Period Friendly Places Charity Trustees Report 2023
Background to the Charity:
Period poverty is an issue affecting women and girls who don't have access to safe, hygienic sanitary products due to financial or accessibility constraints. As part of Bristol’s One City approach, a city-wide commitment was made in 2019 to work towards eradicating period poverty, promoting period dignity for women and making Bristol a Period Friendly City.
In 2020, Period Friendly Bristol developed from a One City initiative into a registered charity which focuses on two keys areas: establishing and maintaining a donation and distribution network for menstrual products across four different wards in the city and tackling period stigma through education.
Bristol has the third highest rate of period poverty across England, Scotland, and Wales. More than two in five women and girls in Bristol (41.2%) have been affected by an inability to afford menstrual products while the national average is 27%. The negative impacts of period poverty are also far-reaching, with the effects clearly seen in education as a lack of access to menstrual health products exacerbates social and educational inequalities. Studies have shown that 140,000 girls and young women in the UK missed school in 2018 as they couldn’t afford period products. In Bristol alone, 40% of students have missed school due to difficulties accessing period products.
Bristol has pledged to take a leading role in eradicating period poverty by making period products available to all who need them through the distribution network, while also combating outdated societal attitudes to menstruation. The Period Friendly Bristol vision is to eradicate period poverty and to be a city of period dignity, in which nobody is held back in life or stigmatised against simply for having a period.
Period Friendly Bristol has placed a key focus on combatting the current stigma around menstruation by starting at an educational level within schools. The Real Period Project and City to Sea have together developed an educational package, which has been offered to all schools in Bristol as an additional element to the national roll-out of Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) Education as a school curriculum subject in 2020, and the UK government’s provision of period products within schools.
The programme not only encourages the de-stigmatisation of the conversation about menstruation, but also seeks to educate on the sustainable menstrual products available to those who have periods. The training sessions were comprised of two parts. In the morning
2023 Trustees update
Post pandemic the Charity has worked hard to relaunch itself and do a deep dive on what was required to push forward to deliver its original goals and objectives. Time, as is the same for all Charities who have volunteer Trustees is precious and after careful consideration and discussion, three of the original Trustees decided to stand down and the Charity thank them for all their hard work in setting this Charity up and setting the foundations for the future. This then required from the remaining three Trustees a marketing campaign to attract new Trustees and a number of various media and personal professional networks were used to attract three more very qualified Trustees who joined in June 2023. Subsequently, due to a relocation for one of those Trustees, they personally had to resign so the Charity currently stands at 5 Trustees.
With new Trustees coming onboard we had as a Charity governing body the opportunity to look at roles and responsibilities and then roll out a new structure and assign new leadership roles in 2023-2024 when these join.
2023 Distribution and donation network update
With the return to offices by our corporate partners we took the opportunity to hold some Corporate Partner workshops to look at the network of donation and distribution points for period products which we had been operating across Bristol since 2019. Whilst the Corporate Partners were used to support donation and then distribution and thus provide free access to period products for anyone who needs them, with the return to the office becoming more of a regular request by organisations, our corporate partners; Hargreaves Lansdown, Burges Salmon, WSP and Jacobs started to ramp up support again. A review was also undertaken on their designated collection hubs that were centred in the areas with the most need, as we were finding that many were becoming ‘self-sufficient’, with generous support from the public donating to those collection hubs and in some cases, thus creating a surplus of product which need to be redistributed. Efforts were still being made by the corporate partners to redistribute surplus menstrual products from foodbanks in Bristol to the collection points.
As many of the distribution hubs closed for the majority of 2020 and into 2021 as things have opened up again we continue to make regular contact with collection points to reestablish their willingness for involvement in the scheme. 2023-2024 will see a review of these operations to see whether we can become more efficient in the distribution of products as many of the donation and collection points are self sufficient and this needs a geospatial and programmatic approach to evolve to the next level.
2023 Chairty Progress
With further structure and then support from grant applications hopeful in 2023 and 2024, the charity has started looking to get formal co-ordination in place to develop and support delivery of its short and long term strategy and goals. 2023 was very much a year of restructure and refocus but with new Trustees and the Corporate Partners now back into the offices, Period Friendly Places will continue to improve and expand as a charity to educate and influence the culture around menstruation within Bristol.
Discussions have been raised in Trustees meetings regarding revamping the Website and then relaunching to assist in a marketing campaign to get more Partners onboard as well focussing on the education side of the Charity.
This revamping of the Website and marketing campaign is a strategic focus for the Charity in 2023-2024.
| Period Friendly Places |
Period Friendly Places |
Period Friendly Places |
1192211 | |
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| For the period from |
06.04.2022 | To | 05.04.2023 |
Section A Receipts and payments
| Section A Receipts and payments | ||||
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| A1 Receipts - - - - - - - - - - - Sub total - Total receipts - A3 Payments - - - - - - - - - Sub total - - - Sub total - Total payments - Net of receipts/(payments) - A5 Transfers between funds - A6 Cash funds last year end - Cash funds this year end - Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ Sub total(Gross income for AR) A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table) |
to the nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Restricted funds |
to the nearest £ Endowment funds |
Total funds to the nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 7,712 7,712 |
Last year to the nearest £ |
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| Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period | Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period | Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Categories B1 Cash funds B2 Other monetary assets B3 Investment assets B5 Liabilities B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees |
Details Details Details Details Details Signature Adam Bradley Total cash funds (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) |
to nearest £ to nearest £ - - - - - - 7,712 - Agreement Error OK to nearest £ to nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - Cost (optional) - - - - - Cost (optional) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Print Name Adam Bradley Unrestricted funds Restricted funds Unrestricted funds Restricted funds Fund to which asset belongs Fund to which asset belongs Fund to which liability relates Amount due (optional) |
to nearest £ Endowment funds |
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| to nearest £ Endowment funds |
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| Current value (optional) |
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| When due (optional) |
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| Date of approval |
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| Adam Bradley | Adam Bradley | 4/3/2024 | |