Making the most of a new season as restrictions lift Annual Report 2021-2022

April 2021 marked the beginning of a new season increasingly less dominated by covid as the year went on, but it remained a big factor in all our events planning. In line with government restrictions slowly lifting for covid-19, we offered small group outings outdoor in April school holidays, outdoor only outings with normal group size in May. We were able to resume our usual outings programme in summer 2022. Families have been very positive about being able to resume normal services and the children excited to be back on outings. This year we provided direct support services to thirty-eight families, 110 people; 44 parents /carers and 66 children, through a team of 17 volunteers.

A highlight was being able to host our usual annual family Christmas Party in person, and this was appreciated by both parents, children and volunteers thanking us for not cancelling it, and how much it mattered getting together after such a difficult year with covid restrictions.

On our recent outings annual review forms (May 2022) 95% of parents / carers who have responded agree (and of these 60% strongly agree) that their children look forward to the outings activities, seeing friends, good relationship with the volunteers and talking and remembering about the outings. In addition, that outings increase their children’s well-being, confidence and enabled them to take part in activities they would otherwise not be able to do.

Some parents / carers added personalised feedback:

“This charity is a source of help for me and family.”

“All the volunteers are so friendly and so helpful. Keep up the good work.”

“They get to see new places in London.”

“His communication and socialising has improved.”

“T told me she didn’t know how to skate before but now she can, which is a good thing.”

“I would like to thank you and the team for the support you provide for my girls. I really appreciate you all of the time you take out to spend time with us. The girls have had great times and they always tell me lots of amazing stories.”

We continue to accept new referrals, for families living in any of the East London Boroughs, this year we received 2 new referrals, 1 from Homerton Hospital and one from Foodchain, both with early years age children.

In January we launched a new outings group for early years children age 3-5 years (nursery and reception) which has enabled us to provide a focussed, small and friendly group for both these new children, but also those who have been with us as babies as younger siblings who are now ready to start with outings.

Office Move:

In September we received unexpected notice that we needed to leave our office base of 18 years within a week. Previous work on digitalising our paper archives or records kept for insurance requirements helped make this quick move more possible, and this work has been completed. We no longer have a permanent office base, but are grateful to Highway Vineyard Church, for willingness to store our activity resources and receive post securely, and to Peabody for providing office space to work 2 days a week in Pembury Community Centre in central Hackney. These arrangements are working well.

Alongside You bi-annual celebration:

We recognise that we are now overdue a bi-annual celebration, providing the opportunity for our volunteers, giving partners and prayer partners to come together in person for updates, vision and celebration. Invitations sent for November 2021 had to be postponed due to covid-19 infection in key staff members. Almost unbelievably the rescheduled celebration in June 2022 also had to be postponed due to covid-19 again. We anticipate with hope that this will go ahead over the coming months, after the trustees have finished the current strategic review cycle.

Future Plans:

Recruiting new volunteers, and increasing our team capacity to sustain our current outings provision and include new children referred, remains a priority. The website was updated in January, in line with adopting a well-being framework to help communicate our aims and demonstrate impact. We hope the refreshed website will enable an easier pathway for attracting new volunteers, families and giving partners with accessible information.

We are looking forward to resuming a residential activity weekend for our teenagers and providing our first overnight summer holiday experience for younger children and to continuing to establish the work with a new cohort of younger early years children going through.

We are mindful of living in a season of increased financial pressure on families, with more than half of our parents / carers reporting anxiety about finances and concern about having enough food and are reviewing the response we can make to needs arising.

Review of Finances

We are pleased to report that our income met our expenditure. Expenditure on our direct service provision has returned to usual pre-pandemic levels. Expenditure on office space has reduced as we are currently using office space provided by Peabody in Pembury community centre and we are grateful for their support for our work.

We are also very thankful that our regular income from giving partners remained unchanged by covid-19 which has enabled us to have a sustainable base from which to continue our work. We appreciate the support of all the churches, individual donors and grant trusts who give to make the work with families possible. We are grateful for the provision of ongoing and grant funding from the MacDonald Family Trust, a renewed three year funding arrangement with Yapp Charitable Trust, and Magic Little Grants for an award towards active outings. We were also delighted by the success of Ed Aspey who ran the much postponed London Marathon for us in October 2021, raising a fantastic £2483,65 plus £428 gift aid.