2022-09-30-annual-report

All LIVES ARE PRECIOUS TRUSTEES ANNUAL REPORT YEAR ENDED 30[TH] SEPTMEBER 2022

CHARITY INFORMATION

Charity no. 108027

Company no. NI648017

Charity Registered 17[th] May 2021

Address

Irish Street Community Exchange

21 Lower Irish Street

Irish Street Car Park

Downpatrick

BT30 6BW

Charity Trustees

Mrs Bronagh Reid

Mr Eamonn McGrath

Mr Peter Cunliffe Mrs Roisin Hampton Mr Ronan Gilchrist

Background

We emerged when a group of individuals came together to respond to the Connecting for Life strategy in the Republic of Ireland and the introduction of the Flourish Initiative in Northern Ireland. Since then, operating mainly from resources garnered through community commitment and fundraising,

ALPS has established itself as an organisation that responds to well-being, awareness raising, training and development and the therapeutic service provision needs of individuals, families, schools, and communities.

Since its inception ALPS has engaged with over 100,000 individuals in communities throughout the country.

Our Vision

We are an ambitious organisation that works with individuals, families, communities, and organisations to make that difference to their mental health.

Our Mission

We will make that difference by delivering a suite of high-quality training, development, prevention and intervention programmes and services that support individuals and communities to improve their understanding, awareness, and experience of mental health.

Our Values

As we strive to make that difference are driven by our core values of

Ambition

ALPS would not exist if it were not for the ambition of our people, service users, fundraisers, and champions to improving mental health. We are committed to maintaining our ambition to make that difference through ongoing and structured engagement with community fundraisers, statutory agencies, government departments and private sector organisations who can provide us with the sustainable resources to embed our organisation in the mental health landscape throughout the island of Ireland.

Inclusiveness

No one’s identity should impact on their right to receive the right service, at the right time. At ALPS we are committed to working with individuals, families, communities, and organisations regardless of age, ability, gender, race/ethnicity, political or religious affiliation.

Accessibility

Where you live, work or play should not inform your accessibility to the right service, at the right time. At ALPS we will continue to ensure that our prevention and intervention services are available throughout Northern Ireland and will continue to seek resources to focus support into our rural communities.

Responsiveness, Resourcefulness and Resilience

At ALPS we will continue to be informed by the resourcefulness and resilience of individuals, families and communities impacted by mental ill-health. With this in mind, we will remain consistent in our commitment to seeking resources and developing services which are in a position to make that difference.

Alps Grew from very humble beginnings but year on year has continued to grow solely due to the demands of the community.

The impact of the pandemic meant the work of ALPS changed quite considerable, prior to the pandemic ALPS was still somewhat of a small entity but through the two-year period of Covid the demand for specific activities within the organisation grew exponentially. With social distancing restrictions also ended in the summer of 2021 by the start of the new academic year there was a huge influx of bookings within the organisation for our services.

The work of the organisation can be split into four areas and for the purposes of this report this is what we will follow.

1. Counselling

2. Schools

3. ALPS In the Workplace

4. Community Outreach

Counselling.

Fron October 1[st ] 2021 to September 30[th ] 2022 this service has seen a huge rise in the number of people looking to gain access to it. The organisation now has the capacity to provide Counselling in Counties Antrim. Down, Derry and Tyrone.

We have joined with the university of Ulster to accept Five Student Counsellors and have expanded the team providing this service to the community. In October 2021 we began the year with Four therapists in addition the five students

At this time, we offered Counselling in Bangor, Downpatrick, Portglenone and Derry City. We began to offer this service then in Dungiven through a partnership with Hands that Talk. In February 2022 due to the immense growth in this service we moved our premises in County Down to base ourselves in The Passionist Monastery in Crossgar. This allowed us to expand our service in the area to accommodate up to four Counsellors at any given time.

In June 2022 three of these student counsellors fully qualified as therapists and embedded themselves into the ALPS family, alongside then a further addition to the team ALPS we ended the year with 8 therapists offering supports to the community six days per week.

We operate Counselling on the following days in these locations.

Monday – Bangor

Tuesday – Downpatrick (Monastery) and Portglenone

Wednesday – Dungiven and Portglenone

Thursday - Derry City and Portglenone

Friday – Portglenone

Saturday – Downpatrick (Monastery)

The counselling service goes from strength to strength, and it is envisaged that as we continue this will only expand, we begin the next financial year with a team of 11 having accepted one further student with new additions likely moving forward.

Schools/College Workshops

One of the major successes of ALPS is our Schools and Colleges work, from our inception we have delivered our programmes in these settings. Prior to the Covid Pandemic our work lead us all throughout the country working alongside children and young people in all thing’s wellbeing.

W have been accepted as an Education Authority Supplier allowing us then to work in all schools’ settings throughout the North of Ireland.

In the 2021/22 Academic School year with the easing of restrictions we once again had the privilege of visiting schools everywhere. In the year we conducted workshops on Wellbeing, Resilience, The Power of Human Connection and Mental awareness to over 10,000 pupils in over 80 schools.

Our programmes are written for Children and Young people of all ages, and we work alongside all young people in school settings from Primary 1 to Year 14.

In addition to this we provided Accredited Suicide Prevention Training to upwards of 150 Teaching and Support staff in various settings.

Furthermore, we have made very strong links with very many of the schools and have an almost daily presence in many settings.

Alps this year had the pleasure of working alongside St Marys University College for their fresher events and attended this setting on several occasions throughout the Academic Year with programmes and activities.

One side note though, although a supplier with the Education Authority we did apply to be a supplier for the Happy and Healthy Minds Programme in Primary Schools and unfortunately didn’t make it onto the suppliers list with the EA for that specific programme. This was deeply upsetting at the time and detailed conversations where had with Politicians and the EA on this matter and moving forward we have been instructed we will make the list if the programme comes out again.

We are humbled by the reception we receive in Schools throughout the country, and we know moving forward we can continue to develop not only our programmes but our activities also in these settings.

ALPS IN YOUR WORKPLACE

In Partnership with Talk to Tom and Live and Learn we have created a dedicated professional team of individuals to offer an extensive programme of activity in the Workplace to promote Wellbeing and Suicide Prevention.

The rationale behind this programme comes from the fact that people often spend a large portion of their day at a workplace and, in doing so, get to know other employees over time. As a result, they may be in a good position to notice changes in behaviour that could suggest risk for suicide or other mental health problems. h

As an organisation we have been able offer a full extensive programme of activity throughout this year to meet this need.

Services and programmes we offered throughout the last twelve months have included.

• Access to Counselling

• Therapies

• Peer Mentoring

Workshops and Training on

• Resilience

• Mental Health

• Emotional Wellbeing

• Power of Human Connection

• Tailor made programmes to suit the need.

• QPR Accredited Suicide Prevention Training

In addition to all of the above we have also been able to introduce our

"YOUR NOT ALONE CAMPAIGN"

An awareness raising campaign specific to a workplace setting.

In just a short period of time we have been very fortunate to introduce our activities and services into a vast quantity of organisations

• Kerry Foods

• Ulster Bank

• Northern Ireland Prison Service

• Education Authority

• Department of Education

• GAA Clubs

• Bloc Blinds

• The Conway Group

• ESB

• FOROIGE

• Brooklands Healthcare

• Specialist Joinery

• Combi Lift

• Uform

We have spent considerable time in 21/22 building these links and have many opportunities to engage further companies moving forward. The growth of this sector Is pivotal to our future and moving forward we will continue to concentrate our efforts in building upon the successes we have already in this field.

Community Outreach

Our main objective for the whole organisation is to be here, our aspirations are not to be a large organisation but just a family and community of people with the common goal to support one and other.

We strive to reach the whole community and concentrate our efforts to achieve this. Working in partnership with communities all across the country we have been very fortunate to amass a large following.

Throughout the year we have been very fortunate to be involved with events right throughout the country.

Here is just a snapshot of some of our work throughout the year.

• Through Sporting and Community organisations we trained over 300 people In Accredited Suicide Prevention in Counties Down, Antrim, Tryone and Derry as well as providing access to this programme in Counties Monaghan and Cavan.

• Throughout 21/22 we worked alongside the Footballing community in the greater Downpatrick area, we become official league sponsors for the Downpatrick Youth League for the year and created a full programme of activity within Downpatrick Football Club – allowing us to work to with both young people and young adults in all thing’s wellbeing.

• In addition to this we are official partners of the Downpatrick and District Men and Women’s Darts Leagues

• In partnership with sporting clubs and community organisations we brought together almost 1000 people In Dungiven (County Derry) to mark World Mental Health Day on 10[th ] October, on the back of this then we provided training and supports to the whole community through the remainder of the year.

• We also formed a full working partnership with the East Down Men’s Shed Group to assist them with their activities, there have integrated themselves into the alps family and now operate from our premises in Downpatrick County Down.

• In November we forged a partnership with the Rock GAA Club (County Tyrone) to launch our You Are Not Alone campaign and engage the whole community then in a program of activity.

• In December 21 we joined forces with the community in Donaghmore (County Tyrone) to run a Christmas event and introduce our work to the area, a partnership that will now last for many years with training and events taking place throughout the year.

• Time to talk day February 2022 met with Politicians and elected officials at our ALPS office in Portglenone to talk about our services and to gain support for our activities, at this time then we also Introduced our ALPS Community Champion programme and signed up community champions all across the alps country to support ALPS and our work.

• In March 2022, we were present at the Energy Institutes Gala Ball and forged professional relationships then with them, providing us then with opportunities to complete several trainings courses for the remainder of 2022

• At the same time, we launched our 2022 Dawn Walk, signing up 22 different communities all across the country to participate in Sunrise Walk in Support of Suicide Prevention held in May 2022.

• In April we worked along NIE Apprentice electricians, conducting resilience and wellbeing workshops at the headquarters in Campsie (Derry City)

• In May 2022 we hosted and presented a conference in Armagh City Hotel for the teaching and support staff of 5 schools in conjunction with the Education Authorities Pathway into Partnership Programme.

• In July 2022, ALPS took on one of its biggest adventures to date, we lead a group of 23 individuals to Africa where they climbed Kilimanjaro and took part in a school exchange programme in the rural parts of Moshi Tanzania.

• August 2022, we reopened the now famous ALPS Sunflower Field in County Down and over a four-week period welcomed thousands of visitors to the field whilst highlighting and supporting the work of ALPS and Macmillan Cancer Support

• September 2022, we provided training for 101 teachers in two training events to mark World Suicide Prevention Day. In addition to this we held a Walk in Downpatrick and a country wide vigil for World Suicide Prevention Day.

TAS-NI

From the creation of ALPS, we had been running the TAS-NI programme. This programme was developed specifically by ALPS to assist members of the Traveller Community in Custody. In 2022 we said goodbye to this programme.

Due to the substantial growth of ALPS and the growth of TAS programme itself it was deemed necessary that the two become separate entities. From April 1[st] , 2022, TAS became its own identity operating outside of the ALPS family.

As an organisation we can celebrate the achievements of the programme and know we have taken it as far as we could., it was fully created, implemented, and manned by ourselves and we are delighted to hand it over knowing it has a stable and long-term future moving forward.

ALPS will be offering its full support to TAS-NI moving forward and will make itself available to provide any Wellbeing or Prevention Programmes needed.

We thank the Department of Justice for all their support of ALPS over the past four years and for showing their faith in our abilities to develop the Tas- Ni programme,

Public Benefit Requirement

The Trustees have had regard to the Charity Commission’s Public Benefit requirement statutory guidance.

Financial Review

ALPS in previous years had seen a steady growth in its operations and has seen a rise in its finances. In the year 1[st] October 2021 to 30th September 2022 ALPS made a surplus of £69,219 and ended the year with cash reserves of approximately £49,000.

Properties

ALPS has agreements for a number of property and locations across the county, We lease properties in Downpatrick and Portglenone and have rental arrangements on a shed, garages and a plot of land on the outskirts of Downpatrick. In addition to this we pay an hourly fee for using facilities in Dungiven, Monastery and Derry City.

As an organisation our directors are in constant communication with each other, indeed four of us speak on an almost daily basis as directed we have had 4 full meetings throughout the year, in addition to this we have created an ALPS working group made up of representatives of community, sporting organisations and professionals from all across the county.

In addition to this this we also kept a very high social media presence throughout the year keeping all our followers up to date with our work. Throughout the year we posted 214 times on our Social Media Platforms reaching a direct audience of 112, 332 people.

Through this period, we have also conducted a huge consultation process in our attempts to secure the future of the organisation, with the assistance of outside consultants we have completed a 3-year operational plan which will become the bases of all our interactions moving forward.

ALPS is now a team of almost 20 individuals and a vast support network of friends all throughout the country. It is truly mind-blowing to see how much it has been growing, but it grows only out of the need within the community for it. Each and everyone of us within ALPS are humbled by the support we have behind us.

We would like to acknowledge and record our thanks to everyone who has supported us on our journey, ALPS would not be here if it was not for the support it has garnered from within the community and as an organisation, we are indebted to each and every individual that has been at a training, event or assisted us in our work.

Signed

26[th] June 2023