2023-04-06-accounts - At The Heart

At The Heart

Objectives and activities

A review of our achievements and performance:

a) Virtual Outreach

i. Social Media Engagement

b) Adulting Skills Hub

c) At The Heart Mentorship Scheme

Financial Review

Reserves Policy

Structure, Governance and Management

Reference and Administrative details

Professional Advisers

Declarations

Section A Receipts and payments

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period

B5 Liabilities

This text was generated using OCR and may contain errors. Check the original PDF to see the document submitted to the regulator.

For the ended year 5 April 2023

Annual Report 22/23

Report of the trustees for the year ended 5 April 2023

Charity No: 1189831

The trustees of At The Heart present their annual report and audited accounts for the year ended 5 April 2023 and confirm they comply with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011, the charity constitution and the Charities SORP (FRS 102).

Cover Photo by William Fortunato from Pexels

The object of the CIO is:

To advance in life, relieve needs of and help young adults between the ages of 18 – 30 living in London and its surrounding areas, with a particular focus on young adults from the Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) community, by developing their skills, capacities and capabilities to enable them to participate in society as independent, mature and responsible individuals, and in particular by:

advancing education through the provision of information, advice and guidance in areas relating to life, employability and social skills, progression into higher education, career development, citizenship, financial literacy and physical and mental health and well-being;
relieving unemployment through hosting workshops and mentorship programmes.

In planning our activities for the year, we kept in mind the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit at our trustee meetings. The main activities for this year are as follows:

Virtual Outreach
Adulting Skills Hub
Mentorship Scheme

Although our primary focus is to support young adults aged 18 – 30 from racialised backgrounds, we are open to support all young adults regardless of personal background, faith, gender or personal circumstances.

We have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit when reviewing our aim and objectives and in planning our future activities. In particular, the trustees consider how planned activities will contribute to the aims and objectives they have set.

In line with the charity objectives, we have been using social media platforms to provide our beneficiaries with information, advice and guidance in areas relating to life, employability and social skills, progression into higher education, career development, citizenship, financial literacy and physical and mental health and well-being.

The charity social media platforms have allowed for outreach work to take place. The charity was able to engage with beneficiaries and communicate with them so as to better understand their needs and provide services virtually. We have invited beneficiaries to share peer advice on our Instagram platform and have encouraged reflective discussions in the comments sections of our posts.

Facebook Reach - 3,887 Instagram Reach - 4,061

ii. At The Heart Website

In line with the charity objectives, the At The Heart website (www.attheheartuk.org) also serves as a platform to provide our beneficiaries with information, advice and guidance. The website is home to free resources (booklets, audios) that beneficiaries can download, as well as a list of relevant services that beneficiaries can be signposted to. The website not only increases visibility for the charity, so that our services reach more of our target group, but it is also essential for showcasing reliability and improving accessibility.

Website analytics suggest that there were 229 unique visitors to the website this financial year.

In line with the charity objectives, we launched our online Adulting Skills Hub where beneficiaries would be able to access free e-courses, helpful links, downloads and FAQs on topics relating to life skills, employability and social skills. Topics included:

Taxes
ISAs
Networking
Making friends
Maintaining friendships
Sleep hygiene

Our mentorship scheme is a key part of At The Heart’s mission.Young adults from racialised groups need mentors who can offer advice, challenge, motivate and encourage them to lead happy and successful lives.

The 'At The Heart' Mentorship Scheme was developed with the main objectives of wanting to:

Provide young adults with an opportunity to tap into a direct source of experience and knowledge
Empower young adults to make better academic, career and/or personal life choices
Support young adults to approach new opportunities and challenges with self-confidence and drive
Support young adults to be able to formulate a clear sense of personal direction

This financial year our second cohort of mentees completed the mentorship programme.

14 mentees were matched with mentors; of those, 10 completed the programme.

Some feedback received from mentees on the programme:

“This scheme has been extremely helpful to me and the work you’re doing is extremely important and necessary . Thank you for providing a space for individuals like myself to express, reflect, evolve and grow”

“I have really enjoyed my experience with my mentor and I look forward to more sessions.”

Although a further 14 mentees applied for the next cohort for the mentorship scheme, we were unable to facilitate another mentorship scheme programme during the 2022-2023 financial year due to limited resources.

This financial year, the charity’s principal source of funds was grants. We were extremely fortunate to have been awarded a grant of £2,175 from the National Lottery Community Fund just prior to the beginning of this financial year. We received an additional £5 through the Amazon Smile programme.

Our focus is still the same as previous years: to continue to reach as many young adults as possible by providing them with free resources, mentoring and workshops on a variety of relevant topics. During our monthly meetings, we have thoroughly discussed what this ‘reach’ looks like and have collectively agreed that in this day and age, especially post pandemic, we are able to effectively reach young adults virtually.

The amount we have received in grants is extremely generous and we are grateful to have been considered by the National Lottery Community Fund.

Following on from last year, we have reviewed the reserves policy and have decided that the reserves amount will be £300. The reason for this is that the bulk of our activities as a charity is done virtually, e.g.: our website houses a number of free resources and information on how to connect with us. Our free workshops are done via zoom or in community spaces and we use interactive platforms which require a fee, amongst other factors.

We agree that £300 would be a solid amount to pay for these costs and enable us to continue running effectively and smoothly. This amount will only be spent to pay for website/domain fees and any subscription which ensure we are able to maintain an online presence and run our skills workshops. We will continue to review this reserves policy on an annual basis and adjust it accordingly should the trustees feel there is a need for this to change.

The charity has no funds materially in deficit and there are no uncertainties about the charity continuing as a going concern. The trustees are positive we have financial stability and that we’re in a strong position to continue working on initiatives which help young adults.

At The Heartwas registered as a charity on 8[th] June 2020.

The charity is constituted as a Foundation Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). The constitution was adopted 14th March 2020 and last amended 7th June 2020.

Apart from the first charity trustees, every trustee must be appointed for a term of one year by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the charity trustees.

The charity follows a “closed” membership model where the charity trustees are the only voting members and are responsible for making key decisions.

Charity Name: At The Heart Registered charity number: 1189831

Charity’s principal address: Flat 33, 41 Grange Walk, London SE1 3DY

Charity Trustees	Ofce (if any)	Dates Acted (if not for whole year)
BlessingBakare	Chair
Vanessa Pinto	Treasurer/Vice-Chair
Deborah Bakare	Secretary
Ahyeesha Dembele
Ruth Muleya
Evelyn Asihene
Warden Njandjo

Bankers: Metro Bank Plc 1 Southampton Row, Holborn, London WC1B 5HA

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustee’s report above.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees:

Signature

Full name Blessing Bakare Position Chair Date 05 November 2023

At The Heart 1189831 Receipts and payments accounts For the period 07/04/2022 06/04/2023 To from

CC16a

A1 Receipts	Unrestricted funds to the nearest £	Restricted funds to the nearest £	Endowment funds to the nearest £	Total funds to the nearest £	Last year to the nearest £
AmazonSmile	5	-	-	5	5
		-	-	-
		-	-	-	-
		-	-	-	-
		-	-	-	-
		-	-	-	-
		-	-	-	-
~~(~~	-	-	-	-	-
_AR) _	5	-	-	5	5

_AR) _	5	-	-	5	5
A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table).		- - - -	- - - -	- - - 5
	-
	-				-
*Sub total*	-				-
*Total receipts* A3 Payments
					5

Workshops	6	-	-	6
Zoom	144	-	-	144	-
Website	135	-	-	135	195
Southwark Grant Return	1,731	-	-	1,731

CCXX R1 accounts (SS)

Marketing	25	-	-	25	4
CharityMobile	10	-	-	10	-
	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
**Sub total **	2,050	-	-	2,050	199

A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table)		- - - - -	- - - - -	- - - 2,050 - 2,045
	-
	-
**Sub total **	-				-
*Total payments* *Net of receipts/(payments)* A5 Transfers between funds A6 Cash funds last year end *Cash funds this year end*
					199

	- 2,045	-	-	- 2,045	- 194
	-	-	-	-	-
	-	-	-	-	-
	- 2,045	-	-	- 2,045	- 194

Unrestricted funds to nearest £	Restricted funds Endowment funds to nearest £ to nearest £	Restricted funds Endowment funds to nearest £ to nearest £
-	-	-
-	-	-
-	-	-
-	-	-

CCXX R2 accounts (SS)

Details	Unrestricted funds to nearest £	Restricted funds to nearest £	Endowment funds to nearest £
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Details	Fund to which asset belongs	Cost (optional)	Current value (optional)
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Details	Fund to which asset belongs	Cost (optional)	Current value (optional)
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CCXX R3 accounts (SS)

Details

Fund to which
liability relates

Amount due
(optional)

When due
(optional)

Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees

BLESSING BAKARE VANESSA PINTO Signature	Print Name Blessing Bakare Vanessa Pinto	Date of approval
	Blessing Bakare	04/01/2024
	Vanessa Pinto	04/01/2024

CCXX R4 accounts (SS)