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2026-03-31-accounts

Annual Report April 2025 to March 2026

We finished the year continuing to operate as Burton Renewal Fellowship (BRF) known as ‘Riverside Church Burton’ (RCB) - a church with charitable status. This will be the last year that we will be operating as BRF, as the ownership of the church building has now been transferred to the CIO that is RCB.

The existing team of four senior leaders, all of whom are trustees, continued to have equal authority and accountability in the leadership of the church.

Riverside Church continued to hold weekly Sunday services - which were also live streamed via, and saved on, our Youtube channel. Throughout the year, this continued to prove to be an invaluable way of ensuring those who were not physically able to be in church – especially those who were too unwell - to remain connected with and be a part of the church.

As well as the typical Sunday Services, a number of special ones took place:

The numbers of children and youth attending the sessions continue to grow. It has not been unusual for in excess of 30 under 18s to attend on Sunday morning. Our volunteers continued to make minor tweaks to the practical arrangements for the children and youth in order to meet the diverse needs of those attending.

Some small groups for adults experienced changes in leadership and membership but the focus of these groups remained the same: prayer and pastoral support. Of significance during this year was the number of people who requested to join or transfer into the daytime small group. This is indicative of a growing number of the church who are feeling unable to drive at night for meetings. In addition to prayer and pastoral support, some small groups also used the time to study the Bible and delve deeper into the themes explored on Sundays.

At the beginning of this year, the Senior Leadership Team, being mindful of the need to start succession planning, invited 17 individuals that were identified as having leadership qualities to join the Emerging Leadership Team; 15 people accepted the invitation. A series of monthly training sessions ensued with each evening providing time and space for attendees to discover more about themselves as leaders and to encourage them to grow and develop. This concluded in March 2026, and next steps will be to have 3 further sessions to run from May-July 2026.

As well as the ongoing activities for the church family, we held some one-off events which included a BBQ and ‘Thanks a bunch munch’ for people who help with the many sessions which are run for the children and youth of the church and wider community.

Other one-off events which we organised and hosted throughout the year included:

We still continue to send appropriately vetted representatives of the church to support children at our local school. Five young people received one-to-one support for an hour on a weekly basis at a primary school. The team of volunteer coaches from Riverside remains at five.

The playgroup, Jelly Tots, which is for parents/carers and children from newborn up to pre-school, continued to be extremely popular, making the most of the safe outdoor space, as well as the large indoor warehouse. The Childminders’ Support Group also continued as the separation of the two groups benefits those who attend both sessions.

The Warehouse Wednesdays’ provision continued to offer sessions for those aged 7-11 years from 4-5.15 pm. It is seen as a safe space for children with additional needs, so some stay and play with their parents. These children are often limited in the extracurricular activities that they can attend, but they are welcomed and feel at ease at our venue as we take the time to draw up care

plans with them and their parents. The later session for those aged 10-18 continued running form 5.45-7.15 pm every Wednesday during term time. Many of the youth accessing our provision are struggling for a variety of reasons and this means that some of them have been excluded from activities elsewhere – either by a third party or have excluded themselves as they don’t feel able to attend because they are ‘quirky.’ At these sessions, we offer a safe, warm and accepting place to be themselves. Another USP of both Wednesday sessions is that they attract children and youth who want to learn/develop their skateboarding skills and this is only possible thanks to the committed team of volunteers from the wider community which is growing in number.

A number of sessions were planned for the holidays to help children, youth and their parents to continue to have access to the activities which are on offer during term time; some were based at Riverside Church, while others were in the community. A team of supervised young leaders planned and ran a variety of activities for two days during the Easter holidays at The Warehouse. This scheme was as much about developing the next generation of leaders as providing something for primary school aged to do in the holidays. In partnership with Burton Albion Community Trust, Trent & Dove and Burton Youth for Christ, we ran four sessions of detached work for young people at local parks. Grant funding from the Trent & Dove Grants Panel meant we were able to secure the services of a professional artist who planned and guided the youth as they created a huge mural which represented aspects of Burton and symbols of the four partner organisations. The combination of activities, better advertising and good weather helped to attract over 200 people to the events; the majority were young people – the target audience.

The English Class continued to provide essential support to those for whom English is a second language. Numbers hovered around 30 each week with the vast majority being beginners (as opposed to previous years where there a mixture of abilities attended).

The monthly Craft Club continued to welcome some of the English Class participants and it was wonderful to see people from the wider community enjoying creative time and forging relationships.

Similarly, the monthly Lunch Club for those over 65, and the clients continue to be incredibly grateful for an affordable, tasty and nutritious meal with the

company of others. Numbers have been consistent, at around 40, which is manageable for the size of the room and the cooks.

The church continued to partner with a number of local organisations by working together with them. Riverside Church Burton continue to contribute food items to Burton YMCA, and TCC food bank to help them keep up with the ever-growing need for food parcels. These donations are given by members of our congregation.

Our local Teams4U volunteers were kind enough to provide 127 Christmas shoeboxes for local children in need. These were distributed by Winshill’s Bee Blessed Charity Shop and three local primary schools - all of whom were incredibly grateful for the gifts.

Our Church premises continued to be made available for regular use by third party groups and local charities, many of whom work with the vulnerable and disadvantaged in our community as can be seen below.

Narcotics Anonymous (which is for those who are recovering from drug and alcohol addiction) continued to hold two fellowship meetings each week at the church’s premises. Alcoholics Anonymous started a Tuesday lunchtime group in summer. The Burton Addiction Centre (through BAC O’Connor*) also continue to hold a weekly pre-recovery group at the church, further cementing the relationship with this incredible local organisation.

(*BAC O’Connor runs a pre-rehab group at our premises. Individuals tend to go to rehab and then feed into the NA groups that meet in our building, so hosting the BAC group helps to create a sense of continuity for those attending.)

The U3A, or ‘The University of the Third Age’ movement is a collection of groups (U3As) that run local and online member-led learning for those no longer in full time work across the UK. The Burton-wide ‘tea and talk’ sessions took place as usual at Riverside during the year, while the History Group continued meeting at our premises once a month.

Burton Child Contact Centre (BCCC) continue to use our warehouse and workshop. On a weekly basis, they provide a safe, supervised place for divorced or separated parents that require supervised contact.

Burton YMCA is one of our key partners and the organisation used our facilities for staff training during the year. In order to offer the best support available to those in need in the town, professional connections between the staff of both organisations are continuing to grow. The same can be said of

Burton Youth for Christ who partner with us in the Warehouse Wednesday project and other aforementioned activities. 24 youth joined the Burton Youth Christ weekend away at Alton Castle. Their good behaviour was commented upon by the staff and volunteers who were responsible for running the programme and upon returning home, all youth confirmed that they had moved forward in their faith.

Following the recommendations from the Fire Risk assessment we had in February 2025, In January we had a new L4 fire alarm system installed. We secured a grant from Benefact trust for £2,500, and the remaining balance of £8k came out of our reserves. This should ensure the building and more importantly our users are protected, as the system is hard wired, not battery operated.

In September we approached Pladis Global regarding donations from their McVities factory in Ashby. They graciously obliged with a pallet of biscuits, and a further promise of goods from a charitable partner. Then in October we received the promised pallet from His Church Charity (HCC) and got to meet their representative Richard Humphries. We were then invited to visit HCC base on Market Rasen, which two of the trustees duly did, and have continued to maintain contact and hope to further strengthen ties between our charities.

As a result of this relationship with HCC we felt inspired to sign up to Neighbourly, and twice a week collect food ‘waste’ from a local supermarket that we then share between ourselves, BYFC youth drop in, the YMCA food bank & another charity (The Community Church) that cook meals for vulnerable people in our community.

On 31[st] January two of our trustees were invited by Pladis Global to join them on a charity table for the Burton Albion vs Cardiff City football match. It was a great opportunity to meet other local charities and finally meet Tony Coddington, the charitable face of Pladis Global midlands.

In line with the recommendations of the Charity Commission, we continue to keep reserves of six months in order to make sure that we can meet all our financial commitments, should the need arise. An independent check of accounts and other records has been completed again this year by a Chartered Accountant.