AGE CONCERN CASTLEDERG
TRUSTEES' REPORT
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023
The trustees present their Trustees' Annual Report prepared in accordance with Charities SORP (effective January 2015) and the audited financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2023 also prepared in accordance with the aforementioned Statement of Recommended Practice and FRS 102.
The trustees, who are also the directors of the charity, at the date of this report and those who served during the financial year together with the dates of any changes are set out below :
Principal Activities
The principal activity of the charitable company is the provision of community related programmes and projects
The charitable company is limited by guarantee not having a share capital.
Trustees
The trustees who served during the year are as follows:
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AGE CONCERN CASTLEDERG
TRUSTEES' REPORT
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023
Charity no. 103467 Date registered. 03/08/2015
1. What your organisation does
Age Concern is a local charity established for the benefit of older people living in Castlederg and the surrounding rural hinterland. Membership continues to be free and open to all older people in the area. The trustees are drawn from the user group and as such have a understanding of the needs of older people living in a rural area.
To meet these needs our day to day operations include a number of activities and services aimed at addressing :
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Social isolation / Loneliness
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Poverty & Fuel poverty awareness
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Income and Benefits,
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Community and Home safety
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Self Care and Independent living
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Long Term Conditions
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Chronic Pain
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Poor mental health and Well-being by providing a range of activities these include :
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identifying opportunities for learning and development
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Basic computers classes ,
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Arts and crafts
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Social Outings and Cafe
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Falls management
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Pain Management
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Befriending schemes
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Cooking on a Budget
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Information and Awareness sessions such as coping with cost of living increases
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Benefit advice
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Social Prescribing
As we continue to move on from the global pandemic we have seen in the period April 2022 to March 2023 our participant numbers almost get back to pre COVID levels.
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We continue to monitor each of our activities by signing in sheets, user evaluations, focus groups and one to one feedback from service users. This information is presented to our trustees so that we can plan and make informed decisions about the services and information offered by Age Concern.
2. Public benefits
Rural poverty and deprivation coupled with loneliness and isolation, lack of services, poor transport infrastructure and access to broadband continues to have an impact on our service users. This is why services, programmes and activities provided by age concern are key to the people living in the Castlderg area..
Our volunteers continue to provide vital support to older people by holding information and awareness sessions on how to stay safe in their homes, accessing winter warm initiatives and facilitating referrals to outreach services such as Citizen Advice. Our volunteers also support our local community by facilitating support groups, as well as opportunities for people to participate in various programmes and activities. We also hold monthly social cafe and each year we bring over 80 older people to the Derg Valley centre for Christmas dinner, this includes people who may not have engaged with Age Concern before.
Age Concern recognises that not everyone can come to programmes or social cafes which is why our befriending scheme continues to be a vital service. The service enables a designated volunteer to visit services users in their own home, or talk to them on the phone which in many cases maybe the only person they will hear from week to week.
We have continued to work in partnership with Derg Valley Care which has enabled us to signpost some of our service users to specific holistic health programmes The types of activities include physical, educational, social and emotional support some examples are :
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Rural Ramblers - A walking groups specifically developed to suit people with a long term condition. Small scale walks on flat ground and when possible in areas of interest.
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Paint Your Pain - Painting programme that is designed to take service users minds of their pain during the two hour classes.
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Stepping On Programme - A community Falls Prevention programme for people over the age of 65 who have already experienced a fall or who are at risk of falling.
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Otago Exercise Programme- Follow on from the Stepping on Programme designed to improve strength and balance.
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Better Days Pain Management programme - Award winning programme that provides participants with coping mechanisms to deal with their day to day pain.
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3. The charity’s classifications
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The prevention or relief of poverty
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The advancement of education
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The advancement of health or the saving of lives
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The advancement of citizenship or community development
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The relief of those in need by reason of age, ill-health, disability, financial hardship or other disadvantage
4. Who the charity helps
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Older People both men and women
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Those living in poverty
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Carers / family members
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People with Long Term Conditions
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People with a physical or learning disability
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People suffering with poor mental health
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Community Volunteers
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Unemployed
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Other community and voluntary organisations
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Wider community and society
5.How the charity works
Age Concern is a local charity run by user group volunteers. As indicated above we offer a range of essential services to our service users and the wider community We remain committed to improving choice, reducing poverty, promoting Integration, encouraging Independence, reducing social isolation while improving peoples health and well being.
We develop services / programmes based on feedback we collect from service users and the community and we aim to engage more service users in 2023/24 by submitting funding application to statutory funders.
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