2022-03-31-accounts - Holbrooks Community Association

This text was generated using OCR and may contain errors. Check the original PDF to see the document submitted to the regulator.

ANNUAL REPORT

MAKING HOLBROOKS A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE, WORK AND PLAY.

2021/2022

Holbrooks Community Association Holbrooks Community Centre John Shelton Drive Holbrooks

Coventry CV6 4PE

www.holbrookscommunity.co.uk hca@holbrookscommunity.co.uk

024 7666 5621

Chairman’s foreword - Rajinder Dhaliwal

Welcome everyone and thank you for attending the AGM of Holbrooks Community Association.

Our year began with the centre doors still closed and the country in lockdown, our staff members furloughed and the committee worrying about finances; Without the ability to rent the rooms at the centre very little income was available and the centres future was uncertain.

I'm pleased to say that a lot of hard work has taken place to raise the funds to ensure the centre could remain open.

During this year our long term chair, Margaret Lancaster, stepped down from the role she had held for 15 years due to ill health. Margaret had championed the centre, volunteered for events, sourced funding and collected donations.

Sadly Margaret passed away in February. She will be remembered for her kindness, dedication, and unwavering support for Holbrooks and its community. The centre will continue supporting the community, helping residents and making Holbrooks a better place in her memory.

Rajinder Dhaliwal

Introduction

This year the Community Centre had to close its doors, for pretty much all of the year, as a place for social events, service delivery and recreational activities, only returning to normal in September . This has had a significant impact on the finances of the centre as it has been unable to generate income from room hire for half of the year.

We continued to look for funding this in itself has been difficult due to the economic downturn and the pandemic meaning that funding for Community initiatives was greatly reduced. We are focussing on capital funding for the Kitchen refurbishment.

Partnership working with Hcca ensured we were able to secure discretionary grants from Coventry city council and The government Furlough scheme and support for paid staff provided a lifeline to the centre.

Centre users

After an absence of eighteen months the centre users returned to the centre cautiously, still complying with the Covid regulations in place.

Coventry City Council Adult education service returned in September to deliver ESOL courses twice a week but will not be having a creche.

Central Academy of dance, who have performed at both Euro Disney and in the West End, came back to deliver classes on a Tuesday and Wednesday evening. Archery sessions on a Monday night run by Coventry Activity club have returned and are well attended. A Sri Lankan group interested rented the room on a Friday for children’s activities, British cycling have delivered two full Saturdays for Cycle trainer training.

The baby weighing clinic, delivered by South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust. have returned to the centre each Tuesday with Health visitors giving babies and children developmental checks, and will look to extend hours next year.

Marta from the family Hub used the centre for 4 weeks, however due to majority of her clientele being polish she has decided to use a centre near the Polish Club. She has decided she wants to stay in touch as she has a clerical background and was a qualified Early Years teacher in Poland. She is now on file as volunteer.

We accepted the offer from John Shelton Primary school to Pay £6000 for 12 month sole usage of the third room. The school has used the rooms since after Easter for teaching staff as a breakout room given the challenges with space given the need to still social distance.

We continue to host four different religious groups, three two African and one Sri Lankan Christian group on a Saturday and Sunday, and a Muslim prayer group each Friday.

HAF

The community centre partnered with HCCA to deliver the City Council's Holiday and food activities for the first time this summer. This focused on supporting free school meal families to access activities and events at no cost and also provided a balanced meal for the children who attended each session. Children’s summer activities

The centre was used for three sessions per week; cookery was delivered by Emma and Alisha on a Tuesday afternoon, Yoga on a Wednesday by and the Wriggle Dance company led dance sessions on a Thursday morning.

As part of the HAF summer scheme we gave out breakfast parcels to all of the children who attended , in addition to that we are still giving our food parcels out to families that come into the centre every Thursday between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM. https://vimeo.com/613390575/638c7a8fcb Christmas activities

Given the success of the summer activities the community centre receive grant funding to deliver further events during the Christmas break.

Arts and crafts – two full sessions making Christmas Cards, making, cooking, decorating gingerbread figures, Painting Christmas mini stained glass decorations and making gonks from wool and felt. Hosting a full afternoon Christmas party with a Christmas quiz, Bingo, and many party games finishing with a disco and a visit from Father Christmas, who gave out the presents donated by John Shelton school and selection boxes to every child in attendance.

The final event was little Red Riding Hood Christmas panto performed by Chaplains theatre group, thoroughly enjoyed by everybody, and after that performance Father Christmas visited again. Everyday hot food was served to the children adhering to department for Education guidelines on healthy meals, of course there were a few treats throughout the day too. The food provided by the Fresh desserts company was very well received, predominantly vegan and vegetarian, and all dietary requirements were known before hand and catered for.

Representatives from the city council visited the events and took photos and videos of the children enjoying themselves. All administration and project management for these activities were undertaken by HCCA

Easter

Following on from the successes of the previous HAF activities delivered at the centre the centre bid for and was successful in securing funding to run activities during the Easter holidays.

City of Culture

We hosted a Rhubarb Theatre Production the Time Machine aimed at primary school children in the February half term. The event was shared widely on social media and with all local schools, places of worship, clubs and associations.

Irene the Inventor is lost in space and her time machine is ticking her off. Every second counts, so can you help her in her hour of need? But watch out, once she clocks you, she will whisk you off to a Victorian school room, a Roman invasion and even take you as far back as the time of the dinosaurs. Hold onto your pants. This performance was followed by a fun drama workshop led by Rhubarb Theatre. From finding weird and wacky characters to exploring the where and what, they inspired the children to create their own performance. The performance lasted 30 minutes, followed by the 30 minute workshop. The event was loved by everyone.

Kitchen Project and centre refurbishment

Following our procurement policy the centre appointed a builder to commence work in September. A full schedule of works has been submitted to the City Council along with copies of the builder’s insurances. We have had the kitchen floor donated: A whole new bonded floor was fitted by Axiom Group LTD and £100 of paint form the Coventry Wickes store. We purchased fridges and freezers, racking to store the food and kitchen equipment.

Sadly, the refurbishment work took far longer than expected and we have had to use other contractors to finish the job, as there were a few issues remaining. The Kitchen was completed in time to be used to provide food for the HAF Christmas activites.

Total amount raised for the kitchen was £18,911.00

Breakfast Club consultation

The consultation ran for six weeks from the end of November until 18th January.

There were 36 responses in total and a total of 44 children, although a couple of people didn’t give this information.

We are planning to begin the service in the new academic year, giving us plenty of time to advertise the service, and by which time there will be two members of staff recruited to run the sessions.

Food Network

We have met with food network to understand the procedures of running a social supermarket and visiting other centres in the city gained knowledge to start to develop our service

We have developed a booking form for application to social supermarket and the membership criteria . Exploring the possibility of also providing a cooked meal at affordable prices.

Hampers

The centre hosted the Christmas Hamper handout giving out a total of 88. Recipients were nominated by schools, Councillors, and other professionals.

At the end of the week we had some fresh vegetables and mince pies left over once all families who attended the activities had received a bag, this was donated to Queens road Baptist church who were cooking hot meals all through Christmas and new year for the vulnerable. Nothing was wasted.

Thank you to those who helped to collect food, parcel up bags and deliver hampers the time you all volunteer is much appreciated.

Finally The Management Committee would like to recognise the commitment and hard work of the staff and volunteers without whom the centre would not thrive

Aspirations for the next year.

With the lifting of Covid restrictions our focus will be maximising the hire of the centre to increase income.

We are working towards expanding the use of the kitchen to deliver a weekly lunch club, Breakfast club for John Shelton School children, ensuring all staff and volunteers are qualified to Food Hygiene level 2.

We are also hoping to begin the Social supermarket and have submitted bids to the National lottery fund and other funders.

Committee

Margaret Lancaster – chair – retired December 2021 Rajinder Dhaliwal – chair – From December 2021 Cllr Joseph Clifford – vice chair Tawakalitu Karimu Gerladine Bratt Katrina Price Father Simon Oakes Angela Williams Debbie Jones Isabelle Osbourne

Staff (contracted and supplied through Service Level Agreement with Hcca)

Garry Booth, site services, 16 hrs per week

Volunteers

Rachel Lancaster Emma Shiers Meridith Womble-Lancaster Lawrie Womble-Lancaster David Womble Susan Ryrie Luke Shires TT Clare Allington - Dixon Carlton Dixon Raj and Gughan Dhaliwal Sapna Patel Kat Price Mick Duggan Dan Sabin

Management

Management and all Human Resource functions including staff development and training Services are provided by HCCA.

Partnerships

During the last year the HCA has worked with the following partners:

Holbrooks Community Care Association Holbrooks Ward Councillors MP Coventry North West Taiwo Owatemi Evans Cash and Carry Urban food company Coventry Carers centre St Lukes Church John Shelton School Parkgate School Holbrooks School Holy Family School Cardinal Newman School President Kennedy School Cannon enterprise Fresh Dessert Company Feeding Coventry Coventry Food bank Morrisons Supermarket ASDA

Coventry City Council’s

Culture and Leisure
City Development Directorate
Coventry City Council’s Community Development Team
Adult Education Services

And most importantly our local residents.

1011-1011 A YEAR IN PICTURES LBROOKS IMmllniiJ

Registered Charity no: 1059903

Holbrooks Community Association Holbrooks Community Centre John Shelton Drive Coventry CV6 4PE

www.holbrookscommunity.co.uk hca@holbrookscommunity.co.uk 024 7666 5621

laLI Room H¥e, elc Gr8nts and Donation$ 6.442.99 ' 48251.TrJ ' SI.3.99 PA Roni. R*8 & S•r¥k Rgp8lr8. Renowajs. o Wage8 {Inc. Managmrrt Fw Cambd. etc) IT Costs 1.485.74 12.S.70 Ir I7.2. 1.460.00 1.692.60 S21.98V 150.¢XI Telefvit & Brn#dband A¢¢ountsncy Bank Commimknn a Ch•rg•8 LMIIM&s Professional S8r4fjc•WFee• mi. (kn¢. Cl•anlig. 8toth)tw. 2.4n.fy) J¢ 5.LW.84 7Cg.36 43.744.22 10,949.n Brought FOrd Ex¢o1¥ ol Recaos I (PWJIrth> 24.477.28 10.949.77 35,427.05 R•prggenled trr." UR C8gh ot Bank C•8h kn Hand 35,389.78 37.29 35.427.05 45 Baglnton Road styvech Coventy CV3 pjLL&CO 2tr22