Moodsings Charity registration number: 108380 Annual Report year ending 31[st] March 2024
Reference and administrative details
Charity name: Moodsings
Charity number: 108380
Registered address: 14 Ballydown Meadows Banbridge BT32 4QX
Trustees: S Robb M Brisk E Duddy N Black C Patience L Drake
Independent examiner: Tracey Tucker 80 Laurel Heights Banbridge BT32 4RJ
Moodsings Charity registration number: 108380 Trustees Annual Report year ending 31[st] March 2024
Objectives and Activities
Our charitable purposes are:
(1) to support mothers’ wellbeing throughout the perinatal period, reduce the loneliness and isolation faced by mothers and improve the mental health and wellbeing of women in the form of peer support groups, baby classes, community choirs, walking groups and workshops.
(2) to encourage and support carers to engage in the educational development of their children through Banbridge Toy Library
(3) to promote environmental protection through the toy library, by reducing the amount of toys sent to landfill and encouraging families to borrow instead of buying.
How we met our objectives this year:
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(1) We received more funding to continue our popular ‘Mum’s Caff’ project this year. Mums met weekly to have a cuppa, chat and participate in art activities led by a facilitator. These were well attended and provided a much needed outlet for local mums to meet and connect with other mums, without their children in tow. Our Toy and Book Club allows caregivers a chance to get out of the house and connect with others during the days.
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(2) We started a new play session this year called Toy and Book Club. This has proved very popular. It is a weekly play session for babies and toddlers and their caregivers. At the end of the play session, children have the opportunity to bring a book and a toy home for the week, exchanging them for new ones the following week. This not only promotes the toy library, but gives us a chance to promote reading and provide age appropriate toys to aid children’s education. We also opened our second site of the toy library which is based alongside Banbridge Food Bank and social supermarket. By targeting this demographic, we can continue to ensure that children have access to age appropriate, educational toys and resources.
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(3) It was a slightly quieter start to the year for the toy library, as our main volunteer was on maternity leave. However, we still had 24 members registered on our website and 120 toys borrowed via the website. Our Toy and Book Club started in November 2023 with an average of 8 children attending each week. All of these children borrowed a toy and a book for our library each week. So it was still a very successful year; and members continue to travel great distances to borrow toys, proving the need for this service to continue.
Financial review
This has been a successful year for our small charity, and we end the year with £248.70. We chose to pay for an extra block of Mums Caff sessions ourselves (outside the funding) as it was a popular activity and we felt much needed, especially over the winter months.
Our main sources of income have been through grants, donations and memberships from people using the toy library.