WANDSWORTH WELCOMES REFUGEES
REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES FOR THE FINANCIAL YEAR ENDING 31/03/2024
Overview
Wandsworth Welcomes Refugees is a member of the City of Sanctuary network. We support local organisations such as schools, libraries, cafes, and theatres to become accredited sanctuaries and are working with Wandsworth Council to become a borough of Sanctuary. We also run events for Refugee Week as well as appeals for digital devices and bikes which are distributed to local refugees and asylum seekers.
Registered address: Church of St Mary & St John the Divine, Balham High Road, London, SW12 9BS
Registered Charity number: 1199527
Structure, governance and management
Wandsworth Welcomes Refugees was registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales on 1[st] July 2022. It is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) with a constitution whose only voting members are its charity trustees.
Wandsworth Welcomes Refugees must have at least three charity trustees and the maximum number of charity trustees is twelve.
The first charity trustees are as follows, and have been appointed for the following terms:
Penny Rogers for 2 years (July 2022 - July 2024)
Eleanor Pyemont for 3 years (July 2022 - July 2025)
Trustees subsequently appointed are as follows, and have been appointed for the following terms:
Sam Robins for 3 years (January 2023 - January 2026)
Amy White for 3 years (June 2023 - June 2026)
Molly Horsburgh for 3 years (August 2023 - August 2026)
Grethe Gullborg Schepers for 3 years (September 2023 - September 2026)
Apart from the first charity trustees, every trustee must be appointed for a term of three years by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the charity trustees.
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.
The charity trustees must make available to each new charity trustee, on or before their first appointment: a copy of the current version of the CIO constitution; and a copy of the CIO’s latest Trustees’ Annual Report and statement of accounts.
Any decision by charity trustees is taken either at a meeting of the charity trustees or by resolution in writing or electronic form agreed by a majority of all of the charity trustees, which may comprise either a single document or several documents containing the text of the resolution in like form to which the majority of all of the charity trustees has signified their agreement.
Such a resolution shall be effective provided that a copy of the proposed resolution has been sent, at or as near as reasonably practicable to the same time, to all of the charity trustees; and the majority of all of the charity trustees
has signified agreement to the resolution in a document or documents which has or have been authenticated by their signature, by a statement of their identity accompanying the document or documents, or in such other manner as the charity trustees have previously resolved, and delivered to the CIO at its principal office or such other place as the trustees may resolve within 28 days of the circulation date.
On 21st January 2024, Wandsworth Welcomes Refugees held its inaugural away day which brought together the volunteer committee, trustees, and people in Wandsworth with lived experience to review and refresh the charity’s strategic activity plan.
Financial overview
With the second year of operation as a financial entity, we have held healthy financial reserves at the end of the financial year. No fund is in material deficit and future planned expenditure can all be met by recurring monthly unrestricted donations. Our reserves statement is that all funds are carried forward as reserves if less than £5,000. If greater than £5,000 to be brought to the Committee for discussion.
During this financial year, Wandsworth Welcomes Refugees secured two grants; £4,000 from the Church Urban Fund, £10,000 from Wandsworth Borough of Sanctuary Community Fund; the former to support community initiatives to welcome and support sanctuary seekers accommodated within the borough, and the latter to increase the volume of Wandsworth organisations interested in becoming places of Sanctuary.
An anonymous donation of £500 was received within the previous financial year, however cleared within this financial year and our financial return reflects this donations declaration in the 22/23 FY reporting year.
Public benefit statement
The objects of Wandsworth Welcomes Refugees are:
-
To advance equality and diversity for the public benefit for people seeking sanctuary by collaborating as a network of individuals and organisations and promoting activities that foster understanding between people from diverse backgrounds and welcome people who have made Wandsworth their home.
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To promote social inclusion for the public benefit by preventing people in Wandsworth from becoming socially excluded, and relieving the needs of those people within Wandsworth who are socially excluded by reason of their refugee or asylum seeker status and assisting them to integrate into society.
-
To advance the education of the public in general about the issues relating to refugees and those seeking asylum.
In order to carry out the CIO’s charitable purposes for the public benefit, during the year Wandsworth Welcomes Refugees has carried out the following activities:
Object Activity Led the assessment and accreditation of Tara Theatre, which was awarded Sanctuary status in June 2023, making it the first theatre of sanctuary in Wandsworth.[1]
Supported Wandsworth Council’s pledge to become a Borough of Sanctuary through regular attendance 1 at the Wandsworth Migration Forum and organising two ‘Establishing Sanctuary in Wandsworth’ workshops in March 2024 in Tooting and Putney. The workshops were attended by over 30 diverse organisations, including advice centres, theatres, faith groups, shops, gardens, sporting facilities, cafés and community networks. Supported asylum seekers in Home Office accommodation in Putney from March 2023 - February 2024 by organising welcoming initiatives and collaborating with Putney Library, Putney Arts Theatre, and Putney Methodist Church to deliver regular cultural and educational activities. This included organising a 2 visit to Kew Gardens in February 2024 for a group of refugee women following the closure of the hotel.
1 https://taratheatre.com/news/tara-theatre-achieves-status-as-an-official-theatre-of-sanctuary/
Donated two new sewing machines in August 2023 for local sanctuary sewing and craft activities and collaborated with Liberty London who gave tours of their design studios to refugees and asylum seekers in March 2024, including those who made a quilt which was the first work to be secured by Liberty’s Equalities Team for their archive.
Organised an art exhibition at Sprout Arts for Refugee Week in June 2023, on the theme of Compassion, raising awareness across the Borough. The exhibition attracted over 300 visitors and more than 40% of the 50 works in the exhibition were by asylum seekers, refugees and those working directly with people seeking sanctuary.[2] 3 Raised awareness of local, national and international refugee and asylum seeker issues through a monthly newsletter which has over 650 subscribers and social media activity which reaches over 2300 supporters.
The charity trustees have complied with the duty to have due regard to the Charity Commission’s public benefit guidance when exercising any powers or duties to which the guidance is relevant.
2 https://www.wandsworthfringe.com/news-and-opportunities/compassion-WYR-review
| Wandsworth Welcomes Refugees | 1199527 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Receipts andpayments accounts | CC16a | ||
| 4/1/2023 For the period from |
To | 3/31/2024 |
| Section A Receipts and payments | Section A Receipts and payments | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| to the nearest £ A1 Receipts Bank Interest 15 One-off donations 1,332 808 Fundraisingon behalf ofpartners - Grants - Sales 79 - - 2,234 Unrestricted funds Recurringdonations Sub total(Gross income for AR) |
to the nearest £ - - - 163 14,300 - - - 14,463 Restricted funds |
to the nearest £ Endowment funds |
Total funds to the nearest £ 15 1,332 808 163 14,300 79 - - 16,697 |
Last year to the nearest £ |
|
| Bank Interest | 15 | - | - - - - - - - - - |
15 | 1 |
| One-off donations | 1,332 | - | 1,332 | 2,120 | |
| Recurringdonations | 808 | - | 808 | 442 | |
| Fundraisingon behalf ofpartners | - | 163 | 163 | 75 | |
| Grants | - | 14,300 | 14,300 | - | |
| Sales | 79 | - | 79 | - | |
| - | - | - | - | ||
| - | - | - | - | ||
| Sub total(Gross income for AR) | 2,234 | 14,463 | 16,697 | 2,638 | |
| None - - Sub total - Total receipts 2,234 A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). |
- - - 14,463 |
- - - 16,697 |
|||
| - - - |
- | - | |||
| - | - | ||||
| - | - | ||||
| 14,463 | - | 16,697 | 2,638 |
| A2 Asset and investment sales, | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (see table). | ||||||||||
| None | - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| - | - | - | - | - | ||||||
| Sub total | - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| **Total receipts ** | 2,234 | 14,463 | - | 16,697 | 2,638 |
A3 Payments
| A3 Payments | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bank fees | 60 | - | - | 60 | 35 | ||||
| Insurance | 99 | - | - | 99 | 99 | ||||
| Software | 189 | - | - | 189 | 101 | ||||
| Printed materials | 267 | - | - | 267 | 6 | ||||
| Pass through donations topartners | 163 | 4,000 | - | 4,163 | 75 | ||||
| Project Delivery | 630 | 300 | - | 930 | - | ||||
| Travel | 91 | - | - | 91 | - | ||||
| Events | 184 | - | - | 184 | - | ||||
| - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| **Sub total ** | 1,684 | 4,300 | - | 5,984 | 316 | ||||
| A4 Asset and investment | |||||||||
| purchases, (see table) | |||||||||
| None | - | - | - | - | |||||
| - | - | - | - | ||||||
| **Sub total ** | - | - | - | - | - | ||||
| **Total payments ** | 1,684 | 4,300 | - | 5,984 | 316 | ||||
| **Net of receipts/(payments) ** | 550 | 10,163 | - | 10,713 | 2,322 | ||||
| A5 Transfers between funds | - | - | - | - | - | ||||
| A6 Cash funds last year end | 2,322 | - | - | 2,322 | - | ||||
| **Cash funds this year end ** | 2,872 | 10,163 | - | 13,035 | 2,322 |
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
Unrestricted Restricted Endowment funds funds funds
Categories
Details
CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
01/31/2025
1
B1 Cash funds
B2 Other monetary assets
B3 Investment assets
B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use
B5 Liabilities
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees
| Cash at bank Details None Total cash funds (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) |
to nearest £ 2,871 - - 2,871 Agreement Error to nearest £ - - - - - - Unrestricted funds |
to nearest £ 10,163 - - 10,163 OK to nearest £ - - - - - - Restricted funds |
to nearest £ |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| OK | |||
| to nearest £ Endowment funds |
|||
| None | - | - | - |
| - | - | - | |
| - | - | - | |
| - | - | - | |
| - | - | - | |
| - | - | - |
| Details None Details None Details Establishing Sanctuary Project - Project Costs |
Fund to which asset belongs Fund to which asset belongs Fund to which liability relates Establishing Sanctuary in |
Cost (optional) - - - - - Cost (optional) - - - - - - - - - 10,000 - - - - Amount due (optional) |
Current value (optional) |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| Current value (optional) |
|||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| When due (optional) |
|||
| Establishing Sanctuary Project - Project Costs |
Establishing Sanctuary in |
10,000 | 30/04/2024 |
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - |
| Signature | Name | Date of approval |
|
|---|---|---|---|
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
01/31/2025
2