2024-03-31-annual-report

2023/2024

KILTONGA CHRISTIAN CENTRE

TRUSTEE REPORT

Kiltonga Christian Centre Limited NIC 100453

Kiltonga Christian Centre Limited is a Company limited by guarantee, incorporated in Northern Ireland. The Company Registration Number is NI071861. Charity Ref No. XT16941 and is Registered with the Charities Commission for Northern Ireland. NIC 100453

The Trustees, who are also the Directors of KCC present their annual report together with the financial statements of Kiltonga Christian Centre Limited (KCC) for the period ended March 2024.

Objectives and activities

Kiltonga Christian Centre Limited is a registered Charity and is structured as a Company Limited by guarantee registered in Northern Ireland on the 26/2/2009. The Charity’s governing document is its Memorandum and Articles of Association.

The principal objectives of the Charity are contained in the Memorandum and are as follows:

1. Spread the gospel of Jesus Christ at home and abroad in word and deed.

2. Engage in religious preaching, teaching, crusading, ministering, counselling, witnessing, missions (domestic and foreign) and soul winning for the Lord Jesus Christ.

3. Operate in an evangelistic manner to support local churches and various religious youth activities and wherever possible to assist in support for worthy benevolent humanitarian projects.

Background

Kiltonga Christian Centre was launched in 2009. The founding aim of this group of Christians was to reach their local community by taking the ‘church’ outside the walls of a church building.

Sharing the good news of Jesus Christ in word and deed, through natural conversations with those they met in their daily engagements.

The word Kiltonga means ‘Church on the Tongue of Land’ in Gaelic, and we have always sought to serve those living in the area of Ards and North Down (Ards Peninsula being the Tongue of Land) but our reach now extends to all parts of Ireland and further afield.

An initial outreach was Storehouse @ Kiltonga Christian Centre - a food bank- this was set up along with other outreach projects ( G Fitness , craft groups. etc) to reach our local community. Whilst responding to needs in the community (at the time of the financial crash in 2008) it became apparent that we were taking food to clients who didn’t have a

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bed to sleep on. The ministry developed as we became aware of other community needs.

In 2015 all operations and outreach moved from the Old Leisure Centre on the Belfast Road, Newtownards (Kiltonga) to Enterprise Road, Bangor and this then became the base for the Charity.

KCC has a MOU with Ards and North Down Street Pastors who come under the umbrella of KCC. Street Pastors seek to care, listen, and help those on the Streets of Ards and North Down.

Currently a fortnightly craft group is organised by KCC and our Charity shop at South Street, Newtownards is a place of welcome, help and signposting in Newtownards town.

We also have many contacts with other churches and groups assisting people overseas. We have been able to provide both financial and practical assistance locally and overseas.

Our aim is to

• Help those in our community who lack the immediate resources to provide for themselves and let them know someone cares at a time when they feel at their lowest and are least able to help themselves.

• To assist people in their need regardless of race or religion.

• To deal with all referrals and requests in an entirely private and confidential manner.

All we do is based on our call to share the good news of Jesus Christ in word and in deed – Matthew 25 v 35.

Who do we benefit?

The Charity’s beneficiaries are those living within the area of the Ards and North Down Council. This covers an area reaching from Holywood right down the Peninsula to Portaferry. We do assist individuals in the Greater Belfast area and other towns throughout the province depending on the availability of donated goods and staff availability. We are aware of other Charities who we can signpost clients to if operationally they are closer to the client. We are mindful that every referral received is not just a statistic. Poverty has a face; in our work we have discovered there are many causes of poverty and hardship. There may be many reasons a person becomes oppressed. We have assisted people who are alone, single parents with children, clients escaping domestic abuse, people moving from homelessness to their first home – as well as those coming out of hostels, refugees and asylum seekers and working with mental health teams who are supporting clients within our community.

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Our referrals are mostly from Agencies, churches, local community groups and we have the means to carefully respond to self-referrals.

How do we mitigate harm?

The purposes of the charity may lead to harm by producing over dependency on charitable provision. However, through ongoing monitoring of individual service user access, the risk of harm is outweighed by the benefits. The only private benefit flowing from the purposes is ongoing training in relevant fields accessible to the Trustees and this is incidental and necessary because it directly impacts their ability to serve within the Charity. Due to our link up with many other Agencies and Charities working in the Ards and North Down area we have been able to identify duplication of requests for help. Many times, an individual desperate for assistance will contact many Agencies at the same time. Our staff have been able to safely identify where this may occur, they then work with the Agencies concerned to ensure the correct support is provided to the individual.

How did we do?

In the year ending March 2024 KCC continued to grow and provide a significant service to those living in circumstances of poverty and financial, relational, or emotional hardship.

Our ‘Loved and Restored’ charity shop in Newtownards continues to open on a Tuesday and Friday each week and the first Saturday of each month. This safe place is where we can identify and refer those in the community to our services or signpost to other community groups. It also allows us to raise funds through the sale of donated items. It is manned by a faithful group of approx. 8 volunteers and 1 paid member of staff who stocks the shop, deals with referrals and ensures volunteer cover is in place.

Our ‘Craft group’ meet on a Wednesday -once a fortnight. It provides a warm, safe space for our clients. We have clients who have been with us since 2009. KCC currently hires the Glen Estate Community centre to facilitate this group. It is a safe, warm, and easily accessible place to meet, enjoy company and have some fun.

Our volunteers are invaluable to all we do at KCC. We invite them to any appropriate training and Volunteers Week each year gives us an opportunity to honour them. Our volunteers are given an area to work in that suits their skills and we always try to get them to work alongside a ‘buddy’.

We have volunteers who:

• Sort children’s clothing and make up packs for donation through Agencies such as Bryson.

• Sort adult clothing for sale and for donation.

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• Check Books, Cd, DVD and Records- our one volunteer responsible for sorting these donations provides invaluable assistance and helps sort through vast amount of donations, his help provides financial assistance through sales and recycling. The value gained through recycling has decreased this year so we are trying to encourage sale of books where possible.

• Check children’s toys- our volunteer checks donated items are safe and clean. They are then sorted as those suitable for sales or donation.

• Check Bedding, curtains – checked if suitable for sale/donation – sized and stored.

• Help assemble donated beds, wardrobes, etc and keep warehouse clean and safe.

• Assist at our sales desks in the warehouse and at our shop in Newtownards- they are kept busy. Their dedication and reliability help KCC maintain good customer service, etc. and they are another crucial public face for our Charity.

We are blessed to have such a great and dedicated team of volunteers; they bring many fresh ideas and help cover many vital roles. They help KCC immeasurably.

Wednesday is the day our warehouse is closed to the public. We can facilitate Probation Board on Wednesdays and the volunteers fulfilling their community service are a wonderful asset to the work at the warehouse. They are a great help as they support us with our warehouse duties. They are supervised by their Probation Officer, and we are delighted when their service ends and they still want to volunteer for KCC.

Our Overseas outreach is coordinated by our Founding Director (C Davis) with the assistance of one part time employee. Items are gathered, stored, and sent overseas to Africa, Ukraine, and Israel, etc. throughout year. The items are mostly medical aids, clothing and other items that would otherwise go to landfill. These items are stored in Gloucester House, Enterprise Road and are sent out in containers from there.

We have 10 members of staff who allow us to maintain all the services we provide, dealing with client referrals, collection of donated items, admin work, maintaining the Warehouse and helping with sales and invoicing.

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Planning and Provision

Our operations Manager – P Williamson ensures the day to day running of the Charity is managed and any areas of concerns are dealt with promptly. Any concerns are referred by the Managing Director (G Allen) to the Management Team.

Management Team meetings are held throughout the year, and they allow the Trustees/Directors to be kept up to date on all matters relating to the Charity. The Operations Manager reports to the Managing Director on staffing and Policy matters

During this year work has been completed on TOIL, Sick Leave procedures and Cash handling. These have been created to provide an equal, open, and transparent method of handling such issues. All policies ensure Finances are not wasted and are properly monitored and accounted for.

2 long serving members of staff retired in July 2023. KCC Management Team expressed their thanks and best wishes to Mr and Mrs Sloan on their Retirement. The Management Team considering this change in staffing were able to update some of our admin practices and manage job responsibilities going forward.

These changes now mean that all requests to KCC are now received and monitored through email. This method allows greater clarity, consistency and transparency. There is now a clear system in place that everyone can follow, it especially saves time when dealing with phone queries. It is proving to be much more efficient.

The sale of donated items is still the main source of income for the Charity.

Our local community are very generous with their donations to the work of KCC. At certain times of the year we have had to put a hold on incoming donations to allow us time to catch up with the processing of these items.

We do receive small financial donations throughout the year and the HMRC Gift Aid small donations scheme (GASDS) is also used. Our staff/ volunteers are trained to encourage donors make use of Gift Aid when donating to our Charity. Forms are held at the Sales Desk for those who wish to complete Gift Aid declarations.

We recycle clothing, metal and books and receive income throughout the year from the Recycling Companies. Due to the current financial climate the return on recycling of books and clothes has greatly reduced. Where possible we now try to retrieve as much of this stock as possible for resale at the Warehouse to help increase income, ensuring the quality of goods retained.

We are still in contact with many Film Companies who source props for their productions from our warehouse. They purchase the items that have been donated to

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our Charity and are then invoiced for these items. Quite often they will donate items back to our Charity once their filming has ended. With the increase in Film Production in NI this is a good source of income.

Our Finance Officer (J Leliveld) provides detailed reports for the Directors each month. These reports allow us to look at the financial health of the Charity as a going concern and adjust quickly when needed. The Managing Director and Finance Officer have introduced a procedure for all staff to follow when KCC purchases items. They must all pass through the Finance Office and MD for approval. They ensure there are finances in place for each purchase as well as ensuring best pricing is applied.

It was decided in late 2023 that a lot of our resources were being used on the purchase of new beds and mattresses. After analysis the Management Team agreed that we would no longer purchase these items or hold them in stock. We will only give out good quality beds that are donated to KCC. This change has saved time on stock taking, ordering and has helped alleviate some of the pressure on our financial outgoings. As we were responding to a lot of requests from SVP for beds and mattresses, we held a meeting with SVP to update them on this change. From the 1/2/2024 we have only given out those items donated to KCC. If any emergency occurs that we have the means to resource, the staff are aware of the procedure to follow before making any purchases needed to respond to the request.

Assistance and outreach

As we help those without the immediate means to help themselves, we pray that hope and light is brought into often dark situations. We are encouraged when we hear first-hand the real stories of how people have been blessed when they receive a helping hand. There are many to recount, but one situation to recall was an elderly lady who had to leave her home suddenly due to domestic abuse. She left her home with nothing. KCC was able to help provide a helping hand. Our continued prayer is that as the provision comes from God’s Storehouse, we can then be his hands and feet here in this area of Ards and North Down.

The generosity of our donors means we can provide items to clients that will allow them to get back on their feet again whether that is furniture, bedding, household items or clothing.

Throughout this reporting period:

The estimated value of donated items given out in the community in this year was £122835.00.

We were able to work with over 60 different Agencies and had 18 requests from Local Churches.

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The total number of requests dealt with was counted as 390 .

Overseas aid was estimated as £45201.00.

And local aid was £3760.

The Management Team currently consists of Gillian Allen- Director/PSC along with Campbell Davis -Founding Director, Pam Williamson- Operations Manager, Colin Allen and Andrew Green.

Campbell Davis continues to coordinate all KCC overseas outreach. With Jim Clint’s help the contacts they have allow much needed items like medical aids, wheelchairs, Tena pads, etc to be sourced, stored, and then shipped overseas to those who require them. Often these items donated to KCC are not needed here in NI but with our contacts they can be directed to those who need them in other parts of the world e.g., Africa, Israel, Ukraine, and Romania. We are delighted to receive feedback and to know that they have gone to those who need them most. This in turn ensures suitable items do not go to landfill but can go to others who can make use of them. We are always working to ensure only good, clean, and useable items are sent overseas.

Over the years we have had many opportunities to ‘welcome the stranger’ here in NI. Those who fled the war in Ukraine and Afghanistan have been able to receive furniture, etc from KCC when they get their first home in NI. Items are given to the individual and not the sponsor- the items are then the individuals own to take with them wherever their new home may be.

Ards and North Down Street Pastors still comes under the umbrella of KCC and the Memorandum of Understanding is still in place. The AND Street Pastors works with Policing and community Safety Partnerships and local Council and Community Groups. Pam Willamson completes her Street Pastor work on the days she isn’t employed by KCC. AND Street Pastors have a committed group of volunteers from churches within the Ards and North Down Area who give their time to volunteer on Friday and Saturday evenings. They are always trying to increase their number of volunteers. Pam as Coordinator has a Street Pastor Management Team in place. She provides regular reports to the KCC Management Team and raises any concerns with KCC and Ascension Trust as applicable. She has a team of Prayer Pastors in place who support those who are out on duty on any given night. All these volunteers give up their time freely and are often out on evenings when the weather is most inhospitable- their sacrifice and dedication is highly valued.

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Going Concern

After making appropriate enquiries, the Trustees have a reasonable expectation that the Charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. For this reason, they continue to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the financial statements. Due to the increase in costs KCC has had to adjust our operations to alleviate costs. Our admin team try to ensure all pick up/delivery of donated goods are well planned to ensure fuel efficiency. We ensure where a customer cannot arrange their own delivery of a purchased item then a suitable delivery charge is paid to the Charity to cover KCC fuel/manpower cost for that delivery. The Operations Manager ensures policies and procedures are followed and feedback is provided to the Management Team when difficulties arise.

All efforts are made to ensure best practices are in place to ensure cost effectiveness, waste is kept to a minimum and personnel matters are dealt with promptly. Our finance Officer reports frequently on all Pay/ Personnel and Finance matters to the Trustees. Her help is invaluable. The Finance Officer keeps all Finance Policies/Records UpToDate and provides accounts to the accountant in a timely manner. The Finance Officer ensures training and procedures are in place for the staff who cover her when she is on leave.

Trustees and Risk Management

The Trustees recognise that the majority of KCC income stream is from the sale of goods donated to the work of KCC. Sales of donated items are important, and the money generated contributes to the cost of collecting and delivering furniture to our clients, our wage bill, and overheads. A small amount is normally received from local councils (towards the Syrian Refugee Programme). £300 /council and Bryson helps by asking the Councils to provide this financial support for the goods held aside for Refugee and Asylum Families. We have worked tried to work on increasing Gift Aid contributions and have considered ways we could reduce other outgoings. From February 2024 we no longer purchase new beds and mattresses. This was proving to be a huge cost both monetarily and in staff time and was considered a necessary adjustment to make at this time. If circumstances change, we can reassess this in the future.

As the cost-of-living costs have increased in our communities we at KCC have found a huge increase in the number of requests received. With only a small workforce we have had to take steps to ensure that we can manage this increase in demand. The staff have been given guidelines on how to prioritise requests received to ensure equality and fairness is maintained. We can only give out what we have received – trying to maintain a balance is an ongoing process for all staff and volunteers.

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The Management Team reviewed their 2 year break clause in the 5-year lease for our Warehouse at Enterprise Road.

The major concern for KCC is ensuring we can maintain payment of the £40,000 pa rent going forward (Year one April 2022- March 2023 £20,000- Year two April 2023- March 2024 £40,000)

The Trustees and Management Team agreed that they should continue with the lease having considered previous years accounts and believing in Gods provision and promises.

Going forward the Vans used by KCC may need to be replaced. A local mechanic maintains the vehicles to keep them on the road. A financial appraisal will be conducted before any further van purchases are made.

The Trustees ensure they keep up to date with all warehousing available in the North Down Area – considering prices and whether there are any more cost-effective options available. A regular review is made by the Trustees and Head of Departments to mitigate risks and ensure there are adequate controls in place.

Trustees’ responsibilities statement

The Trustees and Director of KC are responsible for preparing the Trustees report and financial statements on accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting standards.

Company Law requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year. Under Company Law the Trustees must not approve the financial statements unless they are satisfied that they give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Charitable Company and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure of the Charitable Company for that period. In preparing these financial statements the Trustees are required to:

• Select suitable accounting principles and then apply them consistently.

• Observe the methods and principles in Charities SORP

• Make judgements and accounting estimates that are reasonable and prudent.

• Prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charitable company will continue its operation.

List of Trustees and Officers as at 31 March 2024

Campbell Davis MBE

Gillian Allen

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The Trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the charitable company’s transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Charitable Company and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Company’s Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charitable company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

In preparing this report the Trustees have taken advantage of the small Companies exemptions provided by Section 415a of the Companies Act 2006.

This report was approved by the Trustees and signed on their behalf by :

Campbell Davis Gillian Allen ____ _______ 1/12/2024 1/12/2024