## **Trustees’ Annual Report**
**From** period start date **To** period end date 7/8/24 5/4/25
**For ‘** Open Arms Teesside’ Charity.
|**Charity number**|120942|
|---|---|
|**Address of charity**|Sandown Building, Sandown Way, Teesside Park. TS17 7BT|
|**Telephone Contact**|01642 676880|
|**Email**|openarmsteesside@outlook.com|
## **Trustees:**
Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity
|**Trustee name**|**Dates acted (if not for whole**
**year)**|**Name of person (or body) enti-**
**tled to appoint trustee (if any)**|
|---|---|---|
|Julie McCluskey|7/8/24 – 5/4/25||
|Christine Binnie|7/8/24 – 5/4/25||
|David Errington|7/8/24 – 5/4/25||
## **Mission**
_The purpose of the charity is to serve, impact and offer hope to children and families in Teesside to make positive changes in home settings, schools and communities._
## **Chairs report**
## About us:
_We are pleased to report for the first time this new charity ‘Open Arms Teesside’ which was registered with the charity commission on 7/8/2024._
_As the founder of Open Arms Teesside with twenty years’ experience of working in numerous schools, colleges, GP surgeries, and NHS settings and providers, I recognised the growing need for children and families support across Teesside becoming apparent and essential._
_Neighbourhoods in Teesside are the most deprived areas of England according to the Index of Multiple Deprivation. The aim of setting up this charity was to enable more of our children/ families to access support services and facilities, as so many are at full capacity. These services are urgently_
_needed for these children/families to participate in modern society to prevent isolation and prevent provoking mental health. Numerous families are not able to afford to pay for private therapy, which is the only way for urgent support at present unless in crisis, and we need to offer these services to prevent the crisis._
_These children/families on extremely long waiting lists for mental health support, with waiting times at some services currently up to several years on Teesside, are already suffering with different conditions. These waiting times have a huge detrimental effect on their emotional and mental health._
_This could be due to changes in the environment with the current economic hard times with the pandemic, the wars and the cost-of-living, as a result the extremely high number of new referrals etc is impacting the children’s /families’ lives and putting a lot of services at full capacity._
_The vision is to give these children/ families some hope by reducing waiting times and risk. We believe extra support and a range of smaller diverse groups would really benefit those disadvantaged children/ families and their parents/ carer's._
_As the charity is based at Teesside leisure/ shopping centre this provides an environment with facilities that supports the parents/ carers enabling them to have respite for a time to socialise with friends or shop. Socialising and shopping can be daunting and challenging for both the parents/carers and children /adults with needs, due to fear and anxiety._
_We were overwhelmed with the volunteers who supported the charity in this short time in many ways including helping refurbish the rooms for the charity with amazing artwork representing hope and empowerment._
_A huge thank you to all involved which we have named further in this report._
Julie McCluskey
## **Objectives and responsibilities:**
The trustees are responsible for all decision making relating to running this charity. They have agreed quarterly meetings to ensure the areas of the objects of the CIO are to be carried out for those who reside in the deprived areas of Stockton and Teesside, for the public benefit, which are:
- **Object 1** . _To promote and protect the mental health of children and adolescents who are experiencing mental health problems, by providing or assisting in the provision of counselling and other therapeutic support as needed._
- **Object 2.** _For the public benefit, the relief of poverty and financial hardship among families in the area by providing or assisting in the provision of food parcels and children’s clothing_ **.**
The trustees are satisfied the risk and safeguarding policies are in place and will be reviewed at each annual meeting. The trustees will be responsible for the recruitment of staff,
volunteers and new trustees as the charity grows with a range of experience, skills and knowledge to enhance and support the charity.
## **Activities and achievements**
## **What we have done to achieve Object 1 in our first year:**
Open Arms Teesside has provided Counselling, Therapies and Support to children and families:
Based at the centre at Teesside Park we are grateful to have qualified volunteers with the BACP (British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy) who are working with children from Oaktree Academy, Tilery Academy and Easterside Academy to provide help and support to children and families. We also had a couple’s counsellor who provided support for a couple with the aim to support their child with SEND needs (Special Educational Needs and Disability’s)
The impact of providing this support has had a positive effect on the families who have provided confirmation of this by positive encouraging feedback to Open Arms Teesside thanking them and clarifying that the support has been needed and helped them. Funding for this project has been primarily provided by volunteers.
We continue to work in close co-operation with schools, teachers, social services. A grant funding received would help to grow this project.
## **What we have done to achieve Object 2 in our first year:**
Open Arms Teesside have supported children with providing clothing. The Trustee’s would like to give a huge thank you goes to Gloria Holden a volunteer who with the help of one of the trustees create a room in the centre for children to be able to come and receive new and nearly new clothes, shoes and accessories.
Gloria arranged with local shops to donate their clothes hangers and arranged some discount off need items.
She encouraged people to donate children’s good used clothes.
She engaged the knitting club where she attends to knit items and sell them to donate the money for brand new school uniforms and shoes, and to knit worry teddies with pockets for the children to leave their worries there.
The knitting club also donated food at Christmas for the families for some food hampers which contained cereals, tea bags and coffee, pasta, rice and sauce biscuits, tins of foods and toiletries.
She used her own money for the iron and ironing board plus items of clothing, and attended weekly to sort through bags of clothing and iron weekly.
The clothes that were not used were donated to help schools and a baby bank in Thornaby.
## **Plans for Future Periods**
The charity hopes to get funding for a charity manager to work eight hours per week as the charity expands. The charity manager will apply for funding for support and clubs, manage the volunteers and support for admin.
We have volunteers committed to help with this project
Hope for funding: -
- To provide support clubs for children’s/ families on extremely long waiting lists to prevent isolation and loneliness.
- To provide a sensory room for anyone with extra needs to have time out if a club becomes overwhelming for them
- To provide a website for people to know more about Open Arms Teesside.
We aim to continue work to provide support and get donations to support children needing clothes, school uniforms shoes and food parcels when needed.
## **The Trustee’s would like to give a huge thank you to:**
- **Geoffrey Robinson Limited** . The first support the charity received was kindly donated from this company who provided carpet tiles and gave their time and staff to refurbish the floors in the rooms in the building.
- **Adam Stephenson** who completed the Great North Run to set up this charity of £800 well done!
- **Nunthorpe Knit club** donation of £200 for club furniture and very necessary new school unforms.
- **Mr and Mrs C. Barwick** for the donation of wallpaper and paint for the charity food provision room.
- **Jessica Stephenson and Lily Zaher** for their time and talent in designing and painting the inspiring art murals.
- The Trustees would also like to thank **all the volunteers** who have worked hard to make Open Arms Teesside a welcoming friendly safe place for children and families.
- A huge thank you to **Chris Kamara** who kindly agreed to support the charity and officially opened the charity at Teesside Park on the 17.1.25 it was a great day for the charity, a huge thank you also to his wife Anne who kindly gave her time to set this up, much appreciated.
## **Financial Review** :
From 7/8/24 – 5/4/25 the last eight months of the financial year Open Arms Teesside had an income of £1,120.00 and expenditure of £529.66.
The expenditure was used to purchase school uniforms and essentials for food and clothes storage facilities. This was also used to decorate and furnish a charity office room for the potential charity manager to work in and to improve the clothes room and essentials for the charity club room. It also helped facilitate the operational costs to offer free therapy and creative craft supplies for the children to use in their therapy.
## **Financial Statement:**
## **Receipts and Payments Accounts**
|**Charity Name**
Open Arms Teesside||**Charity Number**
1209492||
|---|---|---|---|
|||||
|**For the period**|Period start date
7/8/24|**To**|Period end date
5/4/25|
|**A Receipts and Pay-**
**ments**|**Unrestricted**
**funds to**
**nearest**|**Restricted**|**Endow-**
**ment funds**|**Total**|**Total**
**from last**
**year**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**A1 Receipts**Income
resources from gen-
erated funds dona-
tions and voluntary
income|£1120.00|0|0|£1120.00|NA|
|**A2**Assets and In-
vestmentpurchases|0|0|0|0|NA|
|**Total A1 & A2**|£1120.00|||**£1120.00**||
|||||||
|**A3 Payments**||||||
|Stationery|19.24||0|£19.24|NA|
|Staff wages and any
expenses to staff or
volunteers|0|0|0|0|NA|
|Other costs|238.86|||£238.86||
|Funds carried for-
ward|||`||NA|
|**A4 Assets retained**
**for charity own use**|£272.36|||£272.36||
|||||||
|**Total A3 & A4**|£529.66|||**£529.66**||
|**A5 Transfer Be-**
**tween funds**|£0|||0||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**A6 Cash funds last**
**year**|NA|||NA||
|**B Statement of assets and**
**Liabilities**|**Details**|**Unrestricted**
**funds to**
**nearest**|**Restricted**|**Endowment**
**funds**||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|B1Cash Funds|Bank|£590.34|0|0||
|**Total**cash funds||**£590.34**|0|0||
|B2Other monetary assets||0|0|0||
|B3 Investment Assets||0|0|0||
|B4 Assets retained for the
charities own use||||||
|Furniture, fixtures and
fittings||**£262.38**||||
|B5 Liabilities|0|0|0|0||
## **Declarations**
The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above. Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees
## **Signature(s)**
## **Full name(s)**
|**Full name(s)**|||
|---|---|---|
|Julie McCluskey|Christine Binnie|David Errington|
|Date of approval :10.1.26|11.1.26|13.1.26|