The Breakaways
19 September 2023
Charity Number: NIC103752
CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT
The main aim of The Breakaways is to reduce isolation and loneliness of older people through providing a range of social and recreational activities to enable older people to get out of their homes and take part in activities in the company of others with the same interests.
Some older people have limited family and really depend on the Breakaways organising activities to enable them to maintain social contact. Others have families who have family and work commitments and for them to have a bit of reassurance that their mother or father is being cared for and supported to go can be very comforting for them.
Throughout the year we have been carrying out engagement with members to listen to what people like to take part in and though this engagement we have found that older people no longer have an interest in doing classroom focused activities but would like more of different types of dances, hobby activities and taking part in outings to places of interest. This year the Breakaways have provided line dancing sessions, various outings to Co. Down, Glens of Antrim, Tullyglass in Ballymena, Derry/Londonderry and Coleraine to name a few. The Breakaways have also arranged themed tea dances that have coincided with the Kings Carnation and Easter.
The Breakaways have provided a Christmas dinner and Christmas outing which are annual events and always a huge highlight and greatly enjoyed by all.
We continue to meet on a Tuesday in Whitehouse Workies for our weekly tea dance and continue to attract new members which are always welcome. We have also welcomed other clubs to our tea dance.
Our committee work extremely hard to secure external funding. This year we have attracted £14,146.00 of grant aid from different funders, and this will cover some of the tea dances, outings, information sessions and some hobby classes. We will continue to fundraise to make up any short falls.
Due to increasing membership we sometimes require 2 buses for outings which incur an additional cost however, our aim is to keep any ask from members as low as possible as the cost of living is affecting everyone and we are aware of that.
We plan to continue with the charity work with Cancer Lifeline. This organisation has been greatly beneficial to some of our members and their families particularly those we have recently lost and the ones that have been newly diagnosed this year.
If there are any suggestions for other charities to donate to for next year, please put in writing to the secretary.
The Breakaways continue to represent older people on the Rathcoole Neighbourhood Renewal Partnership Board and lobby for increased service delivery for older people and raise any concerns that older people bring to us through this platform. We will continue to feed any information from these meetings to our members.
On behalf of myself and the Breakaways Committee, I wish to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your continued support as always.
Many thanks
Joyce Campbell