
**For the ended year 5 April 2023** 

**Annual Report 22/23** 



## **At The Heart** 

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). 

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**Cover Photo by William Fortunato from Pexels** 



## **Objectives and activities** 

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: 

1. 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; 

2. 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. 

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## **A review of our achievements and performance:** 

## **a) Virtual Outreach** 

## _i. Social Media Engagement_ 

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. 

## **b) Adulting Skills Hub** 

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 

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## **c) At The Heart Mentorship Scheme** 

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. 

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## **Financial Review** 

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. 

## **Reserves Policy** 

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. 

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## **Structure, Governance and Management** 

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. 

## **Reference and Administrative details** 

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|||



## **Professional Advisers** 

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

## **Declarations** 

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 

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

**CC16a** 

## **Section A Receipts and payments** 

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



|_AR) _|**5**|**5**|**-**|**-**|**-**|**-**|**5**|**5**|**5**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**A2 Asset and investment sales,**<br>**(see table).**|||**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**||**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**||**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**5**|||
||**-**|||||||||
||**-**||||||||**-**|
|**_Sub total _**|**-**||||||||**-**|
|**_Total receipts_**<br>**A3 Payments**||||||||||
||||||||||**5**|
|||||||||||
|<br>Workshops|**6**||**-**||**-**||**6**|||
|Zoom|**144**||**-**||**-**||**144**||**-**|
|Website|**135**||**-**||**-**||**135**||**195**|
|Southwark Grant Return|**1,731**||**-**||**-**||**1,731**|||



CCXX R1 accounts (SS) 

1 



|Marketing|**25**||**-**||**-**||**25**||**4**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|CharityMobile|**10**||**-**||**-**||**10**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
|**_Sub total_ **|**2,050**||**-**||**-**||**2,050**||**199**|



|**A4 Asset and investment**<br>**purchases, (see table)**|||**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**|**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**|**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**|**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**|**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**2,050**<br>**-                  2,045**|**-**<br>**-**<br>**-**<br>**2,050**<br>**-                  2,045**||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**-**|||||||||
||**-**|||||||||
|**_Sub total_ **|**-**||||||||**-**|
|**_Total payments_**<br>**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**<br>**A5 Transfers between funds**<br>**A6 Cash funds last year end**<br>**_Cash funds this year end_**||||||||||
||||||||||**199**|
|||||||||||
||**-                  2,045**||**-**||**-**||**-                  2,045**||**-                   194**|
||**-**|<br>|**-**|<br>|**-**||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||**-                  2,045**||**-**||**-**||**-                  2,045**||**-                   194**|



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

|**Details**<br>**_Total cash funds_**<br>(agree balances with receipts and payments<br>account(s))|**Unrestricted**<br>**funds**<br>**to nearest £**|**Unrestricted**<br>**funds**<br>**to nearest £**|**Restricted**<br>**funds**<br>**Endowment**<br>**funds**<br>**to nearest £**<br>**to nearest £**|**Restricted**<br>**funds**<br>**Endowment**<br>**funds**<br>**to nearest £**<br>**to nearest £**|**Restricted**<br>**funds**<br>**Endowment**<br>**funds**<br>**to nearest £**<br>**to nearest £**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||**-**||**-**||**-**|



CCXX R2 accounts (SS) 

2 



|**B2 Other monetary assets**<br>**B3 Investment assets**<br>**B4 Assets retained for the**<br>**charity’s own use**|**Details**|**Details**|**Unrestricted**<br>**funds**<br>**to nearest £**|**Unrestricted**<br>**funds**<br>**to nearest £**|**Restricted**<br>**funds**<br>**to nearest £**|**Restricted**<br>**funds**<br>**to nearest £**|**Endowment**<br>**funds**<br>**to nearest £**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||||**-**||**-**||**-**|
||**Details**||**Fund to which**<br>**asset belongs**||**Cost (optional)**||**Current value**<br>**(optional)**|
||||||**-**||**-**|
||||||**-**||**-**|
||||||**-**||**-**|
||||||**-**||**-**|
||||||**-**||**-**|
||**Details**||**Fund to which**<br>**asset belongs**||**Cost (optional)**||**Current value**<br>**(optional)**|
||||||**-**||**-**|
||||||**-**||**-**|
||||||**-**||**-**|
||||||**-**||**-**|
||||||**-**||**-**|
||||||**-**||**-**|
||||||**-**||**-**|
||||||**-**||**-**|



CCXX R3 accounts (SS) 

3 



## **B5 Liabilities** 

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

|||||**-**||**-**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Details**||**Fund to which**<br>**liability relates**||**Amount due**<br>**(optional)**||**When due**<br>**(optional)**|
|||||**-**|||
|||||**-**|||
|||||**-**|||
|||||**-**|||
|||||**-**|||



|BLESSING BAKARE<br>VANESSA PINTO<br>Signature|Print Name<br>Blessing Bakare<br>Vanessa Pinto|Date of<br>approval|
|---|---|---|
||Blessing Bakare|**04/01/2024**|
||Vanessa Pinto|**04/01/2024**|



CCXX R4 accounts (SS) 

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