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2025-04-05-accounts

THRIVING ANNUAL REPORT

table of CONTENTS

Report From The Chair 3 Letter From The CEO 4 5 Our Story So Far: Mission and Purpose 6 Goals: Activities and Achievements Impact: The People 7 Impact: Spotlight on Numbers 8 Financial Review 9 Governance 10

REPORT FROM

THE CHAIR

It would be too easy for the Chair and Board of a charity to be so preoccupied with getting the governance issues right that the real reason for the charity’s existence fades into insignificance.

On the contrary, though, our Board of Trustees is determined to keep our real raison d’être – and the young people whose lives we want to affect for good - foremost in our minds. The Charity Commission is also at pains to point out that our charitable purpose must remain constantly in sight. Good governance of the charity is the means to ensure that we are effective, efficient and responsible as we pursue that purpose.

During the period covered by this report, Thriving Through Recreation’s priorities were to continue putting in place the foundations of an effective charity – core policies, effective operational procedures, and good governance arrangements – while also beginning the essential task of fundraising. Crucially, in October 2024, we began awarding grants to fulfil our charitable purpose. Although the number of grants awarded in the reporting period was small, they have paved the way for the growth that we hope to see over the coming months and years.

Throughout this period, our board consisted of five individuals, including the CEO as an ex officio member. Our intention for the coming year is to add two or three more members to the Board, and two more in the year after that. Our goal is to grow and diversify the Board, ensuring we have the broad range of skills and knowledge needed.

As Chair of the Board, I am personally so grateful for all the commitment, experience and wisdom that our Founder and CEO and my fellow Trustees bring to the table. Thank you to you all!

The biggest challenge in these early days of Thriving Through Recreation is to grow our income so we can make the grants we believe will make a real difference in young people's lives. Balancing these cash flows as we grow will enable us to do the work we all believe in.

As we reflect on and report on a part-year of operations, we look forward with great anticipation and eagerness to the next period, in which we hope to see many more young people benefit from our work as they thrive and flourish through the recreational opportunities our grants make possible!

Richard C Carter

Chair of Trustees

LETTER FROM

THE CEO

This has been an incredibly special year for us: the year of our launch will remain an inspiring moment for everyone at Thriving Through Recreation. Our vision of a time when all children and young people navigating hardship and difficulty can access the recreational learning that they love and need in their local community is becoming a reality.

It’s not fair that some children and young people cannot do the recreational activities they choose when they need them most. It’s also not fair that they aren’t able to feel fully part of their local communities. We are hearing about increasingly fragmented communities with increasing numbers of children and young people struggling both in poverty and with their social and educational well-being. So, we’re deeply thankful to everyone working with and on behalf of Thriving Through Recreation to support these incredible children and young people facing these difficulties.

This year has seen a significant increase in income compared to last year. This has been secured predominantly through an individual donor and a philanthropic Trust. Our core running costs remain stable and relatively low, so we have been able to assign most of this income directly to children and young people’s grants.

After opening our application process in October, we awarded grants slowly, allowing professionals and families to become familiar with our eligibility criteria, process, and ethos. We are so fortunate that our existing network of teams in Cambridgeshire has quickly collaborated on our vision. Their referrals have enabled us to reach children and young people who most needed our support.

Looking ahead to next year, while consolidating our offer in Cambridgeshire, we’re excited to build a comparable network of referring professionals in schools and targeted services in Gloucestershire. After such a successful fundraising effort this year, we have allocated a fantastic sum for approximately 30 more grants in the coming year. Thank you to our incredible donors for making this possible.

We are run and managed by volunteers, so our fundraising efforts will continue by recruiting a paid, freelance fundraiser to build a sustainable fundraising strategy to maintain our long-term grant-giving capability.

We have listened carefully to children, young people, and their families, and their feedback has been invaluable in guiding our work to facilitate the most efficient, supportive, and accessible application, awards, and support programme. Our current grant recipients are still in the early stages of their yearlong awards, but the impact is already evident. We are excited to join them on their journey as they learn what they love.

We are truly grateful to our extraordinary Board of Trustees, whose expertise and insights guide us and keep our organisation strong. We also offer heartfelt thanks to all the activity providers and referring professionals whose collaboration and extraordinary support to the children and young people are vital and invaluable.

Finally, an enormous shout-out to our grant families. You are incredible. We take genuine joy in hearing about all the children and young people’s learning. Thank you for sharing it with us.

Thanks, and Thrive!

Imogen Loxam, CEO

Our Story SO FAR

Our Mission

We believe in the transformational power of recreational learning, and we believe in equity.

Our grants are awarded to children and young people who are experiencing financial hardship and navigating difficulties at home, at school or in their community. In collaboration, frontline professionals and families make grant applications, and we award grants for up to a year of learning, at weekly recreational activities sessions, paying the provider directly.

Throughout the duration of the grant, we support families in finding and accessing the activities their child has chosen. The impact of their learning supports those children and young people to thrive as individuals, now and into adulthood.

RECREATION MATTERS EQUITY IS ESSENTIAL

Our

Purpose

The provision of funds for and support to access, learning or training in recreational pursuits or leisure-time educational activities, for children and young people aged 0-18 years (0-24 years if they are registered with an EHCP) in the United Kingdom, in the interests of social and emotional welfare, with the object of improving the conditions of life.

WE BELIEVE IN A TIME WHEN ALL CHILDREN REGARDLESS OF WEALTH CAN ACCESS THE LEARNING THEY LOVE IN THEIR LOCAL COMMUNITY

our YEAR OUR GOALS

1 FUNDRAISE SUFFICIENT FUNDS TO ENABLE OUR LAUNCH

We are deeply grateful to a major donor and a large philanthropic trust whose support was vital to our launch. We also began building a presence for online public donations, and its impact is growing.

We aimed to secure or pledged funds of at least £20,000 in order to launch. This was achieved by September 2024.

3 RAISING AWARENESS

We developed our branding and messaging alongside our website development. Leaflets were created and distributed during both visits and presentations to community groups and schools in Gloucestershire. We still have very few applications from this County, so this will take some analysis and an adjustment to our approach. We conducted multiple presentations to various Targeted Services teams in Cambridgeshire. Applications from these teams were immediately forthcoming.

2

DEVELOP OUR INFRASTRUCTURE FOR AWARDING GRANTS

We completed our website, consolidated our software platforms for finance, governance, and operations; and developed the necessary procedural and policy guidelines to ensure an efficient, legally robust, userfriendly and responsive process of grant application assessment, communications, and grant award and support programme. This included creating application forms, terms and conditions, agreement forms, and impact frameworks to measure the benefits of our grant and support packages for children and young people and their families. To keep children safe, we also created a robust safeguarding policy and process for approving activity providers. 4

BEGIN AWARDING GRANTS

Our first grants were awarded in December 2024. There had been a slow start to confirming grant awards, as we embedded awareness about our eligibility criteria with referring professionals and families. During the remainder of this year, we continued to get many applications, although some were not eligible, or we were unable to approve the chosen providers. There has been learning about how long it can take to assess, process and award grants, with the supporting relationship with families being a larger aspect of our work than anticipated.

Between October 2024 and April 2025, we received 29 applications, of which six were awarded grants and 14 are awaiting a decision.

IMPACT:

CHILDREN, YOUNG PEOPLE & COMMUNITIES

The children and young people receiving our grant and support programme range in age from 5 to 12. They have been navigating a range of difficulties that have impacted their well-being. Some are processing family bereavement, others have experienced or witnessed domestic conflict and abuse, and others are struggling with accessing school because they find their feelings overwhelming.

They all chose their activities themselves. Some had already been attending, but due to changes in circumstances, they would have had to stop the activity they loved. Others were unable to participate in any local community activities, so they chose something new and exciting.

“Thank you” doesn’t feel like enough—I couldn’t have kept this going without your incredible help and support.”

The children and young people are all at the beginning of their grant year, so we have held a welcome video call, and some have had their first review video call.

Their applications all include their own aims for the time they will spend going to activities, with us cheering them on. Examples include:

Feel more confident

Find it easier to manage my feelings Meet new people and widen my sense of community

At each review, we look back at their personal aims and reflect on how it’s going. So far, so good.

Every child is also asked to mark their activity out of ten in terms of how fun it is. We get scores of between 9/10 and 200/10. Now that’s “off the scale” joy!

(parent to two of the children we support)

AREA

Cambridgeshire

Gloucestershire

AIM

To reach children and young people supported by County Targeted Services and award them with up to a year-long grant and support package for them to attend their choice of local recreational activity.

To reach children and young people with emerging needs, through school and community group referrals, and award them with up to a year-long grant and support package for them to attend their choice of local recreational activity.

OUTCOME

ON NUMBERS SPOTLIGHT

----- Start of picture text -----
Inegible
29 Applications 6 6
9
Applications
14
Grants Activity
from 27
Applications Awarded Providers
families awaiting a decision
(at Apr ‘25)
Grant referred by Applications received
from
a school
5
Referring
1 5 Teams/Roles 17
Grant awarded (Schools; Family Workers;
Community Gourps; Young Individual Referring
referred by People’s workers; Youth
Professionals
Targetted Services Offending)
----- End of picture text -----

The activities being supported with our grants.

----- Start of picture text -----
Football Martial Arts Gymnastics
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Football Martial Arts Gymnastics
----- End of picture text -----

The nature of some of the difficulties our grant recipients are navigating.

----- Start of picture text -----
Bereavement Mental Health
Domestic Violence Trauma
Low Income Family Profound financial instablity
Disability Young Carer
Parental mental health
----- End of picture text -----

----- Start of picture text -----
The size of the circle represents the proportion of grant
recipients who are facing that difficulty
----- End of picture text -----

Funds brought forward £5,057

Financial position at Apr ‘25 £24,310

INCOME THIS PERIOD £20,852 Principle Source: donations

Children and Young People’s Grant Payments this period £523

----- Start of picture text -----
Income Expenditure
Grant Payments
20000
15000
Operational Launch
10000
October 2024
5000
0
Apr '24-June '24 July '24-Sept '24 Oct '24-Dec '25 Jan '25-Mar '25
----- End of picture text -----

Reserves Policy

During the period Apr ‘24-Apr'25, the focus was on fundraising, in preparation for our operational launch in October ’24. The policy was to hold 12 months of core running costs in reserves. The remaining funds were available for grant awards to children and young people.

There are no funds held as custodian trustees on behalf of others.

GOVERNANCE, STRUCTURE, MANAGEMENT,

& DECLARATIONS

Thriving Through Recreation is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation whose governing document is a Foundation Model Constitution. Copies are available on request.

Thriving Through Recreation

www.thrivingthroughrecreation.co.uk contact@thrivingthroughrecreation.co.uk Charity Registration Number 1204822

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 Thriving Through Recreation.

Trustees are selected and elected by a quorate vote by board members, and no individual person or body is entitled to appoint trustees unilaterally.

The Trustees have approved this Annual Report.

Richard Carter, Chair

There are no corporate trustees and no trustee holds title to property belonging to the charity.

Trustees

Richard Carter - Imogen Loxam - Elizabeth Riley - Jane Spencer - Jenny McGoldrick

All Trustees have regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit

WE THANK ALL COLLABORATORS AND DONORS FOR YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT

Statement of Financial Activities

Thriving Through Recreation For the period 6 April 2024 to 5 April 2025

Account 6 Apr 2024-5 Apr 2025
Income and endowments from:
Donations 20,851.86
Total 20,851.86
Expentiure on:
General Expenses 60.00
Grants 523.00
Insurance 549.36
ITSoftware and Consumables 349.20
Legal Expenses 47.00
Telephone &Internet 70.56
Total 1,599.12
Total Income/Loss 19,252.74
Reconciliation of funds:
Total funds brought forward 5,057.40
Total funds carried forward 24,310.14