Trustees’ Annual Report for the period
From 01/01/2022 To 31/12/2022
Charity name: 50 Million Voices
Charity registration number: 1189541
Objectives and Activities
| SORP reference | ||
|---|---|---|
| Summary of the purposes of the charity as set out in its governing document |
Para 1.17 | 50 Million Voices promotes social inclusion among people who stutter who are excluded from suitable employment and career progression as a result of communication impairment, by advancing education and raising awareness about stuttering with employers |
| Summary of the main activities in relation to those purposes for the public benefit, in particular, the activities, projects or services identified in the accounts. |
Para 1.17 and 1.19 |
The activities of 50 Million Voices throughout the year reflect our role and purpose as an organisation that: - Focuses specifically on employment for people who stutter - Is UK-led with an international mindset - Shines a spotlight on good communication involving speakers who stutter and listeners who may or may not stutter - Always brings people who stutter, allies and employers together to create change. We have done this in 2022 through: 1. Flagship activities ● Delivering a global practice interview event in May involving 105 people from 13 countries ● Presenting from the main stage at StammaFest Global conference in August ● Organising “It Takes Two To Stutter” panel event in October, with 100-strong global audience 2. Sharing best practices ● Educational talks and panels for large and small employers |
| ● 50 Million Voices international leaders’ online meetings ● New video featuring Practice Interview participants’ 3. Communicating key messages ● Launching new 50 Million Voices website ● Building our social media presence ● Launching our first newsletter ● TedX talk by our founder on_The Gift_ of Stuttering ● Articles, for example in the ‘trade’ magazine Signal, which reaches speech therapists and other parties 4. Governance and broader contribution ● Appointing two new trustees and planning for more as we grow More information about all of the above in the section on achievements and performance below. |
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| Statement confirming whether the trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit |
Para 1.18 | All trustees are made aware of the relevant guidance and the need to take this into account as part of their induction as trustees (PB1, 2 and 3). |
Additional information (optional) You may choose to include further statements where relevant about:
SORP reference Para 1.38 Policy on grant making Para 1.38 Policy on social investment including program related investment See Achievements and Performance Para 1.38 Contribution made by volunteers Other
Achievements and Performance
| SORP reference | ||
|---|---|---|
| Summary of the main achievements of the charity, identifying the difference the charity’s work has made to the circumstances of its beneficiaries and any wider benefits to society as a whole. |
Para 1.20 | The work of 50 Million Voices in 2022 has continued to build on the achievements from its origins in 2019, to formally registering as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation in May 2020 and trialling activities in the remainder of that year and in 2021. Building on our learning, our activities in 2022 have included reaching out and building relationships with more employers and other organisations and with people who stutter through practice interviews and other events. Launching our new website at the beginning of 2022 helped enormously in developing our reputation, our activities and our reach. We have received very positive feedback on its design and content. We are indebted to all our volunteers, including our volunteer leaders who stutter from different cultures and contexts across the world. Many thanks also to our freelance development coordinator Shilpa Sagwal, to Norbert Lieckfeldt who stood down as a Trustee in March 2022 and to Chris Gemmell and Elias Apreko who both joined as Trustees in 2022. We are also hugely grateful for the donations we have received, including a legacy. It is teamwork, trust and growing relationships which has made our progress with purpose possible and has led to impact beyond our size. Achievements Practice interview event 9-12th May “For me, the event was hugely educational and really effective at helping me understand some of the challenges and inequities that people who stutter face. I have come away from this event with lots to reflect on and feeling that I definitely want to be an ally to the stuttering community going forward. Overall, a really powerful 3 days!” Ally interviewer, UK Interviews are particularly stressful for people who stutter due to the expectation of needing to communicate fluently in time-pressured situations, where so much |
can hang on the outcome. This is compounded by most interviewers having little experience of candidates who stutter or of getting the best from them. The demand for our Practice Interview events in 2020 and 2021 encouraged us to repeat the event again in May 2022 for the fourth time. One of the most powerful aspects of our Practice Interview events is the high-quality interview and learning experience offered and the value and importance of bringing together people who stutter and employers in authentic conversations. This includes confidential individual feedback for interviewees and interviewers, and feedback to interviewees on their CVs. The feedback above illustrates the difference Practice Interview events can make to people who have not previously considered the challenges that people who stutter face in the context of work. In addition to the mandatory 90 minute educational briefing session on stuttering in the workplace, in 2022 we built on previous learning and experience by adding a 60 minute interviewer and interviewee workshop with a panel team discussion. The panel was chaired by one of our leadership group who stutters and comprised a previous interviewee, a previous interviewer who stutters and a previous interviewer who does not stutter - an ally. Just two examples of feedback illustrating what interviewees who stutter took from the Practice Interview event in 2022 are below:
“ I actually ended up having two interviews (an opportunity to have a second interview opened up and I took it)…While I was apprehensive and dreading applying for new jobs, I felt really encouraged by the end, and I am already applying for several positions. I really can’t thank you enough for the programme ” Person who stutters, UK
“ I find listening to be one of the most important aspects of communication. I, a owing to my stutter, have become a patient listener not only to stuttering voices, but to non stuttering voices as well” Person who stutters, India
Led from the UK, and supported by a core volunteer team from the UK, Ghana and India, the event involved 105 people from 13 countries, including people who stutter, allies and the organising team, two of whom took part themselves, as an interviewer and interviewee respectively.. In total, 72 interviews took place over 3 days, with a higher percentage of participants from other countries than in our Practice Interview events in 2021. The event involved 41 interviewees who stutter and 60 interviewers (24 who stutter and 36 allies who do not stutter). Overall 65 people who stutter benefited directly as interviewees or interviewers. Six major employers from a variety of sectors supported the event, namely Compass in association with Levy Restaurants, EY, Reach, Sage, Schlumberger and TSB. It is important to acknowledge that Practice Interview events are labour intensive and require flexibility by organisers as inevitably circumstances can change at the last minute for interviewers and interviewees. The feedback, however, demonstrates its value, with comments about listening, patience and slowing down, which are highly relevant to workplace culture more generally. Overall 99% of the feedback rated the experience as valuable (53% extremely valuable, 31% very valuable and 15% valuable), with 98% saying they would recommend the event to people who stutter and potential allies. More information in the Impact Report on our website - www.50millionvoices.org/our impact/ Engaging with Employers, Other Organisations and Individuals Giving and receiving support from employers is not only key to our Practice Interview events (see list of major companies involved above), it extends to many additional employers, organisations and individuals, who have been involved with 50 Million Voices in the course of 2022. The value here is also connected to aligning our awareness-raising work and making a difference within wider themes that employers and other organisations may be exploring, such as Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, neurodiversity, and ethics in the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
We have demonstrated in 2022 how we have been able to tailor our contributions to very different audiences. Some examples below: Following an introduction by our 50 Million Voices leader in Germany, we gave presentations about stuttering and the work of 50 Million Voices at a “We Together - International Diversity & Inclusion Days” event at Audi on 30th May, reaching a global audience online.
On 10 March, following an invitation from the head of Public Sector Consulting at PA Consulting, our Chair Iain Wilkie presented to their Public Sector UK leadership group about stuttering at work. This led to the involvement of a senior PA consultant who stutters in our Practice Interview event two months later. On 17th August, our Chair Iain Wilkie gave a presentation as part of an event at the company User Testing on neurodiversity at work and specifically on disability and neurodiverse conversations at work, drawing on the work of 50 Million Voices. On 4th November, 50 Million Voices ran a Lunch and Learn session for staff at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, specifically tailoring our choice of speakers to reflect the experiences of being a doctor who stutters and being a patient who stutters, leading to some thought provoking questions.Feedback showed that people had taken away practical learning: "I think the most likely action I would take now would be to make a time allowance if I ever interviewed someone who stammers."
We introduced our leader in Kenya, Emmanuel (Manu) Makokha, to a SightSavers project in Kenya, which led to 15 people in Kenya who stutter going on a course preparing themselves for job applications, with the involvement of the United Disabled Persons of Kenya and Accenture Skills to Succeed programme.
50 Million Voices was one of the first organisations to support .Disability Ethical? AI https://disabilityethicalai.org/ a campaign led by Susan Scott-Parker, founder of the Business Disability Forum. Our leader from Ghana (and Trustee of 50 Million Voices from November 2022) spoke about the dangers of AI in interviewing candidates with disabilities from the perspective of someone
who stutters at a conference organised by Susan with the UN-backed International Labour Organisation.on 15th March. The conference event was also the formal launch of a report by Gerard Quinn, the UN Special Rapporteur for the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and attended by representatives from 74 states. Reaching new audiences We have reached new audiences beyond what is described above through a variety of means. Following on from the launch of our new website at the beginning of 2022, we launched our first newsletter (available to view on our website). Through the year we developed a substantially increased presence on LinkedIn with approximately 800 followers by the end of the year. We also developed further our presence on Twitter. Additionally, we have produced articles, such as for Signal , the newsletter reaching speech therapists in the UK with an interest and involvement with stuttering. Filmed content is also hugely valuable in reaching new audiences. The chair and founder of 50 Million Voices,Iain Wilkie, gave a moving and very well received TEDx talk on 30th April entitled The Gift of Stuttering which has reached a much wider public (currently over 6,000 views). In a very personal way, the talk covers themes which are at the heart of the work of 50 Million Voices’ work, asking important questions about slowing down, being present and listening, and the immense power of words we have to wait for. The video of the TEDx talk is on our website and on YouTube. We also produced a video about Practice Interviews - more about this below.
Other Events StammaFest Global 24-28th August We took part in Stammafest Global which took place in Liverpool, hosted by Stamma and run in collaboration with the International Stuttering Association, attracting 100s of delegates from across the world.
Our panel event on the main stage included contributions from panellists from Ghana, India and the UK, full of advice on navigating
working life successfully with a stutter. The panel tackled themes such as the risks and rewards of disclosure, employer culture (inclusive and biased) and the strengths of people who stutter. Alongside the panel we launched a new video Five practice interviews , starring interviewee and interviewer participants from China, India and the UK sharing their recent Practice Interview success stories. The video is available to view on our website. It Takes Two to Stutter 18th October This event, organised by 50 Million Voices to mark International Stuttering Awareness Day, drew in a 100-strong global audience from 12 countries. Challenging our listening behaviour and drawing lessons about good communication from the voices of people who stutter at work was the subject. Four guest panellists from very different backgrounds drew on their professional and personal experiences to frame their own perspectives and opinions around two main questions: What does the expression ‘It takes two to stutter’ mean to you? and What can stuttering voices teach us about good communication and employment culture? The speakers were: Joshua St Pierre (Canada Research Chair in Critical Disability Studies, University of Alberta), Elias Apreko (Executive Director and co-founder, Ghana Stammering Association), Becca Wood,( EY Manager, Co-chair of the EY Stammering network, UK) and Megan Reitz (Professor of Leadership & Dialogue, Ashridge Hult Business School, UK).
We were delighted with the feedback which underscores the value of discussion about speaking and listening and what it has made participants think about. Some examples below:
“...truly insightful and really reminded me of the importance of active listening. Love the comment about us being pathological busy and everything being so time focused that we don’t build meaningful relationship” Co-chair Disability network, Global employer
“This very clearly opens up new ways of understanding stammering rather than focussing on stammering as an individual
problem. It invites the other person in the conversation to take some responsibility for the communication…” Speech & Language Therapist, UK “It was encouraging to see both people who stammer and those who don’t stammer/stammering allies attending the discussion, as this is how we raise stammering awareness in the general population ” Counsellor “Just seeing the other employers who are doing so much more is inspiring and motivates me to get this embedded into the company I work in ” - UK employer
Additional information (optional) You may choose to include further statements where relevant about:
| Achievements against objectives set |
Para 1.41 | |
| Performance of fundraising activities against objectives set |
Para 1.41 | |
| Investment performance against objectives |
Para 1.41 | |
| Other | ||
| Financial Review | ||
| Review of the charity’s financial position at the end of the period |
Para 1.21 | The Receipts and Payments account shows net receipts for the year of £9,655 This amount added to the cash funds brought forward at 1 January 2022 of £14,658 resulted in cash funds at 31 December 2022 totalling £24,313. |
| Statement explaining the policy for holding reserves stating why they are held |
Para 1.22 | The charity has a reserves policy whereby cash funds equal to 5 months expenditure should be held in reserve. This policy is a prudent estimate of the amount of funds that could be required to cover costs in the event of the winding up of the charity. |
| At 31 December 2022, having incurred total cash expenditure of £16,166 in the year, the amount required to be held in reserve under the terms of the policy was £6,736 (5 months expenditure). This was exceeded by the amount of cash held at 31 December 2022 of £24,513. |
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| Amount of reserves held | Para 1.22 | The amount held was £24,954 |
| Reasons for holding zero reserves |
Para 1.22 | n/a |
| Details of fund materially in deficit |
Para 1.24 | n/a |
| Explanation of any uncertainties about the charity continuing as a going concern |
Para 1.23 | n/a |
Additional information (optional) You may choose to include further statements where relevant about:
| The charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising) |
Para 1.47 | |
| Investment policy and objectives including any social investment policy adopted |
Para 1.46 | |
| A description of the principal risks facing the charity |
Para 1.46 | |
| Other | ||
Structure, Governance and Management
| Description of charity’s trusts: |
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| Type of governing document (trust deed, royal charter) |
Para 1.25 | Constitution adopted May 2020 |
How is the charity constituted? (e.g unincorporated association, CIO) |
Para 1.25 | CIO |
Trustee selection methods including details of any constitutional provisions e.g. election to post or name of |
Para 1.25 | Trustees are usually appointed for a term of three years by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the charity trustees |
any person or body entitled to appoint one or more trustees
| Additional information (optional) You may choose to include further statements where relevant about: |
Additional information (optional) You may choose to include further statements where relevant about: |
Additional information (optional) You may choose to include further statements where relevant about: |
|---|---|---|
Policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees |
Para 1.51 |
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| The charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works |
Para 1.51 | |
| Relationship with any related parties |
Para 1.51 | |
| Other |
Reference and Administrative details
| Charity name | 50 Million Voices |
|---|---|
Other name the charity uses |
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| Registered charity number | 1189541 |
| Charity’s principal address | 21 Seymour Road Kingston Upon Thames KT1 4HN |
Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity
| 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 |
Trustee name | Office (if any) | Dates acted if not for whole year Name of person (or body) entitled to appoint trustee (if any) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iain Wilkie | Chair | ||
| Helen Carpenter | |||
| Norbert Lieckfeldt | May20 to 22 Mar 22 | ||
| Chris Gemmell | From 22 Mar 2022 | ||
| Elias Apreko | From 18 November 2022 |
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– Corporate trustees names of the directors at the date the report was approved Director name n/a
Name of trustees holding title to property belonging to the charity
| Trustee name | Dates acted if not for whole year | |
|---|---|---|
| n/a | ||
Funds held as custodian trustees on behalf of others
| Description of the assets held in this capacity |
n/a |
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| Name and objects of the charity on whose behalf the assets are held and how this |
n/a |
falls within the custodian charity’s objects Details of arrangements for n/a safe custody and segregation of such assets from the charity’s own assets
Additional information (optional)
Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)
| Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information) | Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information) | Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information) | Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type of adviser Name Address |
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| n/a | |||
| Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members(Optional information) | |||
| n/a | |||
Exemptions from disclosure
Reason for non-disclosure of key personnel details
n/a
Other optional information
n/a
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CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES 50 Mlllion Voice$ 1189541 Receipts and payments accounts CC16a For the period from 01-Jan-22 31-Dec-22 Section A Receipts and payments Unrestrictsd funds Endowmwrt funds Lastyear Restrfcted fvnd¥ Total fvnds A1 R•¢el ts tbMlion5 3rNI I o¢ie8 Ctharltbalè aciKvItIoS Bank interest 11175 12.175 13.600 11.892 4900 Sub totalfGross income forARJ 25.821 16.793 A2 Ass•t and In74•Stm•nt sal•s. Sth> total Totalr8c•ipts 25.821 25,B21 16,793 met)ts sl of Charrtae actlvllks 13.901 265 Bank charggs Sub (otai 14166 1(166 A4 Asset and in¥estm8rrt purchases, (S table) Sub total rotaipayments 16.166 16,166 5,645 Net of reCeiP(paYentsj A5 Tran$feYs between funds A6 Cash funds last year end Cash funds this year•nd 9.855 9,655 q1.148 14.658 24.313 14,658 24.313 14.658 Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Unrestrided Restricted fund5 fund$ EndowmÈn funds Cat•goTI88 to r•rut£ to nDar•8t £ B1 Cashfund5 C88b * B•nk 2<313 Totalcash fimds 24.313 XX R1 arrtsunts ISSI
Unr•strlrtad R•strkted lunds lund$ Endowm¢nt funds to neoreot£ Del1$ to nwest £ l• nearest £ B2 Other monotary ass•ts D8btors CLrr•Yrt yu• Dall8 83 Inva$tmont assets C¢t l¢oirAII wr¥nt W) lo011) 84 Assets rots1d f¢r tho charlty's tr•m us• Details lIlIty B5 Uabilitlos Sned by one ortD tru8t888 Oft beh8K of all the tnjstees Firt Name D8t8 of 8pprov81 11 Qct43 CCXX R2 acwunts ISSI 1311012023
Independent examiner's report on the accounts
Section A Independent Examiner’s Report
Report to the trustees/ members of
Charity Name 50 Million Voices
31/12/2022 1189541
On accounts for the year ended Charity no (if any)
Set out on pages
1 & 2
(remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets)
Responsibilities and basis of report
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31/12/2022.
As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the 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 the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
Independent examiner's statement
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention (other than that disclosed below *) in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:
-
accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or
-
the accounts do not accord with the accounting records
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. * Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply.
Signed: Date: 1/10/2023 Name: Caroline Artis Relevant professional qualification(s) or body (if any):
WCOTA
October 2018
1
IER
Address:
97 Chesterton Road
London
W!0 6ET
Section B Disclosure
Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners).
Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose .
October 2018
2
IER