THAXTED CENTRE FOR THE DISABLED, WORKING NAME, CRAFTABILITY. Report of The Trustees for the Year ended 31[st] March 2025
General
The Trustees have continued to organise local fundraising events with some success and have sought support from local charities and donors rather than appealing to larger scale organisations. This policy has been sucessful during the year and appears to be sustainable in the longer term providing we continue to seek all available opportunities that arise.
We are very grateful for the support we receive from the Hunts and Yardleys Charities in Thaxted, the Essex Community Fund, Saffron Walden Co-op Community Fund, Dunmow and Uttlesford Councils.
During the year we also received generous donations from Saffron Walden Rotary, Mr Hagger, J Staines, the Fowler, Smith & Jones Trust and the Gibson Walden Charity, as well as many other donations from Friends of the Centre.
We and our members continue to enjoy the essential service provided by Uttlesford Community Travel. This enables a number of our members to attend the Centre from locations outside Thaxted.
The Trustees are indebted to the Centre Manager and all the volunteers that have given their time to help to make the Centre a valuable creative occupational and rehabilitative resource for those adults living in the Uttlesford area.
We are very grateful for the generosity of Bentons in examining and preparing the Annual Accounts at no charge.
Activities
The Centre continued to run its customary programme of twice-weekly sessions throughout the year. This included a Christmas party and Fayre, a visit to a Garden Centre, a trip to the seaside at Clacton and an Easter Fayre.
The Trustees decided that the existing chairs, being of considerable age and not being suitable for continued use, should be replaced. To that end two grants were obtained to replace them and 34 new chairs were delivered in March. These are more comfortable and a big improvement on the former chairs .
Our social-media presence continues to bring us broader interest from individuals, volunteers to assist and members to join. Our Facebook page was used successfully to sell goods produced by CraftAbility members and volunteers.
We continued to have articles in the local press to communicate who we are, what we do and our long history.
Financial Review
The accounts show that the Centre had a surplus £8,822 (previous year surplus of £322). Receipts from all sources were £37,609 which included £6,991 grants and £11,700 from major donations. Fundraising was £4,549 and hire of the Centre Increased to £3,098.
Payments were £28,783, Including £13,663 transport charges and £3,800 on new chairs.