Belfast Interface Pro'ect Acom an limited b arantee ort of the Trustees includin Directors, Re ort for the Year Lnded 31 March 2023 The trustees, who are also directors of the charitable coinpany for the purposes of company law. are pleased to PTesent their report with the auth'ted financial statements of the charitable company for the year ended 31 March 2023. which are also prepared to meet the requirements for a directors, report and accounts for company and charity law purposes. The ttustees have adopted the provisions of the Charities SORP (FRS 102) (2nd edition - October 2019) 'Accounting and Reportingi 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). (cff¢ctive l January 2019) in preparing the annual report and financial statements of the charitable company. REFERENCE AND ADIVIINISTRATIVE DETAILS Company Regi8tration number N1067459 (Northern Ireland) HMRC Charity Registration number XR41089 Charity Commission for NI Registration number NIC103356 Principal and Registered office C,athedral Quarter Managed Workspace 109-113 Royal Avenue Belfast Co. Antiim BTI IFF Trustees The trustees who servcd the charitable company during the year and up to the date of approval were as follows., m￿la Morgan Rev Bill Shaw OBE Muriel Bowyer Bernie Mcconnell Aisling Carhnill Geny Mcclory Ed Petersen Ashok Shanna Gerry Skclton Sam White Gerry O'Reilly Paddy O'Donnell Mark Arthur Chairperson Deputy Chair Treasurer (appointed year ended 31 March 2023) CompAny Secretary Bernic Nlcconnell Acting Practice Co-ordinator Paul Smith Page I Belfast Interface Pro'ect Acom an limited b uarantee Re ort of the Trustees includin Directors, Re for the Year Ended 31 Mareh 2023 ort - continued REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS eontinued Auditor Grace Taggart CG Taggart Accountancy Services Chartered Accountant & Statutory Auditor 17 CJT)ress c.rescent Donaghad¢c Co I)own BT21 OQG Banker8 Bank of Ireland 4 - 8 High Street Belfast BTI 2BA STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT Belfast Interface Project (BIP) was established in 1995 and beC￿ne a manbership organisation in 2000. It Currently has a meinbership of 49 community gyroups from nationalist and unionist interface areas of Belfast as w¢ll as 16 associate and 12 individual members. Governing document Belfast Iiitcrface Project forn7￿ a company limited by guarantee, with company number N1067459 on 7 Decanber 2007 and is accepted as a Charity by HMRC under reference XR41089. The company was established under a Memorandum of Association and is governed undcr its Articles of Association. The assets and liabilities of the charity were transfen'ed to the company on l April 2008. Our Memorandum and Articles of Association was updated, agreed by the Charity Commission for NI and adopted by the Board and membership at our AGM on 17 February 2017. Recruitment and Appointment of BoArd of Directors The directors of the company are also charity trustees for the pU￿05¢S of charity law and under the company's Articles are known as members of the Board of Directors. Under the requirements of the MeMo￿ldum and Articles of Association the m¢mbcrs of the Board are elected to serve for a period of three yews. They may be re-elected at the next Annual General Meeting. Organisational structure Belfast Interface Project has a Board of Directors of up to 21 members who meet at le&st eight times a y&gr and are responsible for the strategic direction and policy of the charity. At present the Board has 13 members and is made up of cominuiiity group representatives. individual and associate members. Finance sub-group made up of Maria Morgan, Muriel Bowyer, Bernie Mcconnell. Rev Bill Shaw, the PTactice Co-ordinator and the Finance Manager meets as and when required. The day-to-day management and opcration of activitics is carried out by staff lcd by the Acting Practice Co-ordinator who reports regularly to the Board. Risk Management The Board has assessed the major risks to whtch the charitable company is exposed, in partioular those related to its operations and finances, and systems and proceduTes have been establithed to mitigatc those risks. Page 2 Belfast Interface Pro'ect Acom an limited b arantee ort of the Trustees ineludin Directors, Re for the Year Ended 31 March 2023 ort - continued Risk Management continued An ongoing risk for the charitable company is in relation to its membership of the North¢rn Ireland Charitics Pension Scheme, a defined benefit scheme which was closed to new members in 2009. The scheme has accrued a deficit which to date has been managed through agreed monthly repayment ternis which are scheduled to run until March 2028. The deficit had reduced significantly over recent years. The charitablc company was in regular conv¢rsation with The Pensions Trnst around the status of the deficit and had agreed a very manageable payment plan. A court c&se is set for January 2024. The finance managFer is in r¢gular contact with The Pensions Trust who are overseeing th¢ repayment sGh¢me. The Board has taken a number of actions to mitigate the risk. including working ill partnership with other Organisations making up the NI Charities Pension Scheme and accessing expert pension advice. The Community ToolkitlApp went live to the public in September 2023. It has been Tendered matketable throughout the sector and potentially across the public and statutory spectrum. A 10 week training programme has been designed to complcm¢nt the toolkit, providing instruction and training on its multiple functionalities and th&'eby increasing potential fi￿draISing and generating additional financial resources. B TP has been using individual aspects of the platforni to deliver recent programmes such as "Shared Futures Futu1¢ Building" to youtlilcominunity groups across B¢lfast, while continuing to develop its potential with groups engaged in the "Peoples and Communities" project. Covid-19 continues to be a serious problem. The charitable company will continu¢ to address the negative impact of the virus by obscrving all gFuidelines and iinpleinenting recoinmended health and safety proc¢dures. We will continue to follow governmeiit gyuidance. Remote working arrangements remain an option if necessary and IT equipm¢nt has been upgyraded to cop¢ if necessary, including a 'Zoom' conferencing facility. BIP will continue to assess matters and address the needs of the OlE￿lISatiOn with regards to Covid 19 where necessary. BIP and our parthers al Anllnolph were abl¢ to design the community planning toolkit technology to be adaptable to Covid 19, usingy the various coinpose, comrnunicate and collaborate functions to enabl¢ groups andjor inultipl¢ gTOUP and individual inta'action, if the ii¢¢d for sociaI distancing arises again. PUBLIC BENEFIT STATEMENT The trustees have complied with the duty to have due regard to the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland's statutory guidance on the public benefit requirement issued under the Charities Act (Nl) 2008. OBJECTIVES AI¥D ACTIVITIES Belfast Interface Projec¢ fornied more than 25 years ago, has a long history of participative work in pcac¢ building, reconciliation and conflict transformation across our city's numeTOUS interface areas. Th¢ following are the Vision, Purpose, Values and Principles of the charitable company: Vision Our vision is of interface communities being transfornied; becoming PTosperous, ¢onfident and cohesive. Embracing new and emerging technologies Bclfast Interface Project has been exploring the use of virtual and augrnented reality to future-build and enable co-creation planning for positive change. While employing a unique coinmunity planning toolkit embracing an ethos of conjrnunication, co-operation and collaboration. B¢lfa5t Intctface Projcct has and will r¢main conllnitted to challge reflectsve of the (h'veisity of our society and the residents in Belfast's interface coi]]muniti¢s. Purpose Our purpose is to act as a catalyst for change, empowering and supporting interface cotntnunities. Value3 and Prineiples Our Core values are integrity, trust and mutual respect which allow us to work in parthership with a shared ownership of issues and solutions. Page 3 Belfast Interface Pro'ect Acom an limited b uarantee Re ort of the Trnstees includin Directors, Re for the Year Ended 31 March 2023 ort - continued OBJECTIVES AND AcfIviTtES conlinued The strategic objectives include.. Strategic Aim l.. Policy.. To work with local communities to infomi, develop and chall¢nge interface policy deveIopment that is of practical benefit to Interface communities. Strategic Aim 2.. Advocacy: To act as an independent voice for interface cornmunities Strategic Aim 3: Transforniation; Being a Catalyst for Change Strategic Aim 4: Empowement: Building Capacity and Confidence Strategic Aim 5: Building a Resilient Organisation During 2022-2023 th¢ Board of DirectOTS' duties have included continuing to oversee the following tasks: The r¢stni¢turing of BIP that began in 2010 continues to evolve. This in part is due to both external resourc¢s and internal re-focusing on key areas of work. This approach has allowed BIP to begin slowly expanding outside of the Belfast area and has included significant pi'oject work in DerrylLondondeny. We have adjusted our staffing requirements and they now reflect our current needs and the econoiniclfunding climate in Northern Ireland. The Acting Practice c.o-ordinator will oversee the running of all projects and a Finance and Admin manager will oversee the day to day runningy of the offic¢. Our Strategic and Operational Plan of 201512020 required revising in line with its time limitation and natural progression. Our Strategic and Operational Plan for 202112025 takes into consideration the Current cconoiniclfunding climate to establish a inore focused implementation strategy. Having successfully concluded our previous plan with the recruitment of new staff and the establishinent of new projects in interface areas. the new 4 year strat¢8y will focus on building a resilient organisation, while maintaining our core themes including Policy, Advocacy, Conflict Trdnsfonnation and Comjnunity Empowern]ent. In 2021 BIP, in partnership with Cooperation Ire1￿]d, successfully tcnd¢red for a Sp¢cial EU Prog7iamme Body (SEUPB) contract, as well as a successful application to The National Lottery "People and Community" fund, to develop the Community Toolkit across Bclfast. The SEUPB project was compl¢t¢d Success￿]IY in June 2023. The Peoples and communities project funded by the Nationaj Lottery will be completed at the end of March 2024. New applications will be submitted to National Lottery and IFI by the end of Octobcr 2023. Along with our partner groups an application will b¢ subinitted to SEUPB to continue th¢ developmentldesign of the platforni. When applicable, we will submit an application to CRC for core funding. We will continue to resource and furthei. develop our innovative and ground-breaking augiin¢ntcd reality project (Coinmunity Toolkit), continually looking at new ways to remove, ameliorate or re-classify interface barriers while exploring the possibilities for the toolkit in other settings such as rural areas. BIP are in the process of upgrading our network system, includxng data storage capabilities and broadband. We are in the process of finalising the funding for this project with Belfast City Council. It is to be thnded from BCC7. The value of the grant is £3.500. This will cover the cost of all works and equipment for the new system. A furtlier £5,000 was received from Halifax Foundation to help with running costs includiiig rent, tclephones etc. Wc have continued to deliver progratnmcs across the city with youth and community groups using the Shared Futures - Future Planning aspect of thc toolkit. Our parmers at Essex University have introduced our Con]munity Toolkit, which incidentally is being developed through our Shared Futures projecL to Essex County Council. They hav¢ expressed an interest ill the project and ar¢ debating its possible uses. We are still waiting a fina] decision on the possibility of a pilot scheme. Page 4 Belfast Interface Pro'ect Acom limited b uarantee ort of the Trustees includin Directors, Re for the Year Ended 31 Marcb 2023 ort - continued ORIECTIVES AfiD ACTIVITIES colltinued In 2021-2022 BIP was commisgioned by the North Belfast Distsi¢t Policing & Community Safety Partnership to cary out a piece of research on illterfacc violence and anti-social behaviour. This included an olllin¢ Su￿eY and one to one interviews with local community workers. Professor Peter Bloom of Essex University, partner on this projcct. was coinmission¢d to do the dcskwork and collate the information. This project was completed by 3110512022. The Final report was published in June 2022. Our "Shared Futur¢s" projec( which was chosen by CRC to bc profiled on their website as one of the projects that benefit¢d from CRC small grants funding can be viewed on their website. This is a great advertisingy score for the project and follows on from similar pieces, done over the past year. We have engaged with other media outlets to prornote the project. This highlights the excellent work being carried out in interface areas by workers fi'om Belfasi Interface Project. We have had requests for further short documentary style projects highlighting the toolkit from the BBC and Green shoots media. We continu¢ to investigate the possibilities. BIP has and will continu¢ to assist in managing mediation, conflict management, mentoring initiatives and developincnt programmes with our community partners and city-wide membeiship. We have delivered numerous training sessions in many interface areas across Belfast which has been enabled by additional funding successfully secured from Belfast City Council Capacity Building grants. BIP has also maintained its membership as an ind¢pendent directorlBoard member on a number of key social economy and training developments including SKAINOS, Cromac Regeneration Initiativ¢, Templemore Avenue School Trnst and TIDES Training, thus seeking to find a long-tenn roadmap towards a future where the necessity for interface barriers is reduced ov¢r time and employment and education opportunities are enhanced. BIP continucs to engage with key public and statutory organisations including Belfast City Council (BCC), The Executive Office (TEO), Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE), Departtnent of Justice {DoJ) and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). BIP is also engaging with a number of councils including Dery c.ity Council and community orbyanisations, such as St Columbs Park House and Belfast Unemployed Resourc¢ Centre to further develop our regional capacity. BIP continues to lobby the DOJ and a number of other statutory organisations to encourage them to use BIP'S cluster map of interfaces in the city, "Interface Barriers, Peacelines and Defensive Architccture" an update of our previous research, "Bclf