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2024-12-31-accounts

SELSEY COMMUNITY - FORUM ANNUAL REPORT 202 ~~4~~

SCF continued to discern local need and, working in partnerships, sought to meet them.

The following acted as trustees during the year:

The following served on staff:

Selsey Community Forum is Registered Charity No: 1203445 www.selseycommunityforum.uk mail@selseycommunityforum.uk

Over 200 volunteers assisted in various ways and did so with such quality that the charity was awarded the Kings Award for Voluntary Service.

The Charity continues to deliver the following services and activities:

Selsey Care Shop - Acts as a one stop-shop in the High Street and can help people in lots of ways. The Care Shop works with other local community groups, churches, charities, businesses and statutory organisations to coordinate and deliver a wide range of support for the local community. We are open 7-days a week now. Areas that the shop can help and assist are:

Travel info

What’s on

Welcome to Selsey

Carer information

Selsey Life Distributor

SCF newsletter distributer- Published monthly, this brings regular news of community activities and services.

Community Drop-ins

Selsey Community Forum is Registered Charity No: 1203445 www.selseycommunityforum.uk mail@selseycommunityforum.uk

TV licence enquiries

Foodbank voucher distributor

Banking of all SCF donations

Selsey Buddy Support base

Buddy Assisted Transport (BATS)

Bookings of Selsey Money Support appointments

All phone calls taken into the charity and referred on as necessary

New Service user registrations

Help with ‘Tell us Once’ following a death

Linking with Solicitors for service users without NOK following deaths

Working with local estate agents for private rentals.

General information provided:

Requests for help when someone has collapsed in the hairdressers/ Co-op/ High Street.

Referrals from Medical Practice for advice:

Selsey Community Forum is Registered Charity No: 1203445 www.selseycommunityforum.uk mail@selseycommunityforum.uk

Supporting people to use cashpoints to obtain their own money

Supporting people who have difficulty with reading and/or writing.

Equity release questions Enquiries about printing

Witnessing signatures for legal documents

Medi-sort- medical waste/ yellow bag service.

As the first point of contact for most of the users, referrals to the below sections of the charity are generally undertaken from the Care Shop:

Good Morning Calls- Amanda (manager) and a team of volunteers offer a friendly, daily phone call to those living in the Manhood Peninsula who are vulnerable or housebound.

Selsey Befriending Activities – Seeks to draw isolated and lonely people more closely into our community, consisting of :

Individual befrienders also organised as necessary for lonely and vulnerable users.

Further groups include the Menopause Support group, VIP group for the visually impaired. Shared carers support with Alzheimer’s- All of Yesterdays, Friends sessions, Friday Club (formerly SYHO)

Selsey Dementia Action Alliance

Selsey Community Forum is Registered Charity No: 1203445 www.selseycommunityforum.uk mail@selseycommunityforum.uk

Carers Support Selsey- Supports unpaid carers with advice and the opportunity of social contact with:

Also under the ‘carers’ umbrella is the organisation of car boots to raise vital funds for the charity.

Equipment Service -donated goods such as wheelchairs, walkers, raised toilet seats etc are stored and delivered to those in need as necessary for periods of time.

Buddy Support- Volunteers throughout the community looking out for their neighbours with assistance, such as:

Grow Selsey

An Intergeneration gardening and environmental project with the benefit of spending time outdoors. The Hidden Garden Community Project allows people of all ages in Selsey to be part of a community gardening project. This project has led to ‘Grow Selsey’ which encourages people to

Selsey Community Forum is Registered Charity No: 1203445 www.selseycommunityforum.uk mail@selseycommunityforum.uk

create more spaces for community gardening and to share plants, seeds and produce.

Also encompasses:

Employment/ Housing – Provides help and advice to local people seeking employment, either for the first time, or later in life.

Housing support is also available liaising with the local Council when necessary and assisting with housing applications.

Selsey Money Support- In partnership with Frontline, provides debt advice and ongoing support as well as Money Management courses. Help can be offered with:

Buddy Assisted Transport - transport arranged for medical and dental appts, discharges

and sudden trips like cancer appts to Portsmouth, for users who otherwise may not have attended their appointments.

- Well being – Offering support in the following areas:

Selsey Community Forum is Registered Charity No: 1203445 www.selseycommunityforum.uk mail@selseycommunityforum.uk

Greenway Cycle Route- The Selsey Cycle network was formed some years ago and Selsey Community Forum has been at the forefront in advocating a direct cycle route between Selsey to Chichester which is safe and no further in distance than the B2145. The route is defined but a new exit from Selsey is required.

Ferry Farm grants- Distributed by end of February

Bracklesham- Good morning calls, befriending and Robins Service, working in partnership with SCF

STATISTICS FOR 2024 FROM SELSEY CARE SHOP

Face to Face interactions 8183
Calls In 8296
Calls Out 4808
Money Support 5677
Well-being 5510
Employment/Housing 594
GMS 312
Befriending 870
Carers 1727
Dementia 574
Grow Selsey 36
Selsey Buddies 1439
Care Shop 4322

COMPARISON FROM 2023

Visitors to Care Shop7539 (6723 end of 2023) Calls in to Care Shop7486 (7131 end of 2023) Calls out from Care Shop4364 (3307 end of 2023)

Two case studies below illustrate the need and support that our charity can provide to all members of our community:

Selsey Community Forum is Registered Charity No: 1203445 www.selseycommunityforum.uk mail@selseycommunityforum.uk

Case Study 1-

ST is a regular visitor of the Care Shop. Her husband has impaired cognitive function and have no family within a very close distance, so relies on our support a lot.

ST has had numerous issues and struggles with her husband’s decline in health. We in the charity supported with a doctors visit to get an assessment of JT (husband) to further investigate his cognitive decline.

ST and her husband are vulnerable residents in Selsey because of their health and frailty. Their landline and broadband had recently completely stopped working. We were able to refer to CASPS (Computer and Smartphone Service) a service that we as a charity are able to offer to those in our community with any IT related issues that they are having. Our valuable volunteers who have significant experience with IT, attend to support with any problems as they arise. One volunteer attended but was told that there was a two week wait with Sky because of a backlog, and that there wasn’t a welfare department. The volunteer was able to later that day speak to a friend who confirmed that there was a department for welfare and high risk individuals. We in the Care Shop then supported with a call to SKY with ST present, told of their situation and need for a working landline, and within 24 hours the issue was fixed.

Later in the week ST received her revised water bill for the next 12 months. ST and her husband are on pension credit with little to no savings. As we all know water bills have risen significantly this year putting many into financial hardship. From the Care Shop we called Southern Water. After explaining the situation ST was placed onto a social tariff, reducing her monthly payments by almost half. They also added them to the priority services register.

Since then support has also been offered to ST with the loan of a 4 wheeled walker due to mobility problems, provision of urinary pads, liaised with her local Rental Agency due to concerns with them attending unannounced and supported to get a cheaper deal on their car insurance.

Case Study 2:

On a busy day in the Care Shop a lady came into the shop in distress. JW had just been to a solicitor’s following her grandfather’s death 2 months previously, that she lived with.

JW had no money at all and was starting a new job tomorrow locally. JW had

Selsey Community Forum is Registered Charity No: 1203445 www.selseycommunityforum.uk mail@selseycommunityforum.uk

no access to heat due to not being able to add pound coins to her electricity meter, or afford gas to heat the caravan that she is living in.

We were able on that day to provide a small amount of money to add to her electricity meter, was given a £10.00 Co-Op card to access emergency food that day, a foodbank voucher was requested for Friday that week and delivered to her home.

A referral was also done to the Household Support fund for support with energy including the purchasing of gas bottles, and a referral to Better Housing Better Health for ongoing energy support. A money support appointment was also made for Friday 14[th] March to see what other benefits JW made be entitled to as she will be living on a small income. All of this was put into place in the space of one hour. JW was so grateful.

There were no safeguarding or external data breach issues during the year.

The annual accounts show grant funders, donors and funders to whom we are very grateful. The financial position is sound.

In 2024 the legal status changed to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation.

Selsey Community Forum is Registered Charity No: 1203445 www.selseycommunityforum.uk mail@selseycommunityforum.uk