RBKARES (Charitable lncorporated Organisation)
LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
CHARITY NUMBER 1197621 DATE OF REGISTRATION 21st January 2022 START OF FINANCIAL PERIOD 1[st] November 2024 END OF FINANCIAL PERIOD 31st October 2025 TRUSTEES
Beatrix Kenyon (chair) Khanda Abubaker (appointed 19 August 2025) Philippa Coe Miranda Gibson Tessa Green Jane Watson (treasurer) LEGAL STATUS CIO - Foundation Registered 21st January 2O22 GOVERNING INSTRUMENT Charitable lncorporated Organisation CORRESPONDENCE ADDRESS 46 Norbiton Avenue, Kingston upon Thames, KT1 3QR PRIMARY BANKERS NatWest, 73 High Street, Walton-on-Thames, KT12 1DW INDEPENDENT EXAMINER Yvann Stephens, 4 Akerman Rd, Surbiton KT6 5NS
RBKares
Chair’s Report to the Annual General Meeting
Year ended 31 October 2025
It is a pleasure to present my report for the year ended 31 October 2025.
As I reflect on another remarkable year for RBKares, I am struck by the power of community, kindness and collaboration to transform lives.
What began as a simple desire to help people in need has grown into a thriving network of volunteers, partners,
donors, statutory services and supporters working together and sharing a common belief: that everyone deserves dignity, connection and access to the support they need to flourish.
Kingston is often perceived as an affluent borough, but significant inequalities remain. Many residents experience
poverty, isolation, displacement, poor health, unstable circumstances and barriers to accessing services. Some do not know where to turn; others have had difficult experiences with services or face barriers relating to language, digital exclusion, mobility, income or their immigration status. RBKares exists to ensure that these individuals are seen, heard and supported.
Our purpose
RBKares brings people, volunteers, organisations and services together to support members of our community who are experiencing hardship, ill health, isolation or other challenges.
Our aim is simple: to make a practical difference to people's lives and to help create a more connected, supportive and inclusive Kingston.
We do this by identifying gaps in existing support and bringing together the people and organisations best placed
to address them. Sometimes that means providing something as practical as clothing, food, a phone, a bicycle or a fuel voucher. At other times it means helping someone access healthcare, employment advice, benefits, digital
support or other specialist services.
Just as importantly, our work creates opportunities for people to build friendships, develop skills, volunteer and become active contributors to their community.
This approach is at the heart of everything RBKares does. We believe that support should be accessible,
welcoming and delivered with dignity, and that the strongest communities are those where people are able both to receive support and to give it.
Our strategic priorities are:
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to bring diverse Kingston residents into social contact through voluntary and community activities;
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to ensure that Kingston residents can access resources and services they need within their community;
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and
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to reach people in Kingston who cannot, or do not, seek support elsewhere.
Our vision is a borough where everyone can access pathways to wellbeing regardless of language, status, income, disability or age.
The year in review
During the year RBKares continued to develop its distinctive model of community support.
Our monthly Wellbeing Days remained central to our work, bringing a wide range of organisations and services together in a welcoming, accessible environment. Alongside this, our Refugee Sewing Group provided refugees and asylum seekers with opportunities to develop skills, confidence, friendships and a sense of belonging. To celebrate Kingston 2025 we ran a series of workshops with refugees and asylum seekers to produce The Cloak of Hope bringing creativity, memories, skills and friendship together in a symbolic cloak.
Our volunteer knitting, crocheting and sewing group, RBKrafters , continued to produce practical items eg. warmer-in-winter bags, blankets, scarves and hats, bags for children experiencing mental health difficulties, syringe driver bags, belonging bags and items to help us fundraise.
We also continued to respond to immediate individual needs with practical support and hardship assistance by applying for small personal grants, making up starter kits for women fleeing domestic violence through Refuge and those who move from homelessness into accommodation supported by Kingston Action Against Homelessness. Community projects continued to support care home residents without families at Christmas through ‘Operation Goldfish’; working with Surbiton High School to provide christmas presents for children attending Achieving for
Children family centres, those in temporary accommodation, those who attend our Wellbeing Days, those attending community fridges as well as young carers. We hosted a Christmas party for asylum seekers housed in a local hotel.
Our support for Kingston Hospital continued with presents for adults in hospital over Christmas, Calm bags for children attending A&E with mental health difficulties, kindness bags for Macmillan nurses, syringe driver and drain
bags, weekly baking, Easter chicks for children in hospital over Easter and raising £2227 through the Kingston Hospital Charity Night to Remember walk.
We partnered with Kingston Racism and Equality Council to decorate the floats for their 25th Carnival and promote the event with a wonderful Carnival postbox topper.
Our fundraising fairs at the Dragon Boat Festival and in the Kingston Market together with the Sewing Angel sales
were successful and ensured we can continue supporting our community.
What links all these activities is our attempt to meet people where they are , without judgement, and to combine practical help with human connection.
Wellbeing Days
The Wellbeing Days are at the heart of RBKares' mission. They provide a one-stop opportunity for residents who normally struggle to engage with services or seek help due to language barriers, digital exclusion, mobility/financial constraints, and distrust of authority, helping them access a range of services. More than 26 partner organisations are involved including NHS outreach teams - fibroscans, vaccinations, oral health and TB, as
well as other organisations providing dental treatment, health checks, mental health support, sexual health
support, benefits advice, employment support, digital inclusion, migrant advocacy, housing assistance, smoking cessation advice, bicycle repairs, haircuts and community activities.
Alongside these services, RBKares provides practical essentials such as clothing, toiletries, underwear, fuel vouchers and food.
With the Wellbeing expanding the support it provides, we moved the event to our own day so we could have more space and started to provide soups, cake, fruit and hot drinks and a large area for people to sit and connect with other residents.
This combination is important because someone experiencing financial hardship may also be experiencing poor health, loneliness, digital exclusion, unemployment or difficulty accessing statutory services. By bringing different forms of support together, we make it possible for people to address several issues during one visit.
The Wellbeing Days are also places of social connection. People are welcomed, listened to and treated with dignity. Friendships are formed, confidence grows, and some people who first come to RBKares for help subsequently become volunteers themselves.
The RBKrafters
This group originally came together for a 3 month project in 2021 and is still going strong. They make items for our various projects supporting community members in need while reducing isolation and making people feel useful and connecting community members
The group has become a wonderful community in its own right, with volunteers meeting regularly, sharing skills, friendship and conversation while creating items for people who need them. They make blankets, scarves, hats and bags for our Warmer in Winter project. They make bags for children experiencing anxiety or mental health
difficulties in Kingston Hospital. They make kindness kits, bravery bags and belonging bags for people receiving end-of-life care, alongside many other projects.
The group has contributed an extraordinary 15,000 of volunteer hours over the year. The impact of this group works in both directions; the people receiving these handmade items are helped, but so are the people making them. Many of our volunteers are older, isolated or living with disabilities. Being able to use their skills to make something for somebody else gives them purpose, friendship and a feeling that they are making a difference and contributing to their community. This is a community at its best.
Refugee Sewing Group
Our Refugee Sewing Group, run in the Refugee Action Kingston Community Hub, has continued to be an important part of our work with refugees and asylum seekers.
The group provides a welcoming and creative environment where participants can learn practical skills, practise English, meet people and develop confidence. It also gives participants the opportunity to create useful items for themselves, their families and the wider community.
For people who may arrive in Kingston feeling isolated and disconnected, this can be an important first step towards belonging.
The benefits extend beyond sewing. Participants have contributed to wider community activities, including Kingston Carnival, and many have become volunteers at the monthly Wellbeing Days.
The programme therefore reflects an important principle in our work: people should not be viewed simply as recipients of charitable support. Given the opportunity, people can develop skills, and contribute to their community and thereby support others.
Our volunteers
RBKares could not operate without its volunteers and they are the reason we can achieve what we do. Together they create something much greater than the sum of its parts. During the year our volunteers contributed approximately 19,600 hours , supporting around 4,320 people across our projects and Wellbeing Days. These hours represent an extraordinary contribution. Some volunteers bring professional expertise, others bring lived experience. Many simply bring a willingness to help. Our volunteers undertake an enormous range of roles: organising and running Wellbeing Days, welcoming visitors, distributing essential items, transporting equipment and donations, supporting partner organisations, sewing, knitting and crocheting, preparing food and undertaking the many practical tasks that allow RBKares to operate.
We are particularly proud that people who first came to RBKares as recipients of support often go on to volunteer themselves. This creates a powerful cycle in which receiving support can become the beginning of a journey towards confidence, connection and contribution.
Working in Partnership
None of our work would be possible without the extraordinary network of organisations that work alongside us. Partnership is fundamental to the RBKares model.
Our Wellbeing Days bring together up to 26 partner organisations and services, including NHS outreach teams, Kingston Council services, Dentaid, Samaritans, Mind in Kingston, Refugee Action Kingston, SPEAR, Full Cycle Community Bike Project, Kingston Cycling Campaign, Spectra, Kingston Voluntary Action, Kingston College Hairdressing dept, Kick it Stop Smoking Service, Achieving for Children, Dons Local Action Group and many other voluntary, community and statutory organisations.
Partnership is not simply about sharing a venue. It enables organisations to understand one another's work, create
stronger referral pathways and reach residents who they might otherwise struggle to engage. They also allow us to respond to needs that cross organisational boundaries. A resident may need healthcare, benefits advice, digital
access, employment support and practical assistance at the same time. No single organisation can necessarily provide all of these things but RBKares provides a place where those organisations can work alongside one another.
We are particularly grateful to the organisations that have responded when RBKares has identified a new need. Employment support, digital inclusion through Superhighways, dental care through Dentaid, foot care and refugee support through Migrant Advocacy Services, fuel vouchers through Thinking Works, have all developed through listening to residents and building partnerships around what they told us they needed.
We are also grateful to local schools, businesses including John Lewis, the Kingston Chamber of Commerce, the Kingston Women's Centre, faith communities including the Kingston Liberal Synagogue, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Surbiton and All Saints Church and community groups including the Kingston Rotary Club, New Era CIC, Alfriston Outreach, the Sewing Angels and the Inner Wheel who have supported individual projects and helped bring Kingston residents together.
Our Donors and Supporters
We are deeply grateful to the many individuals, businesses, trusts, foundations and community groups, whose generosity has made our work possible throughout the year.
Financial support has enabled us to respond quickly when people need help, support the development of our Wellbeing Days, provide practical assistance to individuals and families experiencing hardship, and continue projects that bring people together and promote wellbeing.
We are particularly grateful to The Brothers Trust, Kingston Council, Kingston Charitable Foundation, Cambridge Road Community Chest, Big Yellow, John Lewis, the Sewing Angels, Cleaves Almshouses, Kingston Voluntary Action, Benefact Group, Bee Inspired, the Co-op, Colour Your Streets, Drury Tea & Coffee, LUSH, Hey Girls, The Beauty Bank, Franco Manca, Mars Ice Cream, Janome and The Wych Elm for their generous support and donations during the year.
We are equally grateful to the many organisations and individuals who have donated goods, services, materials and their expertise. Contributions of food, clothing, toiletries, digital equipment, craft materials and other essentials have enabled us to provide practical help with dignity, while donations of professional services and expertise have strengthened the support available through our projects.
We are especially grateful to those who have supported our Warmer in Winter bags, community sewing projects and other initiatives led by our volunteers. These projects demonstrate what can happen when funding, donated goods, volunteer skills and community relationships come together.
Every contribution matters. Whether it is a major grant, a box of donated toiletries, fabric for our sewing group, food for a Wellbeing Day or a volunteer giving their time and skills, each contribution becomes part of something much bigger — a community supporting its members when they need it most.
We recognise that our supporters place their trust in RBKares to use their generosity thoughtfully and effectively, and we are enormously grateful for that trust.
Financial review
The financial year covered by this report is 1 November 2024 to 31 October 2025 .
The RBKares accounts workbook records income for this period of £38,794 .
The income included general income and a range of project-specific and grant income, including support for
sewing activities, hardship work, the Cloak of Hope project, Wellbeing Days, winter engagement, the refugee programme and other community initiatives.
The accounts show that funds at our bank at 31 October 2025 were £33,922.14 . This compares with the opening balance of £23,078.39 at 1 November 2024.
The trustees are conscious of their responsibility to manage charitable funds carefully and to ensure that
expenditure is directed towards charitable activity. The detailed accounts provide the formal financial record for the year and should be read alongside this report.
We are extremely grateful to all our funders and donors. Their support enables us to respond quickly to need while continuing to develop projects that address longer-term wellbeing and inclusion.
Recognition
It has been encouraging during the year to see RBKares' work recognised externally.
The charity was named Charity of the Year in the Kingston Borough Business Awards 2025 and received
Mayoral recognition for volunteers. Kingston Chamber of Commerce also selected RBKares as its charity for 2025–2026.
We are grateful for this recognition, but awards are not what motivate our volunteers. What matters most is knowing that the work is useful and that people feel supported.
Looking ahead
The year ahead will bring both opportunities and challenges.
We want to continue developing the Wellbeing Days while ensuring that they remain accessible, welcoming and responsive to changing needs.
We will continue to strengthen our partnerships and improve pathways into employment, digital inclusion, health services and longer-term support.
Our Refugee Sewing Group will continue to provide a place where people can learn, build friendships and contribute. Our knitting, crocheting and sewing volunteers will continue producing practical items for people
experiencing hardship, illness, isolation and crisis as well as items to help us raise funds.
We will also continue to explore ways of reaching people who are least likely to seek support elsewhere.
We also want to continue developing the involvement of people with lived experience in the governance and development of RBKares. Their perspective is essential if we are to ensure that our services respond to real needs rather than assumptions about those needs.
Thank you
Finally, I would like to express my sincere thanks to everyone who has made RBKares' work possible during this
year.
To our volunteers , thank you for giving your time, energy, skills and compassion. Nearly 20,000 hours of
volunteering represents an extraordinary contribution to Kingston.
To our partners , thank you for coming together with us, sharing expertise and helping residents access services
that no single organisation could provide on its own.
To our donors and funders , thank you for trusting us with your support. Your generosity allows us to buy essential
items, fund services, support individuals in hardship and respond when new needs emerge.
And to the people who use our services , thank you for trusting RBKares. Your experiences and feedback help
shape what we do.
RBKares demonstrates what can happen when a community chooses to work together.
Our work is practical, but it is also about something deeper: dignity, belonging and hope.
I am so proud of what our volunteers, partners and supporters have achieved during the year, and I look forward
to building on that work as we continue to make Kingston a more compassionate, inclusive and connected borough.
Receipts and Payments Account
| Income Donations - restricted - Care Homes Donations - restricted - coffee machine Donations - restricted - Fidget mats Donations - restricted - Hospital fleeces Donations - restricted - Kindness kits Donations - restricted - Refugee Sewing Donations - restricted - scrubs Donations - restricted - wellbeing Donations - restricted - Winter Warmer Donations - unrestricted TOTAL DONATIONS Interest income TOTAL RECEIPTS Expenditure Expenses - restricted - Care Homes Expenses - restricted - coffee machines Expenses - restricted - Fidget mats Expenses - restricted - Hospital fleeces Expenses - restricted - Kindness kits Expenses - restricted - Refugee Sewing Expenses - restricted - scrubs Expenses - restricted - wellbeing Expenses - restricted - Winter Warmer Expenses - unrestricted TOTAL CHARITABLE EXPENSES Admin costs TOTAL PAYMENTS Surplus/(deficit) for the accounting period |
12 months ended 31 Oct 2025 - - - - - 500 - 20,780 - 17,514 38,794 - 38,794 - - 75 - 1,203 1,337 - 21,369 2,171 1,683 27,838 - 27,838 10,956 |
12 months ended 31 Oct 2024 284 - - - 1,000 2,859 - 15,743 3,896 10,595 34,378 - 34,378 - - 153 - 1,120 3,142 5 23,370 6,341 2,516 36,648 - 36,648 (2,270) |
|---|---|---|
Statement of Assets and Liabilities
| Current assets Debtors Cash Current liabilities Creditors NET ASSETS Reserves Restricted Unrestricted TOTAL RESERVES |
31 Oct 2025 132 33,922 - 34,055 (3,382) 37,436 34,055 |
31 Oct 2024 20 23,078 0 23,099 1,512 21,586 23,099 |
|---|---|---|
These accounts were approved by the Trustees on 19 August 2026.
Independent examiner's report on the accounts
Section A Independent Examiner’s Report
Report to the trustees/ Charity Name RBKares members of On accounts for the 1 November 2024 – 31 October 2025 Charity no 1197621 accounting period (if any) Set out on pages (remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets)
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31/10/2023.
- Responsibilities and As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation basis of report of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).
I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
Independent I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have examiner's statement come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:
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accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or
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the accounts do not accord with the accounting records
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Date: 21 August 2026 Signed: Name: Yvann Stephens Relevant professional Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales qualification(s) or body Member 1910929 (if any): Address: 4 Akerman Road Surbiton KT6 5NS
October 2018
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