trust** ## Introduction This Report sets out briefly the main activities and events that were carried out since the set up of the Grenfell Tower Trust from November 2019 to March 2021. A lengthy discussion among the trustees came to the conclusion that we will only focus on the work that has been impactful on our communities of bereaved and survivors as we engaged with the diverse partners and the achievement and success collaboration with NHS and RBKC locally and the Department for levelling up, Housing and Communities and the Office of the Prime minister and Mayor of London in central Government as well as the Grenfell Public Inquiry and the Metropolitan Police and London Fire Commissioner. We will not follow a strictly chronological order but zoom in on the events and work that has made a great difference to the lives of our members as they had to not only deal with the bereavement and loss but also suffer from lack of access to support while the nation went into a lockdown which had made the support we provided a life-line that was extended to many families who were on the edge of a severe mental health breakdown. The long term vision and strategic thinking has been a big driver to our success in achieving our main goals which are as follows : a) Grenfell Tower Trust is a bereaved and survivors Hub that enhances access to services to meet personal, the physical, social, emotional and mental health needs of bereaved families that are appropriate to their ever changing situations since the fire in June 2017. b) GTT is a platform that ensures the flow of information and better communication regarding services available to survivors and bereaved families are accurate and up-to-date. Information is provided in both digital and paper forms in different languages to reach all families. c) The charity collaborates with other agencies and partners to support the dedicated service at the Family and Friends Assistance Centre to deliver equitable and accessible services to all bereaved and survivors affected by the Grenfell Fire d) It coordinates an outreach service to reach out to the families and to provide a tailor made service to meet their needs and to provide both clinical and non-clinical health care such as massage therapies, yoga, and mindfulness in the centre as well as retreats and trips and social activities. ## _**1- GRENFELL TOWER TRUST AS A HEALTH PARTNER**_ We were very clear from the start that we have to meet the physical, mental and emotional health care needs of our bereaved and survivors families and that provision can only be successful if it is co-designed with the people concerned. To achieve this goals we started a partnership with NHS North Kensington Recovery team which culminated in the Grenfell Tower Trust becoming a health partner in November 2019. GTT carried out an extensive engagement with a group of Bereaved and Survivors families, especially Arabic and Persian speaking communities who had not been participating in any consultation due to language access and cultural barriers. We were able to feed in the views of these groups and to make their voice heard. Their contribution was very valuable to development of a Cultural Reference Framework and the NHS Health and Well-being Recovery Strategy 2020-2024. This Cultural Reference Framework training is now been agreed by the British Medical Association and been first piloted in North Kensington and will rolled out to the new formed NHS North West London Integrated Service. CRF has also been adopted by the Quality Care Commission and will be part of their assessment of health and social care KPI in the future. Part of our engagement strategy is to use all different modes of engagement to increase participation whether in person, through social media, focus groups or international cafe style open conversation. It is in the latter that we organised an Engage and Dinner Event on Friday 21[st] February 2020 at Bay 20, 71 St Mark’s Road. Bay 20 is a community centre that was built by the BBC at the aftermath for the Grenfell Tower Fire. The focus on this successful event was two fold: Firstly, is to collect the views and feedback of participants from bereaved, survivors and local community on the development of the recovery strategy and answering the questions that informed the co-production of the health strategy with NHS West London CCG: Secondly, it was to provide a resilience training to enable people cope with mental and emotional challenges at the aftermath of the traumatic experience of loss and inadequate service and inappropriate support that followed. The resilience training was delivered by a very renowned professionals who were selected for both their clinical expertise on the subject of Trauma and understanding on the demographic of the area of disaster. Emer O’Neil - Founder of Journey of Hope and Paquita de zuluetaa Recovery Team **Commented [NeA1]:** With Paquita de zuluetaa **Commented [NeA2R1]:** Emer O’Neil - Founder of Journey of Hope Dr Paquita de Zulueta is a is a local GP who has been working as an outreach coordinator with Grenfell Outreach Team. She is a NHS Clinical Ethics lecturer at Imperial College. She also a qualified Psychotherapist and a Leadership Coach. Her workshop on Personal and Community resilience was very interactive and quite beneficial to many participants as expressed in their involvement and feedback. Dr Naureen Whittinger, a Chartered Clinical Psychologist and Systemic Practitioner/Trainee Family Psychotherapist. She is a qualified BSc (Hons), DClinPsychol, GradCert. She is also a member of British Psychological Society and registered with the Health Care Professionals Council. Her presentation entitled Moving Beyond Adversity was well grounded in her work with bereaved and survivors and very impactful. All participants were very happy to discuss the mental health and emotional challenges they were going through in a group setting and with people with shared experience. Many expressed their appreciation and gratitude that this was the first time there is the environment conducive to talk and learn and that it is psychological safe to be listened to without fear of judgment or prejudice. The active participation of the Grenfell Tower Trust has stirred the health Partners direction of travel towards a more inclusive leadership and and asset model that changed the dynamics of the different partners who otherwise lost trust in service providers coproduced and designing a recovery health strategy that meet their immediate and long term needs. ## _**2- COLLABORATION WITH GRENFELL DEDICATED SERVICE**_ The collaboration work and relationship with the Dedicated Service has been quite challenging and rewarding. The fact that Nabil Choucair and Shah Aghlani have been on the steering committee of the DS since its inception, they were able to represent the views of bereaved survivors families and ensure that their voice is heard. There was a huge trust deficit with the RBKC at the aftermath of the disaster and many families didn’t not agree that the council should be leading on these services so it was left for an Action for Children to manage the Families and Friends Centre. Due to a lack of communication and engagement many families, especially those with literacy problems, from BAME communities, felt that the service offer didn’t meet all the community needs. GTT has used different modes of engagement to ensure that all those barriers to access were removed. The support that was provided to the families was based on a cultural reference framework that enabled participants to be part of and included in a very diverse group. It contributed to the writing and development of the term of reference for the new service and helped shape the Dedicated Service to cater for the community of bereaved and survivors on an equal and fair basis. Our office at the Family and Friends Centre operated an open door policy and had helped many families to access the service they were entitled to. The Dedicated Service supported us to organise social events, mainly around Grenfell Anniversaries. These events were well received by the families we support and the communities we work with. Some of the quotes of appreciation can be summarised thus: _**“ Me and my wife really enjoyed the anniversary dinner. It was great chance to catch up with all the families as well as remember the last few years that have gone by, as well as all those lost due to Grenfell. Overall had a really nice day, would love to attend another dinner like this again. Thank you.”**_ Hakim _**“ I enjoyed the dinner with my kids on the anniversary day. Thank you very much.”**_ Malak _**“ words of thanks and appreciated for the great invitation dear Nabil and May God bless you and hope to have the opportunity to do it again**_ ” Amal Khalloufi. _**“ Thank you very much for the dinner cannot wait for the next one.”**_ Sabah Youssef Abdallah. _**“ I thank you so much for a lovely evening and hope you would organise another dinner.”**_ Said. Ensuring a proper participation of all the users of the grenfell Dedicated Service has been quite a challenge due to the lack of trustees support. An area that needs more focus and attention as there were no mechanisms for evaluation of processes and procedures from an a diversity and inclusion stand point fit the Dedicated Service. Something that has hampered the representation of all users on the different committee or boards that managed the Grenfell service provision. ## _**3- ROBUST ENGAGEMENT WITH DEPARTMENT OF LEVELLING UP HOUSING AND COMMUNITIES**_ The Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission engagement started in earnest In January 2020. The Grenfell Tower Trust spent a huge amount of time and energy putting forward the views of immediate next of kin bereaved and survivors on who should be on that commission, its role and how to engage them. There was a high level of frustration and anger that those who are most affected by the disaster were not listened to. The process of elections to the membership was inadequate as it was not conducive to inclusion and diversity but to those who have more votes. The lack of cultural competency and understanding of beliefs and values of bereaved meant that many families didn’t take part in this process. Meeting with the then minister for Grenfell (victims-) both in North Kensington and in House of Parliament were very tense and emotional draining. That prompt GTT to seek audience with the the Prime Minister Theresa May-She was very understanding of the importance of the Grenfell Memorial Commission and its role and the Addition of a third member to the Public Inquiry to reflect the diversity of the Grenfell community as she publicly quoted as saying that there should be no stone left unturned to get to the truth. These conversations continued with the Current Prime Minister Boris Johnson who also made promises that the Grenfell community should get justice and redress for what happened to them because of the Grenfell Tower Fire. Shah Aghlani and Nabil Choucair at door of number 10 Downing Street Nour-eddine ABOUDIHAJ with Theresa May at House of Commons - _**4- THE OFFICE OF THE MAYOR OF LONDON POSITIVE ENGAGEMENT**_ The Mayor of London Sadique Khan as been quite supportive and understanding to the issues that bereaved and survivors families were dealing with and was very clear from the open door policy of his office as well through the many meetings we had with him and the Grenfell unit he set up. We felt he understood the issues of inclusion and diversity and supported our demand from a BAME member on the Grenfell Public Enquiry and wrote a letter of support to Nick Hurd to ask him to Ensure that a voice that reflect the demographic of the residents of the tower. He was also instrumental in having effective engagement with the London Fire Brigade. These conversations were highly intense and very important for the families to get answers from LFB leadership, especially that a large number of families believed that there were partly to blame in the fire. Bereaved in visit to City Hall to meet up with the Mayor of London ## _**5- THE GRENFELL PUBLIC INQUIRY AND THE CORE**_ ## _**PARTICIPANTS VOICE**_ The relationship between the Public Inquiry and the bereaved families has been strained since its inception. There was a great apprehension that the Chair will not deliver the justice that the families want. The Grenfell Tower Trust has been actively engaged with the public Inquiry to ensure that the voice of the many diverse families who are seeking justice for their loved one is at the centre of the focus for the chair and panel. Imran Khan solicitors and others have brought to the attention of the panel the role of race, ethnicity and faith played in their submission and should be considered while descending justice. Our plea for considering institutional discrimination as a factor that led to the unfair treatment of the residents hence the result of such discrimination should be considered by the public inquiry fall on deaf ears. We run a series of workshop to explore further issues of discrimination and voiceless ness among core participant to ascertain where the inquiry is inclusive has listens to their concerns. The question that these workshops posed by the research project funded by the British Academy were as follows: We seek to investigate the intersection between law and trauma. In analysing this intersection, the emphasis is put on the link between a traumatic event and the social, political and legal conditions in which the traumatic event takes place. Behind this chosen lens through which to research trauma is the realisation that traumas occur only if a given set of conditions enable their occurrence. The more common approach, of addressing traumas as isolated events while obscuring or ignoring the conditions responsible for their occurrence, inevitably results in the reinforcement of these conditions and in the consequent repetition of the same types of trauma. Seeing that trauma is an event that could not have occurred in the absence of certain conditions, is the basis of the understanding that the trauma is in fact a unit which stores crucial knowledge through which these conditions can be exposed and addressed. A trauma provides access to knowledge that might not be accessible in other means and which holds the potential to bring about deep social changes (this is referred to in psychology as the potential of growth embedded in trauma). However, precisely because of its potential, the knowledge held within the traumatic experience is often not accessed and remains outside of dominant discourses, known only to the survivors and the people closest to them. Exclusion of crucial knowledges stored within the trauma is a central way by which power relations responsible for the occurrence of the trauma are maintained and meaningful social changes are prevented It is this angle that is adopted in investigating the intersection between law and trauma. The broad research question is: in which ways does the law participate in the exclusion of certain knowledges from discourses around trauma. The narrower question asked in the project that is the basis of this application is how are the borders of ‘relevant’ knowledge defined through the limitation of space designated in proceedings to the testimony of people who went through trauma. ## Grenfell Tower Inquiry Grenfell Tower was a residential tower block, part of a housing estate in North Kensington, London. On 14 June 2017 a fire, spread in the building, killed 72 people, among which were 18 children. On 15 June 2017 Theresa May ordered a public inquiry “to establish the facts of what happened at Grenfell Tower in order to take the necessary action to prevent a similar tragedy from happening again” and to identify and learn “all the wider lessons from both this catastrophe and the inspections of other buildings around the country that followed it” (Parliament Statement 29.6.17). Sir Moore-Bick, a retired Court of Appeal Judge, was appointed as the Chair of the Inquiry, following a by the Lord Chief Justice’s recommendation. The Inquiry consists of two phases. Phase 1 focused on the events of the night of the fire. The gathering of evidence for this phase had completed and a preliminary report is expected to be published in October 2019. Phase 2 of the Inquiry which will commence during 2020 will consider the events that led to the fire and all other relevant information. I intend to work with a group of people who are the survivors and the bereaved of the fire to understand how the Inquiry’s knowledge is being defined and which contents are excluded in that process. From the perspective of the bereaved and survivors, the project is a platform in which to process, in a supported and safe environment, their perceptions and experiences of the inquiry. Their messages to the Inquiry can then be shared with the general public through the media if they will choose and consent to do so. Th report from these workshops can be found in the link below: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jols.12326 A direct quotes of The topic Sentence of the abstract is thus: “ _**Through an analysis of data obtained from research Carrie out with the bereaved families of Grenfell Tower and residents of North Kensington, this article demonstrates that the Grenfell community’s knowledge on the causes that led to the fire is being systematically excluded by the Inquiry.”**_ Although there has been many calls to include institutional discrimination in the terms of reference they were always met with rejection by the public inquiry team. That has led to a lack of confidence that the inquiry will bring the justice that the core participants are seeking. Grenfell TowerTrust Registered Charity No 1186180 Financial Statements For the perlod 6-11-19 to 31>11-20 Contents Annual report Admlnistratlve Infomiatlon Independent Examiners report Recelpts & payments account Statement of a55ets & liabilities Note to accounts Grenfell Tower Trust Adminlstratlve Informatlon For the period 6-11-19 to 3￿11-20 l. Governance. The organisation registered on 6 November 2019 as a Charitable Incorporated ooanisation and has limited liability of up to £1. 2. Contsct details Address: Famlly & Frlends Asslstance Centre E-mall: 8renfelltrust@8mall.com Trustees Nabil Choucair (Chairl Nour-eddlne Aboudihaj Shahrokh Aghlani Trustees Independent Examlner Tom Fitch BSC Community Accountancy Self Help, l Thorpe Close London WIO 5XL Aims and objective: To relieve fina￿￿1 hardship. povety. ill-health, disabilty, distressto relevefinandal hardship. povety, ilkhealth, di￿bIlIty, di5knEs53nd sufferirvd of t￿SUrVIvOrS0f theGtEnfell towertragedy arKI the1rfamil￿Sand depeThJents aml th05ew￿ have SLrffered t￿reaven*￿tasa resutt of tragedy, in particvlarbut mt exclusNeWthroLEh:. *aciltstirE accessto thi￿. counsellin& Se￿1￿$ a￿1 aSYstan￿that supportrecoverw, and. tyassockHtingtcEetherthesuNivors, families and deFRndents, and the k)cal autlKJrtties,voluntaryarKI otherorganisations wi orderto ￿lIeVe SLKh needs. To PEserve arKI protect physral ard mental health by.. facilitstin8acce55to ath￿. counsellirg $eM￿Sam1 assIstan￿that5UppQrtTecoVerY, and. rdisingawarer*ss of ary ￿n5 leamed f￿M the GtEnfell Tov￿rtragedyW1th a viewto ensuringthat nosimilartragthtakes p￿7￿ in the future,. To p)Dmote social indusionforthe wblt ￿nefftamo￿ suNNorsofthe GrenfelltowertTrgedy andtheirfamilies and dependentsand those who have Suffered bereavementas a resultof the tragth by weventinB ￿0p￿froM beo)ming9Jaaltyexdtxled, ￿lI￿lIEthe needsofthose peorAewFK) areSwal￿eXclUded and assistingthem to integrate into gxw. forthe purposeof thisdause:'9xialtyexduded means beingexdth from soaety, Orpartsof￿CJèty, asa resuttof oneof more of the followingfaLtor5'. unemployrnenL' fina￿￿￿] hardship; youth orokl age; ill heatth Iphy&cal or mentsll; Substan￿ abuse ordeFEndencyincludirEalcoh)l and dnjgs; discrrmination on the groundsof seA race, disabiltty, ethrFicorigin. religKJn. ￿lIef, creed, sexual orientation Orgender￿sSgnrneit ￿redUCat￿nal orskills attainmentr. relationship a￿1 frdmlly breakdown; F￿rhOUsIng (that is housingthatth)es Th)t m*t basr habitabk5tandards,' crime leitherasa McEim of crimeorasanoffender rehabilitatill8 into SKWI. GrenfellTower traged￿ meansthe firewhrchtook Pl￿0￿ 14June 2017 at GrenfellTower (the 24-Storey residential toV￿r bhxk of pubiic housingflats in north Ken￿ngtOn, London, Erwandl. Grenfell Tower Trust Independent Examiners Report For the period &11-19 to 3￿11-20 I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity 1.the TrusVI for the period 6-11-19 to 30-11-20. As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance wtth the requirements of the Charities Act 20111.the ACVI. I report in respect of my examination of the Trusvs accounts carried out under sertion 145 of the 2011 Act and in carryin8 Out my examiriation, I have followed all the appllcable Difections given by the Charity Commission under section 14515llbl of the Act. The charity's gross income is less than £250,000 and l am qualified to undertake the examination. I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respert: the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act,. or the accounts did not accord with the accounting records: or the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charfties (Accounts and Reports) Regulatlons 2CQ8 other than any requirement that the accounts give a 'true and fairf view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination. I have no concerns and have come 3cr055 no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the attounts to be reached. Tom Fitch BSC Community Accountancy Self Help l Thorpe Close London WIO 5XL ti/,/. Grenfell TowerTrust Statement of Financlal Activities For the perfod 6-11-19 to 3￿11-20 Income Donations RBKC Youth Tralning RBKC G￿nfe11 NHSCCG Total Unrestricted 1,510 Restrlcted Total 1,510 2.C()O io,o¢)o 4.950 16,950 io,(KK) 4,950 18A60 1,510 Expenditure NHS supported consultation events Anniversary events Youth training events Phone, internet, e-mail Stationary and office Bank charges Total 4.328 3,533 4,328 3,533 219 77 119 77 303 7A61 8,164 "Net Surplus (deficit) 1.362 10,451 Grenfell Tower Trust Statement of Assets and Uabilities At ￿11-20 A55ets 2 Laptops Phone Bank 933 450 li Llabilities Net Assets 11,834 Grenfell Tower Trust Notes to the accounts For the period &11-19 to 31FII-20 l. Receipts & payments accounts summaries money received and paid out during the period through bank accounts, electronic systems like pay pal and as physical cash. 2. The statement of assets and liabilities details physical. intellectual and financial assets, and liabilities including creditors. 3. The charity registered on 6-11-19 $0 there is no prior year.