Damask Community Outreach Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 March 2023 The trustees who are also directors of the charity for the purposes of the Companies Act 2006, present their report with the financial statements of the charity for the year ended 31 March 2023. The trustees have adopted the provisions of Accounting and Reporting by Charities.. Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective l January 2015). OBJECTIVES AND ACTtvrrIES Objectives and aims Damask Community Outreach fonned in July 2011 to work primarily in the community of East Lisbum. The mission statement of Darnask Community Outreach is Dedicated to providing safe, inclusive and challenging opportunities that ar¢ changing lives and building futures in our community. The key purpose and services provided by Damask were established in response to an audit carried out in the community. The public benefit delivered by Dam&8k provides support for older people, parents and carers and young people through a range of activities and programmes, together with advice services and support to those experiencing health problems, loneliness, unemployment, age related problems, povety and financial difficulties. Damask Community Outreach is a Christian faith-based organisation, working in partnership with Seymour Street Methodist Church, but is open to all and committed to equality of opportunity for all people, regardless of religious belief, political opinion, race. age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, disability or dependency. Damask is committed to building partnerships in the community, with statutory agencies and with other relevant groups and organisations to ensure that it can offer a wide range of services that match the needs of the community and help with the personal development of individuals. Ensuring the work delivers the aims of the company The aims. objectives and activities are reviewed throughout the year at Damask Board Management meetings held monthly, looking at what has been achieved and the outcornes of the work. The effect of each key programme and service and the benefits they have brought to the cornmunity and the groups are reviewed systematically. This process helps ensure that aims, objectives, programmes and services remain focused on the stated purposes. The Board refers to the guidance contained in the Charity Comrnission's general guidance on public benefit when reviewing its aims and objectives, and in planning its programmes and services. Page I
Damask Community Outreach Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 March 2023 ORJECTtVES AND ACTIVTTIES Overview of activities The Advice Service Continued to operate throughout the year, and when our Adviser took maternity leave at the end of December we were able to appoint a new temporary Adviser. Maya Lazarenko, to cover her period of leave. Coun5elling support has continued to be provided by Ricky Keag. The youth programme in collaboration with Youth Initiatives, and partly funded by Children in Need, continued to run in that way until the end of December 2022. However it was becoming more difficult to combine the nature of the work YI wished to carry out with direction that Damask, with Seymour Street Methodist Church, wanted to see and so the Memorandum of Understanding was brought to close mutually. Damask is grateful to YI for the valuable work that Ryan Lilley and other leaders have led over the last five years or so. From January 2023 Damask appointed Rebecca Wills to lead the continuing Damask youth programme and to work with The Seymour Street Youth Pastor. Ashleigh O'sullivan, in planning and running this programme. The Damask Wellbeing Programme which w&$ initiated during the time of COVID has developed into a continuing Tuesday Moming programme with a well-attended pilates class, followed by a social time with tea and coffee. During the year a small group also enjoyed indoor bowls and walks, craft group5 and other activities were organised from time to time. The Toddler group continued its weekly meeting and with the decline in COVID restrictions the requirement for advance booking w&8 dropped. The monthly Tea Dances which were fomierly run have not resumed. Fund raising through regular Car Boot Sales carried on throughout the year. Although they could not be held every month they still made an important contribution to Damask's funds. Damask with help frorn S¢ymour Street Methodist Church continues to gather food donations for the Lisburn Food Bank. We do not currently have any 'Befri¢nding' taking place. Volunteers Volunteers Continue to provide a vital backbone to our activities The Damask Board, which is rnade up of voluntary members continued to provide management and administration via online meetings, and the time spent on administration remained high due to additional funding applications and the need to keep attering and re-developing our activities. In most months we have held a car boot sale which depends on voluntary support, as does the Toddlers. The Wellbeing group has voluntary leadership as does the Advice Service, and the youth programme depends on young Voluntee who have come up through the group. The below table showing year on year volunteering hours with Damask Community Outreach: 2022123 2021122 2020121 Youth Projects Advice Service Befriending Service Wellbeing Group Toddlers Group Covid Food Box Deliveries Management & Admin Car Boot Sale Food Bank Collection 1,800 320 2,000 200 1,020 400 30 120 480 120 360 300 1.400 50 50 936 304 50 1,400 300 50 Total 4,010 4,430 3,250 Page 2
Damask Community Outreach Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 March 2023 ORJECTIVES AM) ACTIVITIES Paid Staff and Session Workers At the end of March 2023 Damask had two contracted staff, Maya Lazarenko, Temporary Adviser working 20 hours per week and Febbie Francis, Adviser (on maternity leave). Rebecca Wills. the sessional youth worker, works 6 hours per week on the Fusion Project (After-school Club). Session workers are employed where necessary to deliver specific programmes such as Pilates, the Wellbeing programme, craft activities, and youth outreach. Grant applications and donations The Damask programme over 2022123 has been supported by a range of funding bodies and we are grateful to these bodies for their ants. These include Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council, The Education Authority, Children in Need, Lisbum artd Castlereagh Policing and Community Safety Partnership and Youth Initiatives. In February 2023 we were awarded a grant from the Victoria Homes Trust which will be used to support the Fusion Project (after school club) tn 2023124, continuing from Children in Need. We have received donations from Seymour Street Methodist Church as well as private individuals. The Wellbeing programme is fully funded through weekly donations from those attending and the toddlers group is funded through a small weekly subscriptions by those attending. Objectives for 2022123 The rnain objectives for 2022123 were to develop the Advice Service particularly with regard to supporting victims of domestic violence as we received PCSP funding for this aspect of the work and to build on the successful Wellbeing Programme. We aimed to secure new funding to provide continuing support to the after-school club at the conclusions of the Children in Need funding. In additional the Damask Board aimed to maintain the 2022123 balance sheet in credit as had been achieved in the previous three years. Page 3
Damask Community Outreach Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 March 2023 ACHIEVEMENT AND PERFORMANCE Programmes and Activities The Damask Response to the needs of Community during 22123 Advice Service Febbie Francis was able to deal with the calls coming in to the advice service effectively and the new arrangement of having Friday morning sessions in the Lisbum Food Bank worked well. However some health issues meant there were periods when the service could not operate. Once we became aware that a period of maternity leave would be required we again had no success finding a qualified Adviser. However Maya Lazarenko, a refugee from Ukraine, applied and w&s offered the post from January 2023 following a period of online training and work experience in November and December 2022. This appointment opened the door for Damask to offer support to Ukrainian refugees in the Lisburn area in additional to our usual local clientele, which we felt was a very much in line with the aims of Damask Community Outreach. We continued to receive PCSP funding to enable us to support clients who are victims of Domestic Violence. Due to our change of staff and periods of closure, we were not able to develop the domestic violence aspects of the work as hoped. However we intend to remain focussed on this issue which is still widespread in the community. We did, however, refer a number of clients with domestic violence issue to Ricky Keag for counselling. Youth Programme The main programme during 2022123 was the Children in Need 'Go' project with up to 50 young teens attending after school on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. This was under the management of Ryan Lillcy from YI, but led by Rebecca Wills. Early in 2022 it became apparent that the detached youth work with older teens at weekends was no longer finding groups of young people on the streets in Lisbum and the focus with older teens moved to working within Forthill College providing infornial counselling during lunch and break times. An evening group for older girls w&8 established but a boys group did not attract support. Frotn January Damask took over management of the youth programme from YI with Rebecca Wills continuing as Leader of the after-school programme, now called Fusion, and Rebecca Ringland ran the group for older girls. The Fusion programme is now becoming more integrated with the work of Seymour Street Methodist Church and has the assistanc¢ of Ashleigh O'sullivan, the Youth Pastor. With the support of the PCSP grant several week5 of summer Holiday Clubs were run. Toddlers Group With the decline in Concern over COVID the Toddlers group was able to operate without a requirement for pre-registration. There is a team of about six voluntary leaders and the group is largely self-funding through a small weekty Subscription. Community Wellbeing Projects Walks for Wellbeing:_ From Easter 2022 to the summer. fortnightly Walks for Wellbeing were organised. but there were dccl ining numbers. This programme did not restart after the summer. Page 4
Damask Community Outreach Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 March 2023 Community Wellbeing :" The popular Pilates class had sessions running from April to June 22, September to December 22 and January to March 23 with a regular attendance of 14 to 20. Weekly donations from those attending more than covered the costs of running this programme and the coffee time afterwards. While the Pilates group was predominately women, a small group of men enjoyed the short mat bowls in the main hall. The overall programme has become a well-supported and valued addition to the Damask activities bringing together a wide mix of people from the local community and church and has the potential to be further developed with a wider range of day-time activities. Damask Board and other aspeets of Damask The Damask Board continued to meet approximately monthly, mostly but not entirely online via Zoom throughout 2022123. The Car Boot sales continued to be an important fundraising, and community activity of Damask generally raising £700 to £800 per sale, including £125 to £150 from refreshments. In the absence of an altemative the stage in the main hall is the main area where donated items are stored. Most donations arc coming from Church members and their support in this way is appreciated. After each sale a significant amount of unsold material is disposed of at the dump. Damask has continued to support the Lisburn Food Bank by gathering food donations from Church members and others and passing them on. Future Plans With the Youth Programme now being managed directly by Damask our aim, particularly with the younger teens, is to have a more regular Christian input into the programme and to develop opportunities for church young people to be involved as members or youth leaders. However we do want to maintain the link with Forthill College and identify and support for older young people who Mi1t other wise drop out of education and also to continue the evening group of older girls. As we expect opportunities for grant funding to become more difficult in Northern Ireland we will need to look at new potential sources of funding particularly for the AdVIccOunSel11ng work. While Maya Lazarenko will finish when Febbie Francis returns to work the possibility of Damask working with Maya to provide additional support to the local refugee population could be a new area of work for Damask Af appropriate funding could be found. Appreciation The Damask Board wish to place on record our deep appreciation and thanks to all our Volunteers who give of their time so freely, to the staff providing the Damask Advice and Counselling, the Community activities and leading the youth programme and to those who give donations regularly and generously to support the work of Damask Community Outreach. At this stage Damask would also like to thank Ryan Lilley who was employed by Youth Initiatives to lead the Damask youth prograrnme over the last fourlfive years. Over much of this time there was a strong element of detached youth outreach in Lisbum and YIIDamask were providing a stabilising influence at a time when the PSNI were finding it difficult to keep tabs on the 0upS of young people in Lisburn. Ryan provided well organised and prepared leadership and maintained the required applications, paperwork and reports to satisfy our funder5. Damask also appreciates the commitment from the CEO artd Board of YI to support this work with Damask with staff and finance. Page 5
Damask Community Outreach Report of the Trustee5 for the Year Ended 31 March 2023 FINANCIAL REVIEW Fftnaneial Review and Reserves Policy In partnership with our principal funders as detailed in the notes to the financial statements we delivered an agreed programme. The amount directly expended on charitable activities in the 12 months to 31 March 2023 amounted to £42,152 (£42,935 31 March 2022) We maintained tight control over our fu]ances and are seeking to establtsh a reserves policy, which will aintain the financial stability of the charity. We will continue to keep our PrincipaI Funders fully infomied through briefing and PrOgsS reports to agreed timetables. Finances The Statement of Financial Activities reflects a general reserve increase of £5,917, from £28,444 at 31 March 2022 to £34,361 at 31 March 2023. The Restricted Funds carried forward at 31 March 2023 increased by £3,081 from £1,190 at 31 March 2022 to £4,271 at 31 March 2023. Risk Management The Board continue to review the major risks to which the charity is exposed and they endeavour to maintain control procedures and systems to mitigate those risks. Responsibilities of the Board of Directors Company Law requires the Board to prepare financial statements for each financial year that give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company as at the balance sheet date and of its incoming resources and applications of resources, including income and expenditure, for the financial year. preparing those financial statements the Board follows best practice and selects suitable accounting policies, makes judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent and prepares financial statements on the going concern basis, unless it is not appropriate to &8sume that the company will continue on that basts. The Board of Directors is responsible for maintaining proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charitable company and to enable them to ensure that the fmancial statements comply with all legal obligations. The Board of Directors is also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charitable company and therefore for taking re&sonable step5 for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities. STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND IVIANAGEIVIENT Governing document The charity is controlled by its governing document, a deed of trust, and constitutes a limited company, limited by guarantee, as defined by the Companies Act 2006. Damask Community Outreach is a charitable company limited by guarantee. incorporated on 22 July 2011 and registered &$ a Charity by the Charity Commission Northern Ireland NIC102073 on 6 March 2015. It is recognised by HMRC as a charity for tax purposes. The company was established under a Memorandum of Association, which established the objects and powers of Damask as a charitable company, and is governed under its Articles of Association. The Articles of Association were amended by a Special R¢solution of the Company at a Special General Meeting held on 21 October 2013. Page 6
Damask Community Outreach Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 March 2023 STRUCTURE, GOVERIYANCE AND MANAGEMEiYr Recruitment and appointment of new trustees The Directors of the company are also known as charity trustees and under the Company's Articles are known as the Board. Members of the Board are elected by the decision of the Directors, or by an ordinary resolution. All members of the Board of Directors give their time voluntarily and receive no benefits from the charity. At present there are ten Board members who have served during this past year who are listed on page 8. The Board seeks to ensure that there is an appropriate mix of skills within the trustee body and that it adequately reflects the nature and diversity of the work of the company. Organisational structure The Damask Community Outreach Board of Directors. who met every 6 to 8 weeks during the year, is responsible for the strategic direction and policy of the Charity. A h¢me of delegation through an established management structure is in place. During the period of this report the Advice Service was managed by Jim Irwin. the Youth Programme by Dr Lindsay Easson, the Befriending Service by Harold Baird and the Toddlers, and Tea Dance by Shirley Carrington. Each of these Board Members reported to the Board on these areas at each Board meetittg. Induction and training of neiv trustees Trustees are encouraged to familiarise themselves w&th the obligations of membership of the Board of Directors. They are also encouraged to be aware of charity legislation, to attend training relevant to their position and be aware of the current financial position, resourcing, future plans, objectives, policies and procedures of the company. Risk management The Board continue to review the major risks to which the charity is exposed and they endeavour to maintain control procedures and systems to mitigate those risks. REFERENCE AIYD ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS Registered Company number N1608313 (Northem Ireland) Registered Charity number 102073 Registered office 16 Adlon Crescent Lisburn Co. Antrim BT28 2EG Page 7
Damask Community Outreach Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 March 2023 Trustees Dr David Lindsay Easson Retired Rev David Lee Turtle Minister Miss Jennifer Michelle Baird Certified Chartered Accountant Mr John Harold Baird Chartered Management Accountant Mrs Shirley Anne Carrington Director Mr James Edward Irwin Retired Mr William Donald Kinghan Engineer Ms Anne Teresa Maxwell Retired Librarian Mr William Eric Rainey Retired Mrs Janet Adri¢nne Stewart Independent Examiner John Mccleary FCA Mccleary & Company Ltd Chartered Accountants Garvey Studios 14 Longstone Street Lisburn Co. Antrim BT28 ITP Bankers Danske Bank PO Box 183 Donegall Square West Belfast BTI 6JS Solieitors Carson McDowell Murray House 4 Murray St. Bclfast BTI 6DN Chairperson Dr David Lindsay Ea5son - appointed 31 January 2019 Approved by order of the board of trustees on 27 June 2023 and signed on its behalf by: Dr David Lindsay Easson - Trustee Page 8