theMOVEMENT Trustees’ Annual Report 6th Feb 2020- 28th Feb 2021
Charity registration no: 1187782
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theMOVEMENT Charity Report of the Trustees for the year ended 28th February 2021
Reference and Administrative Information
Charity Name: theMOVEMENT
Charity registration number: 1187782
Registered Office: Kemp House 152-160 City Road London EC1V 2NX
Board of Trustees:
Mr Robin Barden Chair Mr Ben Hingston Treasurer Mrs Elizabeth Morris Secretary Mrs Becky Marlow Mrs Ruth Le Friec
Senior Management Team:
Mrs Fiona Roberts Chief Executive
Structure, Governance & Management
Governing Document: Constitution
How Charity is Constituted: Charitable Incorporated Organisation
Trustee Selection Method:
Identifying gaps in the knowledge and expertise of existing Trustees is used to identify the preferred characteristics of new Trustees. theMOVEMENT finds and appoints new Trustees through word of mouth and public advertisements, and assesses through an informal introductory meeting. All new Trustees are provided with a copy of the Constitution and the most recent Trustees’ Annual Report & Financial Statements.
Purpose of theMOVEMENT
Our purposes of the charity as set out in our constitution:
“The relief of women who are in need by reason of their social or economic disadvantage including homelessness; or who have experiences or are at risk of experiencing domestic or other forms of violence, by the provision of access to physical exercise.”
Charity registration no: 1187782
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Executive Summary
theMOVEMENT was first conceived in response to the need to support women who had suffered significant trauma within the local community not being met. Fiona, our founder, felt moved to combine her passions for social justice and fitness to create theMOVEMENT. We exist to restore every woman’s right to exercise.
Our first year as a charity has been quite the year, adapting to the unforeseen challenges brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, as we established ourselves as a charity. Despite these challenges, we are proud to have developed a foundation of strategy, policies and procedures to build theMOVEMENT.
One of the highlights of our year includes a successful crowdfunder, which saw over 100 individuals pledging their financial support to theMOVEMENT. This, alongside successful grant applications and our weekly fundraising classes, enabled theMOVEMENT to happen.
This year we have recruited, and provided training on a trauma informed approach to exercise to, 24 volunteer instructors. We currently are partnered with 9 different charities, where our volunteer instructors provide safe and supportive weekly exercise opportunities for women experiencing multiple disadvantages.
It has been so encouraging to have so many fitness professionals interested in volunteering their time and to continually receive feedback from charity partners about how our services are much needed. The growth we have been able to achieve in the past year has surpassed our expectations and is evidence of the need there is for trauma informed exercise opportunities for women with experience of multiple disadvantages.
We look forward to continuing to develop and grow our services in the coming years, with plans to extend our geographical reach in the future and hopes to be able to resource the fitness industry with tools to become more trauma aware and informed.
We are incredibly grateful to the support and commitment of our volunteer team and supporters, we could not do this vital work without them.
Charity registration no: 1187782
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Our Objectives
Everyone should have access to the mental and physical health benefits of exercise. This is even more the case for women who have experienced multiple disadvantages, where regular exercise can play an important part in their recovery.
Alongside tackling other barriers to exercise, such as a lack of safety, finances and confidence a trauma informed approach to exercise is crucial for women who have suffered multiple disadvantages, and for whom certain approaches to movement can unwittingly compound the impact of traumatic experiences. theMOVEMENT works with charities who already tackle significant barriers such as poverty, to incorporate a trauma informed approach to exercise. We work to restore every woman’s right to exercise.
The beneficiaries of theMOVEMENT are women of very low socio-economic status who have experienced multiple disadvantages. These disadvantages often include an overlap of poverty, adverse mental health and persistent exposure to traumatic situations.
A study by Women in Sport has shown that women of low socio-economic status are the least likely group to be sufficiently physically active and, therefore, benefit from the multiple advantages that exercise can bring, specifically the positive impact of exercise on mental health. This and other linked barriers, including: vulnerable living situations; lack of finances; social stigma; low confidence; and the extensive impacts of trauma itself, combine to create a major inequality in society where women who have experienced persistent exposure to trauma are significantly less likely to access one of the most powerful strategies available to them: exercise.
Our objectives as a charity are to:
-
Establish a platform for personal trainers to work with charities that support women with multiple disadvantages
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Provide relevant trauma awareness training for fitness professionals
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Partner with agencies and interested bodies to advocate for the benefits of exercise for women with multiple disadvantages
Our objectives for our first year as a charity were to achieve five phases laid out in our strategy document, that enable us to establish theMOVEMENT. These five phases were:
Phase 1: Develop a robust strategy
Phase 2: Create appropriate polices and processes
Phase 3: Develop how our operations will work and pursue funding opportunities to allow this to happen.
Phase 4: Advertise our projects to potential charity partners and volunteers
Phase 5: Launch our projects, including our first training event and fitness sessions between volunteers and beneficiaries.
Charity registration no: 1187782
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Our Achievements
This year, despite the unforeseen challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, we have successfully fulfilled our objective of completing our five phases of establishing theMOVEMENT (Strategy, Policy, Operations, Advertise, Launch). As part of this, in August 2020 we employed a CEO in a part time position, to oversee these phases. Although some elements of this plan, such as our launch event, were delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we are delighted to have been able to establish a strong foundation for our work to grow from.
From the conception of theMOVEMENT and through our trial period, we prioritised developing a sustainable, strategic plan to establish and grow our concept. Key to this has been building a board of trustees that are experts in the relevant fields.
This year we have had two intakes of volunteers, including two training events for new volunteers which focus on introducing a trauma informed approach to exercise. Through these two intakes, we have recruited and trained 24 volunteers.
Prior to our first intake in November 2020, our founder, Fiona, regularly delivered services at two charity partner locations in West London. In this time, working around the lockdown restrictions, we delivered 14 exercise sessions across two charity partners.
After our first intake of volunteers in November 2020, we successfully matched nine instructors with charity partners, four of which were able to run weekly Movement sessions despite the January 2021 lockdown. In January and February 2021 we ran 14 Movement sessions across three charity partners. This was an amazing achievement, in light of the restrictions of a national lockdown. Our other six volunteers from this intake are partnered with charities and beginning Movement sessions as the restrictions are easing.
Our second intake of volunteers took place in February 2021 and we are currently matching these 14 instructors with local charities to begin providing Movement sessions in the coming months.
We have been able to expand our charity partners and are now working with 9 charity partners to provide exercise opportunities to women experiencing multiple disadvantages across London. We are proud to hear the women attending are already benefiting from the classes and growing in confidence.
As many of our service users have experienced homelessness, one barrier to exercise can be suitable clothing and footwear. We have therefore also started to develop various means by which we can provide women we work with, with suitable clothing and footwear for our exercise sessions as needed.
Our organisation is the only charity known to us that partners with charities to provide free trauma informed exercise opportunities with women experiencing multiple disadvantages.
Charity registration no: 1187782
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Our Impact and Value
Exercise has many proven benefits to a person’s mental health, reducing the risk of depression by up to 30%, lifting mood and improving self-esteem. However, as highlighted above, studies have shown that women of low socio-economic status are the least likely group to be sufficiently physically active. Barriers, including vulnerable living situations, lack of finances, social stigma, low confidence and the extensive impacts of trauma create a major inequality in society where women with multiple disadvantages are significantly less likely to access exercise.
It has been really encouraging to receive positive feedback from the women attending our sessions that has confirmed the reality of these statistics. Here is some of the feedback we have received from the women attending our theMOVEMENT sessions:
“The most positive thing I’ve done in years”
“I feel so good now, it has been so many years since I worked out, even such a short session has made a great difference to my sense of wellbeing”
‘The sessions are so fun, and are boosting my confidence so much,’ says Marie. ‘It doesn't feel like they [the instructor] are here just because of my past. They are like a friend, it feels so normal.’
And here is some feedback we have received from our charity partners:
“the sessions have provided them with a safe space to work towards achieving their fitness goals. The sessions also help them improve their self-esteem, confidence and their psychical health.”
“[the instructor] has carefully considered the clients personalities, current health issues and fitness levels before tailoring the groups to meet the client’s individual needs.”
“We are so grateful to [the instructor] and theMOVEMENT for providing our clients with such wonderful opportunities to enrich their recovery journey!”
Success for us, is not just about the delivery of these sessions, but the impact they can have on all areas of an individual’s life. By giving opportunities for the women we work with to increase their health, wellbeing and sense of purpose, it will impact wider areas of their lives, such as employability and social connection. This, in turn, benefits the wider community, as individuals are empowered and equipped to engage with and contribute to their communities.
Charity registration no: 1187782
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Volunteers
We currently have 24 volunteer instructors who have completed our recruitment process and trauma informed training event.
Here is some feedback from one of our volunteer instructors, who joined theMOVEMENT team in our November 2020 intake and has been volunteering at one of our charity partners for the past two months:
“I came across theMovement on Instagram and knew I had to get involved. I pride myself on being a helpful and caring personal trainer and theMovement is a platform for me to work with a variety of women who I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to reach.
The sign up process was smooth, stress free and Fiona is a great help whenever you need it. Part of becoming an instructor for theMovement involves trauma training, which was great! An incredibly detailed and informative training day where all the new instructors got to meet each other and theMovement team over zoom. An excellent start so I really feel part of a team, and have gained some invaluable knowledge on working with people who have suffered with trauma.
I am currently volunteering 1 hour a week to teach a small group exercise class over zoom, and its awesome, it’s way more than just a few star jumps for these women, its a truly empowering and inspiring class for them and for myself.”
Our current volunteer instructors have also provided positive feedback on how this volunteering opportunity has benefited them, providing an avenue for them to use their skills and experience to support other women. Our volunteers regularly comment on how inspired they are by the resilience of the women we support.
100% of our attendees of our trauma informed training stated that they felt better equipped to provide trauma informed exercise opportunities in the future. This not only equips volunteers to work in a trauma informed way in our charity setting, but also creates a more trauma sensitive environment in the gyms, studios, parks and home they work in, impacting the wider communities our volunteers and their clients are part of.
We are also really grateful to have three additional volunteers who provide regular support with our social media, marketing and partnerships.
Charity registration no: 1187782
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Ambition and Long Term Strategies
Over the next four years we plan to continue to develop and grow the three projects within theMOVEMENT: Our Movement Class, Our Trauma Informed Approach, and Our Advocacy Work.
We will continue to provide exercise opportunities to women experiencing multiple disadvantages throughout London, with plans to continue to recruit and match new volunteer instructors, alongside supporting and empowering our current volunteers. We are currently on track to surpass our goal of having 50 Movement sessions a week by the end of our third year. We also plan to expand this service outside of London in the future, once we have the staff and funding to be able to do this sustainably.
A trauma informed approach is crucial to the work we do. There is limited awareness of trauma informed practice within the fitness industry and so one of our long term goals is to develop training that can resource the wider fitness industry with tools to establish a more trauma informed approach to exercise.
We also intend on continuing to advocate for and elevate the voices of the women we work with. We plan to engage in national dialogue to identify and advocate for initiatives that remove barriers to exercise for women.
Gaining an unexpectedly large amount of volunteer interest in our first year has given us the opportunity to grow our social impact at a much faster rate than we had initially expected. A challenge for us as a charity, therefore, is to ensure we have the funding and staffing to enable this growth to happen. We plan to overcome this challenge by continuing to develop our funding strategy and grow our staff team accordingly.
Charity registration no: 1187782
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Financial Review
As a charity in our first year, we have experienced limited resources and insecurities over funding. Despite this challenge, we have managed to secure funding from multiple different sources, enabling us to sustain our cashflow throughout the year.
Principal Funding Sources
This year one of our principal funding sources has been a successful crowdfunder that we completed in June 2020 and provided us with over £5000 from over 100 supporters. We have also gained £4500 of grants from Natwest Back Her Business, Local Giving and London Catalyst. As the work for which these grants have been given has not yet been completed, we have an outstanding guarantee at the date of the statement of assets & liabilities. Weekly fundraising exercise classes and the support of our regular donors also provide regular funding.
Reserves Policy
The present level of reserves available to the charity is £4865, which falls significantly short of our target of 6 months of the expenditure. Although the strategy is to build reserves through future operating surpluses, the Trustee Board is well aware that it unlikely that the target range can be reached in the near future, as we are a relatively new charity still establishing our long term funding strategy. In the short term the Trustee Board is also considering the extent to which existing activities and expenditure could be curtailed, should such circumstances arise.
State of Finances
theMOVEMENT currently has no funds which are materially in deficit. The Trustees declare that the charity has no outstanding debts which are secured by an express charge on any of the assets of the charity at the date of the statement of assets & liabilities.
Our main areas of expenditure are our staffing cost of our part time staff member and the costs associated with our Movement Classes, such as beneficiary clothing and DBS checks for volunteers. We expect our expenditure to increase over the next year as we accept new volunteers and consider increasing our staffing hours to support this growth.
Restricted Funds
We do not currently have any restricted funds.
Charity registration no: 1187782
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Table of Income and Expenditure
| Income | |
|---|---|
| Grants | 6000 |
| Standing Orders | 670 |
| One off Donations | 2593 |
| Crowdfunder | 5285 |
| Fundraising Classes |
843 |
| Gift Aid | 1625 |
| Total: | 17016 |
| Expenditure | |
|---|---|
| Staff costs | 9508 |
| Volunteer costs | 337 |
| Benefciary clothing | 297 |
| Networking/Marketing | 738 |
| Professional development |
263 |
| Other costs | 1008 |
| Total | 12151 |
Declarations
The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.
Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees
Signature(s) Robin Barden Elizabeth Morris Full name(s) Robin Barden Elizabeth Morris Position (eg Secretary, Chair Secretary Chair, etc) Date 6.3.21
Charity registration no: 1187782
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| Charity Name | Charity Name | Charity Name | Charity Name | Charity Name | No (if any) | No (if any) | CC16a | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
THEMOVEMENT |
1187782 |
||||||||
| Receipts andpayments accounts | |||||||||
| For the period from |
Period start date | To | Period end date | ||||||
| 2/6/20 | 2/28/21 | ||||||||
| Section A Receipts and payments | |||||||||
| Unrestricted funds |
Restricted funds | Endowment funds |
Total funds | Last year | |||||
| to the nearest £ | to the nearest £ | to the nearest £ | to the nearest £ | to the nearest £ | |||||
| A1 Receipts | |||||||||
| Grants | 6,000 | -00 | -00 | 6,000 | -00 | ||||
| Standing orders | 670 | -00 | -00 | 670 | -00 | ||||
| One off donations | 2,593 | -00 | -00 | 2,593 | -00 | ||||
| Crowdfunder | 5,285 | -00 | -00 | 5,285 | -00 | ||||
| Exercise classes | 843 | -00 | -00 | 843 | -00 | ||||
| Gift aid | 1,625 | -00 | -00 | 1,625 | -00 | ||||
| - 0 | -00 | -00 | -00 | -00 | |||||
| Sub total_(Gross income for AR) _ | 17,016 |
-00 | -00 | 17,016 | -00 | ||||
| A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). |
|||||||||
| - 0 | - 0 | - 0 | -00 | ||||||
| - 0 | - 0 | - 0 | -00 | - 0 | |||||
| Sub total | - 0 |
- 0 | - 0 | -00 | - 0 | ||||
| **Total receipts ** | 17,016 |
- 0 | - 0 | 17,016 | - 0 | ||||
| A3 Payments | |||||||||
| Staff costs | 9,508 | -00 | -00 | 9,508 | -00 | ||||
| Premises costs | 43 | -00 | -00 | 43 | -00 | ||||
| Volunteer training | 38 | -00 | -00 | 38 | -00 | ||||
| Other volunteer costs | 299 | -00 | -00 | 299 | -00 | ||||
| Beneficiary clothing | 297 | -00 | -00 | 297 | -00 | ||||
| Networking | 97 | -00 | -00 | 97 | -00 | ||||
| Photoshoot/Video | 412 | -00 | -00 | 412 | -00 | ||||
| Publicity and Fundraising - Other | 47 | -00 | -00 | 47 | -00 | ||||
| Website hosting | 182 | -00 | -00 | 182 | -00 | ||||
| Professional development | 263 | -00 | -00 | 263 | -00 | ||||
| Professional fees | 600 | -00 | -00 | 600 | -00 | ||||
| Phone | 70 | -00 | -00 | 70 | -00 | ||||
| Stationery | 109 | -00 | -00 | 109 | -00 | ||||
| Just Giving fees | 36 | -00 | -00 | 36 | -00 | ||||
| Insurance | 89 | -00 | -00 | 89 | -00 | ||||
| Bank charges | 61 | -00 | -00 | 61 | -00 | ||||
| - 0 | -00 | -00 | -00 | -00 | |||||
| **Sub total ** | 12,151 |
-00 | -00 | 12,151 | -00 | ||||
| A4 Asset and investment purchases,(see table) |
|||||||||
| - 0 | - 0 | - 0 | -00 | ||||||
| - 0 | - 0 | - 0 | -00 | ||||||
| **Sub total ** | - 0 |
- 0 | - 0 | -00 | - 0 | ||||
| **Total payments ** | 12,151 |
- 0 | - 0 | 12,151 | - 0 | ||||
| **Net of receipts/(payments) ** | 4,865 |
-00 | -00 | 4,865 | -00 | ||||
| A5 Transfers between funds | - 0 | -00 | -00 | -00 | -00 | ||||
| A6 Cash funds last year end | - 0 | -00 | -00 | -00 | -00 | ||||
| **Cash funds this year end ** | 4,865 |
-00 | -00 | 4,865 | -00 | ||||
| Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period | |||||||||
| Categories | Details | Unrestricted funds |
Restricted funds | Endowment funds |
|||||
| to nearest £ | to nearest £ | to nearest £ | |||||||
| B1 Cash funds | CAF Bank current account | 4,865 | -00 | -00 | |||||
| -00 | -00 | -00 | |||||||
| -00 | -00 | -00 | |||||||
| Total cash funds | 4,865 | -00 | -00 | ||||||
| (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) |
OK | OK | OK | ||||||
| Unrestricted funds |
Restricted funds | Endowment funds |
|||||||
| Details | to nearest £ | to nearest £ | to nearest £ | ||||||
| B2 Other monetary assets | -00 | -00 | -00 | ||||||
| -00 | -00 | -00 | |||||||
| -00 | -00 | -00 | |||||||
| -00 | -00 | -00 | |||||||
| -00 | -00 | -00 | |||||||
| -00 | -00 | -00 | |||||||
| Details | Fund to which asset belongs |
Cost (optional) | Current value (optional) |
||||||
| B3 Investment assets | -00 | -00 | |||||||
| -00 | -00 | ||||||||
| -00 | -00 | ||||||||
| -00 | -00 | ||||||||
| -00 | -00 | ||||||||
| Details | Fund to which asset belongs |
Cost (optional) | Current value (optional) |
||||||
| B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use |
-00 | -00 | |||||||
| -00 | -00 | ||||||||
| -00 | -00 | ||||||||
| -00 | -00 | ||||||||
| -00 | -00 | ||||||||
| -00 | -00 | ||||||||
| -00 | -00 | ||||||||
| -00 | -00 | ||||||||
| -00 | -00 | ||||||||
| Details | Fund to which liability relates |
Amount due (optional) |
When due (optional) |
||||||
| B5 Liabilities | -00 | ||||||||
| -00 | |||||||||
| -00 | |||||||||
| -00 | |||||||||
| -00 | |||||||||
| Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees |
Signature | Print Name | Date of approval | ||||||
| Ben Hingston | Ben Hingston | 6.3.2021 | |||||||
| Robin Barden | Robin Barden | 6.3.2021 |