Agenda Details of Trustees Charty detsils Chairfs Report Project Leaderfs Report Treasurer's Report Statement of ReIpts and Payments Statement of BalanS Notes to Accounts Independent Examinerfs Report
AGENDA 17 Mayg 2•25 Welcome & opening prayer Apologies Minutes of previous AGM Adoption of the Minutes Chair's Report Project Leader's Report Adoption of Annual Report Presentation of Accounts Tiustees - ElectionlRe-Election 10. Any other business 11. Closing remarks and prayer
The Charty Trustees of Friday Friends hereby present the report and accounts for the year ended 31st December, 2024. Ffiday Friends is a registered Charity with the Offi of the Scottish Chanty Regulator {OSCR) and our report and accounts have been prepared in accordance with their requirements. Charity Trustees Structure. Governance & Management Friday Friends is an unincorporaled association. governed by Const'tution dated 8th March 2010. The Trustees hold office for three years and thereafter can stsnd again for r election at an Annu81 General Meeting in accordan with the Constitution, or further Trustees can be Trjminated and voted in at an Annual General meeting. The Trustees met as usual in February. June and October. At the October meeting. in response to a request from OSCR, we reviewed the Constitution of FrKlay Friends and all pertinent policies, and it was agreed that no changes were required. 2024 was a year of challenges. Funding was reduced from some of our feguLgr sources, and more accountability meant more foms to be filled in. HOv4everontInUed to apply to various Funds. indudirKJ St Paul's and Sl George's Church Mi financed New Hope Counselling for the whole year. This followed fro addressing the congregation in March. The group dynamic on Tuesdays charvJed from main women to men, and there were only two Team Leads, covering altemate Eeks. ad to redu their commrtment to On per month as from AUSt. which meant that ere Team Leads three weeks out of every four. in addition to leadirKJ I e Wellbeing meeting every Friday - an onerous task. We are eroUraged by the nUmrS attending each week, but we desperately need more volunteers lo do the shopping, preparation and serving. Throughout the year, we were blessed with the WKle variety of speakers at the Sunday afternoon F4 gatring. God has been goixl to us throughout 2024. and we continue to trust Him to provide for our every need in this work.
PROJECT LEADER'S REPORT This annual report will include the charitable purposes. the objectives and activities of the charity and a summary of the charity's achievements and perforrnan for the year 2024. As a charty. recognised by OSCR, we operate under the guidelines of our Constitution and adhere to the purposes and objectives defined therein. The purposes of Friday Friends are to offer the unconditional love and friendship of God and his people to those experEncing issues of drug andlor alcohol misuse andlor related mental health issues (and their families)" enab5e people with drug andlor alcohol misuse issues to overcome them and live healthy and crime free lives. and help individuals resist drug and alcohol misuse in order to achieve their full potential in society. In furtherance of these purposes and objectives. the charity strives to offer service users of the group a sense of social aCpIance. ownership, purpose and accountability,. offer seniice users access to sep4ices,' offer assistance with confiden, self*steem and communicationlsocial skills., and offer assistance to improve service users. physical, mental and spiritual well-being. In conjunction with the above purposes. the Friday Friends outreach is comprised of the following.. bi-weekly sessions (Tuesdays - Recovery Café Lunch) and (Fridays - Well-being focus and activities) all held in the Nungate & Haddington Community Centre, Haddington, where it provides support, fn'endship, counselling (when requested), and access to other network agencies to those who experience some degree of exclusion, usually from dwg an(Uor alcohol abuse andlor the related mental heaEth issues associated with such misuse: a Saturday evening outreach known as The Jericho Café, as a preventh'on project targeted at reaching young people aged 12-16 (currently meeting On a month). In addition, a Sunday afternoon gathering and encouragement opportunty known as F4 (Friday Friends Faith Focus) is held and includes music. prayer, short devotionals and a time of teaslcoffees and socialising following. Monies received over the past year have enabled the project lo continue to provide sep11S and engage in the outcomes and targets projected for 2024-2025. We have once again been recipients of monies from One Council Partnership Funding, H&LAP (Haddington & Lammermuir Area Partnership), DA4T, Benefact Trust. Micah Fund. Rotary, the Common Good Fund and donations from individuals and sep41 users, contributions made from time to ts'me or on a monthly basis. Also included in what FF reiVeS over and above grants. is the encouragement and support from many of the businesses in Haddington who ad(nowledge the Importan of the work of Friday Friends and contribute generously at Christmas with items for gifts. 2024 now represents 22 years of outreach to the local communty, and 14 years of having the Nungate & Haddinglon Comrnunty Centre as the venue for all our sessions. We want to acknowledge with thanks the hard work and commrtment of all
those who help FF over the weeks and months. It is not always an easy task to work with tho* coming with druglalcohovrelated mental health Snario5. who when they do come, bring their 'stuff, attitudes and behaviours. with them. Nevertheless, they come! And in their coming, they know that they are accepted, valued. loved and supported. The core manifeslo of our charity is to offer the unconditional love and friendship of God to those who come through the doors. This can be very challenging at times, but it is essential and foundational to the work of FF. But also induded in the format of all FF sessions are the ruFes and guidelines for acceptable conduct and actions-which from time to time Servi users need reminding. As is the usual custom of Friday Friends to have a break from serViS during July and a shorter break in December, we look foThvard to welcoming Sep41 users back when sessions resume in the New Year. Whilst these breaks are an opportunity for leadership and volunteers to have a wee rest, it can also provide chdllenges for Servi users who often experience dips and troughs and find themselves in difficulty. The year began wilh a trip to The Fort to secure craft materials for Tuesday sessions. Thank you cards were sent to all the businesses who had contributed grfts for our annual Christmas do. Posters and cards providing infonnation about Friday Friends sessions were distributed to busine&8es, including local chemists, surgeries and the library. It was encouraging to have the first session of the new year attended by returning service users as well as new fa$. Some of the new attendees were due to the input from our weekly MELD support worker. Numbers attending Tuesday Recovery Café sessions average 1416 on a weekly basis, with some weeks having more and some weeks less. Attendance usually is dependent on the pla$ in which Servi users find themselves. The Friday Well- being focused sessions have been going forover a year now and attendance can vary between 5-12. The fonnat of these sessions is completely drfferent from Tuesday Recovery Café sessions. The well-being sessions endeavour lo address specific topics aimed at improving and supporting mental health. i.e. good nutrition, exercise, creating stable and healthy routines, digrtal well-being (the U of mobiles, computers. laptops to maintain peer support andlor connect with nefvrforking agencies). Sunday afternoon F4 has continued to provide opportuntties for those attending to nSider the spiritual aspect of life. which actually is the most important! We again are very thankful for all those who offer their time and commrtment to come and speak-each in their own way. in their own words but always with the emphasis on the message of the invitation given by Jesus himself to 'whosoever may come,. The Jericho met on month during 2024 wilh the sessions being staffed by folks from Elim Church. There continues to be the need of locating and engaging wrth a new base of youngsters. (See Pictures) The remit of the management of the N&HCC by Friday Frtends continues lo be a fvl time commitment. This is not a complaint, but the realty of being able to use the Centre for all of Friday Friends sessions without cost. The Centre is basically at full capacity. Numerous groups, organisations and communrty-based activities, benefrt from the facility. ELC continues to benefit from the reIpl of monies for lets which
they had not received prior to FF'S management as well as having a 'caretaker role, being generally available at all times. More and more administrative details are being required because of the Council's review of its buildings and their use. And the majority of these management responsibilities are handled by our Project Administrator. The Monday momings counselling servio has had a full year with between 14-16 individuals coming from several areas across East Lothian and for varied lengths of time. Alongside the Monday counselling, Servi users continue to use the opportunity for counselling available during FF sessions. The Tuesday craft sessions have continued to prove very successful and productive. One service user who never participated in crafts assisted Rosina in planting outside tubs with bulbs. And Friday well-being attendees put their hand lo preparing and planting seeds in the raised beds. Crafts have provided opportunities for folks to be creative and build self-confidence. The other activrties. i.e. X-BOX. pool table, etc. get used on a regular basis. Conversations can be had around the craft table which are entirely drfferent from those arourKI the table when eating. The acquisrtion of new chairs (thanks to funding from Area Partnership) has provided a comfortable and relaxing area for service users to srt and chat. (See Pictures) Because of the installation of the new kitchen facilrties in late 2023, we were able to have the Friday Friends Annual Christmas luncheon and festivities in the Centre for the first time since 2019. And in addition, fvrfo ladies from community businesses, as well as ELC personnel. volunteered their time and resources to provide, prepare and seNe an absolutely delicious Christmas meal. Two comments were made during the Christmas meal which in some small way validale the work Friday Friends attempts to do. One service user said that"FF was his family and he felt accepted." The second comment was Yhere is nothing like Friday Friends anywhere else.. (See pictures) A barbeque was again held at the Centre for the closing session before the July summer break. And one Tuesday during the break was designated as a 'workday' for service users to help clean cupboards, wash SurfaS. paint, clean windows, wash tables and generally make the inside of the ntre as neat and presentable as possible. FF continued to afford varying measures of support for some frFends' as follows: O Counselling when requested Social work and housing re Yriends. issues On-going involvement with practical issues rf Referrals to agencies offering aCsS to foodlgr0rieS sour$ Referrals to the local advocacy worker assisting with benefit issues O Intervening in crisis situations O Texts, coffees. rn&t up with 'friends' who have had difficult issues O Follow-up and follow-through conlact to locate 'friends' who don't appear for a few sessions to ensure where they are and how they are doing The MELD support workers who began wrth us last year have proved to be a positNe addition to sessions during 2024. Good relationships and support have grown. And
the volunteer sent to us via MELD, has sh(ywn real commitment to helping with the weekly kitchen wash-up duties. He is very appreciative and thankful for our support, and we are very grateful for him. It is a known fact that chariites and organizations are experiencing increasing difficulty to find volunteers. We remain very thankful for the volunteers we have and for the ts'me and effort they are able to give. As prewousty ments.oned in Ihis rekN)rt, the monies reiVed for the work of Friday Friends corne from a variety of SoUrS And several Df thnqp. sniirres have been the recipient of applications researched and (x)rnpleled by our Volunteer Fundraiser. The appltiOn process is becoming increasingly complex atKI frustrating. spent over 20 hours on the 2025126 applicab'on to ELC which included innumerable IT glitches in his attempt to submrt the application. Th8 monies received from this application are used towards the remuneration for the Project Administrator. He also has pr(xluced and distribut1 the Friday Friends quarterly newsletter which is an essential component to tTr outreach. 2024 has been a year of ups and (k)wns, challenges and sme drfficulties. The difficulties being in having to address and deal with behaviours that were sometimes disrupting. The challenges being in having reduced voluntsers, due to varying reasons. The ups have included several seNice user5 telling us that they are in much better pla5 than they have been in years; the downs being that some are no longer with us because of substance misuse or suicide. The encouragement comes when our 'friends' trust us to confide their fears and difficulties. Encouragement comes when our'friends, take even 8mall steps into better places. The Word of God says God is the God of all encouragement and because of that we coniinue to keep on kpIng onl And as we do our wee bit, He will do the greater bit that only HE can We look forward to moving into another year of seD11. The ne1 for an outrea such as FF has not diminished in the slightest. Statistics show that Scotland ha8 the highest figures in druglalcohol issues and deaths. I close again wrth Ihe wolds in Jeremiah 31.'16-17 where the Lord says. 'your work will be rewarded...there is hope for YOUF future..
FRIDAY FRIENDS 2024 NEW FF STORAGE tOpB(YAthD Crafts 2024 EASY CHAIRS CHRISTMAS 24 & PRODUtE
PRESEIYTATION OF ACCOUNTS The Tre<L%urer's rwrt fvr Friday Friends The rert És for the financial peri(Kl 1° January 2024 to 31. tkcember 2024 The opening bank balance at the beginning of the year amounted to £39,997. Grdnts r¢c¢ived for the year lotalled £28.782, DonatiOL8 received from Individuals and Service users totalled £1.810. Total income to Friday Friends of £30.592 for the year. Total exp¢ns¢s for the year amount¢d to £34J27 giving a deficit of £3,735. See Statement of Financial Activities for more detail¢d figures The closing bank balance on .1 I tknernber 2024 arnounted tn £16.262. made up in the funds as follows. E L DAA'I. (irant Jericho Cafe Chcrniah Project New Hope Lounselling + Benefact Funding Admin Remuneration Funding Micah Fund Area Partnership Funding Cieneral - Ilnreslricted £4,668 £3,268 £9.172 £1,193 £3.47] £2,370 £4,199 £7,921 All financial documeniation has betn iThlependeMly reviewed and approved by Simon Cunningham. Reserves Polic), The charity's reserves policy is to niainlain reserves so that cash and inveslment income is sutTicient to meel at It two months, nomial operating costs aThl any other cnmmitted exndIlre. The imrestricled Emnk and cash balan$ held on 31 December 2024 were £7921. The charity is satisfied that the reserv¢s are sufficient to meet at least two Anonths. operating costs (approxIntelY £4,000).
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PPENOIX2 FRIDAY FRIENDS Section B Statement of balances SC041326 14 Bl Cmh•Jnd6 24Th4 17233 31194 Jè.5
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East Lothian C()uncll Haddington & Lammermuir Area Partnership MIE L DIAP BL.IXILI 4CJ TRLIST Ps&Gs Church Micah Fund