## **TouchPoint** 

**Annual Report and Accounts for the year to 31 March 2025** 

Crafton Green House 72 Chapel Hill Stansted CM24 8AQ 

## www.thetouchpoint.org 

Charitable Incorporated Organisation Registration No: 1194098 

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**TouchPoint Annual Report of the Chair of Trustees For the year to 31 March 2025** 


## **“What you have done has transformed our community”** 

## **Who we are** 

## **TouchPoint is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, registered in April 2021** 

We are a grassroots community wellbeing initiative based at Crafton Green in Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex. We serve communities in West Essex and East Herts. Our purpose is to have positive social impact by promoting connected communities. 

TouchPoint facilitates an array of connected community services which address issues around social isolation, mental and physical health and wellbeing, food waste and food education, digital exclusion, employability and economic recovery, as well as financial stress and debt management. 

Our model is collaborative and is driven by a recognition of the value and efficiency in working with specialist partners while also actively listening to our community. We believe in harnessing the skills and experience that already exist to build a selfsustaining, innovative and forward-looking entity. 

TouchPoint is at its heart, a volunteer led organisation, and we continue to be extremely thankful for the outstanding contribution of our highly committed team. Our charity was founded on the broad principles of Asset Based Community Development, and a key goal and measure of our success will always be to mobilise community for our shared benefit. Our team of more than 200 volunteers enable TouchPoint to deliver great value and return on investment. The sheer scale of our operations requires huge input from our volunteers, all of whom are drawn from the community we serve. The consistency with which they deliver our projects in keeping with our values and culture of inclusivity, welcome, collaboration and respect is truly humbling. 

The trustees offer our sincere thanks to our volunteers for their commitment, and the great energy and enthusiasm they bring in delivering our projects and services. 

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## **TouchPoint in 2025** 

The year to March 2025 has been one of consolidation and strategic development. While we have continued to grow, our focus has shifted towards building robust foundations that will support long-term sustainability. 

TouchPoint is now firmly embedded in communities across West Essex and East Herts. The pace of our growth since incorporation in 2021 has been remarkable. Our projects and services directly impact more than 2,000 people a week. 

This has been achieved in a shifting and uncertain landscape. The cost-of-living crisis remains a constant presence. Reduction in government funding and even greater competition for grant funding presents significant challenges. 

We recognise that sustainable success requires strategic clarity. The forthcoming Local Government Reorganisation adds urgency to this work, presenting both challenges and opportunities for community organisations like ours. 

Working with Cranfield Trust, who generously provided pro-bono consultancy support, we have invested substantial time in developing a comprehensive 3-year Strategic Plan. This plan focuses on service enhancement and sustainability, providing a clear roadmap for the next phase of TouchPoint's development. We understand our strategic priorities and have created a structured framework and timetable for delivery. 

TouchPoint is proud to be a volunteer led organisation and we have been delighted by the outstanding contribution of our highly committed team. We now have more than 200 active volunteers who, in 2025, gave us an incredible 24,752 hours of their time. Using the average hourly wage in the UK for 2025 as our benchmark, this equates to a value of £482,445! This is an extraordinarily valuable donation of time and skills. It enables TouchPoint to deliver great value and return on investment. 

In 2025 TouchPoint has placed strategic emphasis on delivering services within school communities. This has proven to be a particularly effective way for us to increase engagement in rural communities. Our FoodShare continues to evolve and grow, and we continue to explore ways to have the greatest impact and reach. The TouchPoint Community Hub is established as a thriving, welcoming place of connection for so many. Opening our doors on Christmas Day is a typical example of our volunteers’ willingness to freely give their time for the benefit of all. 

3 



## **TouchPoint in 2025 cont.** 

TouchPoint Active has enjoyed a successful year with high levels of participation. The challenge now is for this project to move to a strong, financially sustainable footing. 

TouchPoint Radio presents an enormous opportunity for our charity. We plan for it to be a key strategic pillar and invaluable in reaching those who may otherwise be isolated. 2026 will be an important year as we move from the planning and pilot phase to launch. 

The statistics in this report demonstrate significant reach and scale. We are currently developing robust methodologies to measure our added social value. Evidence-based impact measurement will be crucial as we seek to demonstrate our contribution to community wellbeing, delivered with high levels of efficiency and cost effectiveness. 

A significant milestone was reached in October 2024 when we appointed our first paid member of staff. Steph Maxwell joined as Director of Operations, working alongside our volunteer CEO. Steph has brought much needed capacity and expertise, helping us develop the processes and systems essential for an organisation of our scale. In February 2025 Jane Bridgeman joined as Administration Manager, providing vital coordination across our expanding range of activities and serving as a key contact point for our volunteers, partners and community. 

Our objective is to be a lean organisation, operating as efficiently as possible, powered by community spirit. Our pathway to long term sustainability is increasingly clear, but there is no doubt that funding support, both towards operating costs and capital projects, continues to be very important to us. We are extremely grateful to Manchester Airport Group/Stansted Airport for making us the beneficiaries of their annual Flagship Award. This donation of £50,000 towards Phase 1 of the refurbishment of our Community Hub proved invaluable in enabling us to deliver so many of our services in a warm, welcoming place. Our intention now is to move to Phase 2 of the refurbishment, as we gradually bring the whole building up to date. We would also like to acknowledge the continued encouragement and support offered by Essex County Council, Uttlesford District Council, and our landlord, Stansted Parish Council. 

4 



## **TouchPoint in 2025** 

**“I think it’s amazing that you’ve created a safe space that I feel able to go when I’m not feeling great and feel a sense of community.”** 

**TouchPoint really lifts my spirits - it can be the only time I speak to other people** 

**TouchPoint is bigger than the services they provide. It’s a network, a lifeline, and a lifesaver.** 

**“Without TouchPoint Foodshare I don’t know how I would survive each week”** 

**“I can find coping with the challenges life brings quite difficult and these sessions are helping me to manage the situations better.”** 

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Our key projects
Cofflfflullily Ilub Conu*Cof6
'r()IiLlIl)()iiil Ilacliii Community Food Share
BEREA VEMENT CAFE Communi+y Cookin9
Sunday Afternoon at the Movies KIDS XMAS APPEAL
Migrant and Asylum Seeker Support
KIDS TEATIME Chair Yoga Bootcamp
Chair Boogie Memory Lane Café
Breakfast Club Running Club

## **TouchPoint Community Hub “Coming here has changed my life”** 

At the heart of our Hub is our Community Café. Staffed mainly by volunteers, this is a safe, welcoming space, where hot meals, snacks, tea and coffee are offered free of charge, or at a very low cost. The weekly free kids’ teatime and activities and the free Friday Breakfast have become extremely popular. The Thursday lunchtime café remains a fixture for some of the older members of our community. "Sunday Afternoon at the Movies" - a cheese toastie, pastry and a hot drink followed by a classic film - is all delivered free of charge and is very popular with those who find Sundays to be a difficult or quiet day. 

The hub continues to host diverse activities either led or supported by TouchPoint. Community cooking groups, support groups for migrants and asylum seekers, and our daytime and evening Bereavement Café, continue to be well supported by our community. We provide free meeting space to community benefit organisations such as Hearing Help, Homestart and Action for Family Carers, and storage space for Uttlesford Foodbank. In 2025 we added to our portfolio of projects by launching the "Memory Lane Café" a weekly session for those suffering with dementia and their carers. 

The trustees are proud to report that in 2025 our team served a total of 7,094 hot meals in the Community Hub. 5,690 of those meals were provided free of charge. Of the free meals 1,708 were provided to children. The team’s use of surplus fresh produce from our FoodShare greatly reduces the cost of providing this service. 


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## **TouchPoint Community Food Share** 

## **“Without TouchPoint Foodshare I don’t know how I would survive each week”** 

The TouchPoint Community Food Share was created as a food waste reduction initiative. We offer this free to all in our community in order to remove any barriers to engagement. What began as a modest project in early 2022 has evolved into one of our most impactful services. The scale is now substantial. 

We run seven Food Shares a week in six different locations in North West Essex. We also deliver directly to five primary schools a week, and in total more than 400 households participate in our FoodShare every week. The average value of a bag of fresh produce that we give away at food share is £26.50, and if someone were to attend one food share a week throughout the year, they would save c£1,375 from their annual food bill. We are gathering very powerful feedback about the difference this is making to people’s household budgets and their lives. We place no restrictions on how often people can attend food share. 

TouchPoint Community FoodShare is now a huge logistical challenge. Our volunteers make more than 50 weekly supermarket collections; in doing so they collect more than eight tonnes of fresh produce every month. This produce has an annual value in excess of £500,000 and would otherwise go to landfill. Thanks to the efforts of our volunteer team this value is now shared widely in our area. 

The nature of the project means that much of their work is unseen or is done at antisocial hours, either early in the morning or late at night. We are truly grateful to our volunteers, and we celebrate their contribution and commitment to this exceptional project. 



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## **TouchPoint Active** 

**“I really look forward to the sessions, they are one of the highlights of my week. It enables me to get fit, keep fit, while having so much fun.”** 

Our physical health and wellbeing sessions are delivered under the branding "TouchPoint Active". Our aim is to deliver sessions free of charge or a small donation, and to make them available to all in our community. We pay particular attention to those who might not otherwise participate. 

Our team of qualified instructors delivered 649 sessions across 14 locations in North West Essex in 2025, engaging 6,696 participants. The range of activities includes yoga, Pilates, strength and conditioning, bootcamps, chair yoga, Chair Boogie, and running and walking groups. 

Feedback gathered through a recent survey demonstrated high satisfaction levels and strong patterns of regular attendance. Physical activity sessions have proven particularly effective at reducing isolation while improving fitness and wellbeing. TouchPoint Active has rapidly established itself as one of the central pillars of our services. 

TouchPoint has received funding support for this project from the Public Health Accelerator Board. In order to foster long term sustainability for this project we are actively and thoughtfully exploring ways to move towards a "pay what you can" model. 


9 



## **Migrant and Asylum Seeker Support** 

TouchPoint maintains its commitment to supporting asylum seekers and refugees residing in local accommodation. Our project leader brings invaluable knowledge and experience from her previous work with UNICEF and Save the Children. Her passionate commitment to the welfare of this community has led to a project which all at TouchPoint are very proud of. During the year, our team have delivered activities such as community cooking, TouchPoint Active sessions, English language groups, singing groups, crafting groups, and activities for pre-school children. We have worked with Integration Support (Harlow) and Citizens Advice who provide specialist advice and guidance. 

We are delighted to report that several members of this community have become volunteers for TouchPoint and the wider community. 

## **TouchPoint Radio** 

TouchPoint Radio is an important addition to our portfolio. Our aim is to address issues around rural and social isolation, to help promote and build a sense of belonging, and to invite creative participation in North West Essex and East Herts. 

2025 was a year of development for TouchPoint Radio. A great deal of time has been put into creating systems and processes and building the infrastructure to support this ambitious initiative. At the time of writing the project has a team of 21 volunteers and an increasingly full schedule. Our schedule comprises a mixture of live programmes, with music and talk, and an increasing suite of pre-recorded community interest shows. We have been delighted by the enthusiastic support from local voluntary sector organisations, local government, and major institutions who represent the world of art, culture and heritage. We are inviting collaboration from schools, youth clubs and special interest groups. 

The radio team have created a dedicated app for Apple and Android devices in the expectation that this will greatly enhance accessibility. We are still in the pilot phase and plan to launch fully in early 2026. We have been greatly encouraged to see that despite being "pre-launch", in a sample month - December 2025 - TouchPoint Radio had more than 14,000 listening sessions with total listening hours for the month of nearly 18,000 hours. 

10 



## **Kids Christmas Gifts Appeal 2024** 

Our annual Christmas Gift Appeal has become a highly visible local initiative which enjoys remarkable community support. Our aim is to raise money to provide £25 gift vouchers to children and families in our area where need has been identified. To identify beneficiaries, we worked with 11 local primary schools, Uttlesford Foodbank, HomeStart, Action For Family Carers and Mind In West Essex. Our dedicated volunteer fundraising team excelled themselves and we were able to provide close to £20,000 of vouchers, supporting more than 800 children and families. We are extremely grateful to the Parish Councils who awarded grants, and to the local County and District Councillors for making donations from their community budgets. We are particularly grateful to our local community for their incredible generosity. In challenging times, to witness such community spirit is inspirational. 

## **Find out more** 

To find out more about TouchPoint’s projects and services, please visit our website: www.thetouchpoint.org. 

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## **Reserves Policy** 

TouchPoint has a policy of retaining at least three months overheads and nondiscretionary costs based on the previous year's expenditure. 

## **Trustees & Trustee Recruitment** 

The Trustees are Paul Chambers (Chair), Shirley Johnson (Secretary), Elissa Burgoine, Fiona Venus, Richard Jones, and Piers Ripley (Treasurer). 

Piers Ripley joined the board as Trustee and Treasurer in July 2025. 

We are actively recruiting additional trustees with expertise in Volunteer Management, Governance & Risk, and Marketing/Communications to strengthen board capacity. Trustees are appointed by the existing Trustee Board. 

The annual report was approved by the Trustees of the Charity on 26 January 2026 and signed on its behalf by: 

Paul Livingstone Chambers 

............................................... 

## **Paul Chambers** 

## **Chair** 

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|Stephen Pounder|27 January 2026|
|---|---|
|Stephen Pounder||
|Hawkins & Co.||
|33 Cambridge Road||
|Stansted CM24 8BX||



13 



Section A - Receipts and payments
2025
Unrestrlcted
fvnds
2025
Restrfcted
funds
2025
Total fvnds
2024
Totsl funds
to the near•rt
tftrth• n•ar•si £
)th• n••r•# £
t•the n¢•r•# £
Al Re¢el ts
Cor
rate Donations & Grant5
Indlvidual Donations incl. Glft.Ald
Café Incorne
Interest Receivable and Other Incor
19L92J
8.398
672
191.92J
15,991
16268
3.649
191,537
13.139
9,415
I,S14
7.593
15,596
3,649
Sub totol(Gmss incomeforARJ
26138
200.993
227131
215,60S
AZ Asset and Inve5trnent sales. Isee
table).
Sub total
zzz
Totol recelpts
A3 Payments
Touchpolnt Active
C8fé Runnin8 Cosis
Comrnunlty Cookln8 & Events
Foodshare Costs
118,3201
116.87ZI
110,8641
16,9931
13.6751
130,6111
137,4441
114.5781
112,6161
16,6271
14,51ZI
11,677
16.874
3,265
16.1651
101641
Tou¢hpolni Uve Cosis
Other Direct Choritable ktlvltlès
457
30,611
37
14.5781
12,616
44,928
57,943
Property Malntenance & Relurblshrnent
Stafl Costs
Fundraisini Costs
Governance Costs
other Admlnl$tr•tlve Costs
12,496
1.311
9.463
Sub total
13,072
Iso
163,112
161348
14

2025
Unrestrlcted
funds
2025
Restrlcted
fund5
2025
Total fvnds
2024
Totsl funds
tothe nearest
to the nearest£
tothe nearest É
tothe nearest É
A4 Asset and Investment purchases,
(see table)
Purchase of tangiblo assets
140A041
Sub totol
Totalpayments
13,072
Is0￿40
163 112
201.652
Net of receipts/(poymentsJ
A5 Transfers between funds
A6 Cash funds last year end
Cash fvnds thls year end
13.766
8.834
50,953
8,834
61,719
13,953
15,615
58,057
75,672
59,719
38,215
100,176
138.391
73,672
Section B - Statement of assets and liabilities
2025
Unrestrlrtod
fund5
to n••r•st £
38215
2025
Restrlrted ltsnd$
Cate8orles
Detsll$
to rt••Nst £
100,176
Bl Cash funds
Cash at bank
Tatal tashfvnds
38,215
100,176
Unrestrlcted
funds
Restrlrted funds
Detslls
to n•ir•5t £
to rt••Nst £
B2 Other monetary assets
FurA to ¥thlch •s*t
Detalls
Cost lopt10n￿l
Current
B3 Investment assets
15

Fundto whlth asset
be
Currentvalue
lonal
Detslls
CostlopiioMII
B4 Assets retalned for the
charIt￿$ own use
iowhkh Il•blllty
Amount due
on•1
When due
lon•1
Detslls
r•knt•i
B5 Uabllltles
Sectlon C - Charltable Funds
2025
2024
to n••r•rt £
52166
to n••r•st £
19,S99
3,5(K)
Z50
7CKI
Cl Grant Income
Actlve E55ex
len Lane Foundatlon
Birchangei PC
Charitle5 Foundatlon
LYSU
Educètlon SeNice$ 2010
Elsenharn PCC
1,950
4,587
690
Ess¢x Assocl•ilon of Loul
Coun¢lls
Essex Communlty
Foundation
Essex County Councll
Forrestei Famlly Group
Fowler Smith & Jones Trust
SMLW)
4ffi50
7,5(Xl
Hubbub
22,OLK)
John Lewls Partnership
Manchester Airport Group
Nel8hbourly Foundatlon
Other Unresiricted
P05tcode Place5 Tw5t
500
1,531
Saffron Walden 8aptlst
Church
Stansted Alrwt Charlty
Fund
Stansted Parish Councll
341
795
7akeley Parfsh Councll
The National Ltsttery
Vttleslord Oistrlct Council
1,250
33,563
71,126
191,537
20,0(XI
32,762
191,923
Totol cashAunds
16

27 January 2026 


**----- Start of picture text -----**<br>
Paul Livingstone Chambers<br>Paul Andrew Livingstone Chambers<br>27 January 2026<br>**----- End of picture text -----**<br>


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