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2023-01-31-accounts

Fences & Frontiers Registered charity number: 1194720

Annual Report & Accounts 2022/23

February 2022 – January 2023

Chair’s Introduction

I’m delighted to present the annual report for Fences & Frontiers for the year 2022/23.

Fences & Frontiers aims to make the UK a more welcoming, supportive and inspiring place for refugees and asylum seekers.

We achieve this through running cultural, and nature-based activities that bring people together in the spirit of friendship and solidarity. Our activities offer people the chance to explore beautiful parts of the countryside and cultural spaces. However, more than that, we provide opportunities for people to build friendships and gain a sense of community, practise their language skills, and improve their physical and mental wellbeing.

We are proud to have opened up more spaces on our trips than ever. Over 250 places have been offered on our walks and cultural activities throughout the year. Our community has grown in both size and diversity – with regular participants from El Salvador, Iran, Cameroon, Turkey, Honduras, Sudan, and many more countries.

Partnership working is essential to Fences & Frontiers. We have been particularly successful in forging new partnerships and strengthening existing ones over the last year. Our continued work with CPRE London, various museum community teams, and our refugee sector partners has helped us deliver a fascinating range of activities. We've also developed important new relationships with Patagonia, HF Holidays, and All the Elements - partnerships that will help us make an even greater impact in future.

We fully recognise the importance of an active media and social media presence to our growth and profile. Coverage in outlets like the Evening Standard and Readers Digest has been instrumental in reaching new volunteers and supporters.

We have made significant improvements in the planning and delivery of our services. This progress has been facilitated by implementing new systems and processes, including accounting tools, event management tools, and enhanced internal management structures

Our trips are consistently oversubscribed, reflecting the great need for our services. Responding to this, we have plans in place to vastly increase the number of activities we are offering in the coming year. We are also in the process of developing and piloting a number of new projects and partnerships, all aimed at opening our activities to more people and offering a more diverse range of experiences. These include piloting an annual UK walking holiday, running a series of artist/writer-led walks aimed at inspiring participants to engage with their experiences creatively and foster a deeper connection with the places we visit, and developing a new project focused helping participants attend live performances, such as theatre, music, dance, and more.

As we grow we’re eager to ensure refugees and asylum seekers are better represented on our board and are more involved in decision making for the organisation. We are delighted to have brought two new trustees onto our board from within our participant

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community – Marjan and Arta. Their experience of our projects as users, coupled with their experience as refugees are already playing an important role in helping shape the direction of the organisation.

At present, Fences & Frontiers remains an entirely volunteer-led charity. Our projects only exist thanks to the energy and time given by our volunteers. I therefore want to thank the Fences & Frontiers team for their incredible passion and dedication.

Finally, I want to express my gratitude to our funders, including The Network for Social Change, Localgiving, the People's Postcode

Lottery, individual philanthropists, and all who have donated and helped us raise funds. Your support and generosity make all of this possible.

Lewis Garland

Chair and Founder Fences & Frontiers

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Objectives and Activities

Aims

Fences & Frontiers aims to make London a welcoming, supportive and inspiring place for refugees and asylum seekers to live in and settle.

To achieve these aims Fences & Frontiers runs cultural, physical, recreational and educational activities for refugees and asylum seekers.

Participants are (non exclusively) given opportunities to:

We hereby confirm that the trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit.

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Achievements and Performance

Operational activities

We run cultural, physical, recreational and educational activities for refugees, asylum seekers and the wider community -bringing people together in the spirit of friendship and solidarity. Our current projects include:

These benefit the physical and mental health of those who attended, and helped to integrate refugees and asylum seekers into British society more widely.

Our current estimated cost-per-beneficiary (the cost of enabling one person to go on a trip) across both projects is £19.22

2018 in London and in the surrounding countryside, and made over 400 places available to refugees and asylum seekers over that period.

Our walks include urban and rural trails, giving walkers the opportunity to take in spectacular views and explore places of historical and cultural interest they may never have realised were on their doorstep.

These walks provide an opportunity to get to know people from different areas of London and backgrounds and help to foster lasting friendships that outlive the project. All walkers (from refugee and new community backgrounds) have their transport costs covered. Refreshments are also provided by Fences & Frontiers.

In 2022/3:

Never Walk Alone

Never Walk Alone is our walking project. We’ve been running these walks since March

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London, Museums & Me

In 2022/3:

Our trips give children from refugee backgrounds, and their families, the chance to explore London's museums and cultural attractions. We run them on a monthly basis, and cover all transport costs for participants, as well as providing refreshments.

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New activities

We are currently in the process of developing and piloting a number of new projects and partnerships, aimed at opening our activities to more people and offering a more diverse range of experiences. These include:

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volunteers in our work. By combining outdoor exploration, artistic expression, and cultural experiences we hope to provide transformative experiences to our participants – as well as reaching new supporters, funders and volunteers.

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Partnerships and engagement

We have developed and strengthened partnerships with organisations such as CPRE, London Wildlife Trust, The Science Museum, Kew Gardens, The Winch and Babylon Project – enabling us to offer an even wider range of nature based and cultural activities to our participants.

(both print and online) in the Evening Standard (circ 310,000) and Readers Digest: What’s it really like to arrive in London looking for safety? | Evening Standard

We have developed a relationship with outdoor clothing company, Patagonia, who are providing us with B-stock for our walkers and are contributing to travel costs for our partnership with HF Holidays.

As aforementioned, we are putting together a programme of walks / trips led by high profile artists and writers interested in supporting refugees. This is aimed at inspiring our participants to engage with their experiences creatively and to help build our national profile.

We are also part of various national campaigns and coalitions in support of the rights and wellbeing of refugees including the Together with refugees alliance and Lift the Ban.

We have also joined the All the Elements network – this provides opportunities and helps strengthen relationships between groups trying to democratise access to nature in the UK.

Press coverage

In the last year our work has been covered

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Financial Review

Income and expenditure

During the period in question (1 February 2022 to 31 January 2023), the charity raised £17,965, spent £5,511, and ended with a final balance of £12,454.

The disparity between income and expenditure in this time was planned for in order to give the financial stability to enable us to make significant project and structural changes in the coming year.

We expect a large increase in expenditure over 2023, as we seek to double the number of trips we run, cover volunteer expenses on trips for the first time, and consider a shift to paid part-time hours for staff.

Reserves

Three months expenditure is expected to soon amount to approximately £4,500, so we aim to hold at least this in reserve. The

end of year unrestricted balance exceeded this goal, at £14,518.

We expect reserves to decrease in line with the target amount as we increase the scale and range of our activities over the course of 2023/24.

Principal sources of funding

The charity’s principal source of funding is donations from small donors, though we have continued to increase and diversify our funding over the last year. This has included a mix of grants, Philanthropic support, and fundraising. In particular, this year we received funds from:

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Structure, Governance and Management

Fences & Frontiers is constituted as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO), and governed by a constitution.

Membership of the board of trustees

Our approach to selecting and appointing members to our board of trustees is as follows:

trustee must be appointed by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the charity trustees.

(2) In selecting individuals for appointment as charity trustees, the charity trustees must have regard to the skills, knowledge and experience needed for the effective administration of the CIO.

As we grow we are putting a particular focus on bringing refugees and asylum seekers onto the board, and involving them in decision making for the organisation. We currently have two trustees who have lived experience as asylum seekers within the UK, both former participants of Fences & Frontiers projects.

(1) Apart from the first charity trustees, every

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Reference and Administrative details

Charity name Fences & Frontiers
Registered charity number 1194720
Charity’s principal address 59A Bunyan Road,
London,
E17 6EY
Email Address fencesandfrontiers@gmail.com
Website www.fencesandfrontiers.org

Charity Trustees

Lewis Garland Chairman
Mylene Secretary
Ben Taylor Treasurer
Arta Shiroka
Cristel Sainz
Louise Coady
Neil McGarrigle
Bethan Illman
Kobri Haghdoost

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Accounts (Receipts and Payments Format)

Fences & Frontiers

For the year ended 31 January 2023 Cash Basis

Receipts and Payments account

UNRESTRICTED RESTRICTED TOTAL LAST YEAR
Receipts
Donations 8,011 2,000 10,011 2,960
Grants - 7,954 7,954 750
Total Receipts 8,011 9,954 17,965 3,710
Payments
Activities and Ticket Costs - 509 509 355
Beneficiary Equipment and Supplies - - - 251
Transport - 3,503 3,503 1,589
Equipment for Trips - - - 12
Food and Other Consumables - 637 637 227
Health and Safety Costs - - - 40
Insurance - 127 127 138
Merchandise and Promotional Materials - 99 99 228
DBS Checks - - - 23
Software and Digital Platform Subscriptions - 636 636 279
Total Payments - 5,511 5,511 3,142
Net of receipts/(payments) 8,011 4,443 12,454 568
UNRESTRICTED RESTRICTED TOTAL LAST YEAR
End of year
Retained Earnings 9,100 - 9,100 8,532
Current Year Earnings 8,011 4,443 12,454 568
Cash funds this year end 17,111 4,443 21,554 9,100

Annual Accounts (Receipts and Payments format)

Fences & Frontiers

Accounts (Receipts and Payments Format)

Statement of Assets and Liabilities

UNRESTRICTED
RESTRICTED
TOTAL
LAST YEAR		 UNRESTRICTED
RESTRICTED
TOTAL
LAST YEAR		 UNRESTRICTED
RESTRICTED
TOTAL
LAST YEAR
Assets and liabilities
Monetary Assets
Cash at Bank and in Hand
Current Account - Lloyds Business Bank
16,099
4,443
20,542
9,100
Petty Cash - Soldo
1,012
-
1,012
-
Total Cash at Bank and in Hand
17,111
4,443
21,554
9,100
Total Monetary Assets
17,111
4,443
21,554
9,100
Total Assets and liabilities
17,111
4,443
21,554
9,100

Notes to the accounts

  1. These accounts are prepared on a receipts and payments basis, with all revenue and expenses shown on a cash basis. 2. The CIO has several funds: an unrestricted General fund and project-specific restricted funds, here collated for simplicity under 'restricted'. The latter goes towards covering the costs of the charity's specific activities, namely a walking group, a museum visits group, and, in previous years, care packages for refugees and asylum seekers.

  2. The CIO had no outstanding guarantees to third parties nor any debts secured on the assets of the CIO.

  3. No remuneration was paid to any trustee, nor were any personal expenses (e.g. train tickets for volunteers or trustees) covered during this period.

Annual Accounts (Receipts and Payments format)

Fences & Frontiers