free@last - Annual report 2012 by wayde raphael

ANNUAL REPORT

THE STORY 2012

Welcome

to free@last’s annual report 2012.We hope you enjoy reading about another year in the life of our service to the people of Nechells, Birmingham. Please feel free to contact us for more information or if you want to support us through prayer, ﬁnance or volunteering. Thank you.

VISION To improve the lives of the children and young people of Nechells.

MISSION free@last is committed to providing opportunities, activities, mentoring and support for children and young people in Nechells, and to further their interests by working with their families, other agencies and relevant professionals.

VALUES Giving opportunities to all young people in Nechells without distinction.

AIMS To engage children and young people in a range of developmental and progressive activities which provide opportunities for success and to broaden their horizons. To support children and young people through life’s challenges and diﬃculties. To support their families to provide the best possible environment for their children to grow, develop and ﬂourish. To take a multi-agency approach to improving the lives of children and young people.

OBJECTIVES Aim 1: To engage children and young people in a range of developmental and progressive activities which provide opportunities for success and to broaden their horizons.

Objectives To run weekly youth club activities. To run weekly workshops for children to enjoy with their dads/father ﬁgures. To organise school holiday programmes. To encourage young people to be involved in the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme and to help them to complete each section of the award. To organise a range of adventure activity programmes including rock climbing, kayaking/canoeing, mountain biking and archery. To run a sports programme that includes football, netball, table tennis and cricket.

Aim 2: To support children and young people through life’s challenges and difficulties. Objectives To identify the issues young people face and how to overcome these issues. To provide support, advice, guidance and signposting where appropriate for children and young people who are facing specific difficulties and challenges like, grief, homelessness, drugs, alcohol, domestic violence, bullying, education, careers, relationships, sexual health etc. To provide appropriate staff and volunteers to mentor and support children in need. To develop specific programmes (with other agencies where appropriate) that address issues that are not being met by other statutory or third sector organisations in Nechells. To use the Common Assessment Framework for children who require multi-agency support. To meet the needs of the local schools who have children at risk of exclusion, through our alternative education programme.

Aim 3: T o support children and young peoples’ families to provide the best possible environment for their children to grow, develop and ﬂourish. Objectives To provide one to one and group support for mums and dads to enable and equip them to support their children through their growth and development from birth to adulthood. To provide support services for parents whose relationships are struggling/broken and having

a negative impact on their children. To provide support, advice, guidance and signposting where appropriate for parents and other adults who are facing speciﬁc diﬃculties and challenges like, debt, unemployment, grief, homelessness, drugs, alcohol, domestic violence, etc. To provide positive opportunities for parents and children to spend quality time together and develop their learning, relationships and positive memories together.

Aim 4: To take a multi-agency approach to improving the lives of children and young people. Objectives To promote our services to both local people and other organisations. To network eﬀectively with other agencies and professionals working in the area in order to rationalise service provision, avoid duplication and work in partnership. To attend multi-agency meetings and arrange 1 to 1 sessions with other professionals to explain our services. To produce eﬀective resources that can be given to local people, professionals and funders to promote our services.

DIRECTORS REPORT In the year where Nechells was identified as having 53% child poverty (the worst in Birmingham) we have felt the significant impact of reduced Governmental and Council funding and support for the voluntary sector, not directly through any loss of income but through more intense competitive funding against larger, regional and national charities. Against such giants we have no hope and therefore our success rate for funding applications has been practically zero. These are hard times which have not only restricted growth of the staff team but has also put any redevelopment of our building on hold. With some staff leaving and new ones beginning we always have to manage a change in dynamics but I am pleased to say that we are still here and fulfilling our purpose and mission of improving the lives of the children and young people of Nechells. As we see the difference that we make in peoples lives; the impact of change and influence as our involvement with the lives of local children, young people and adults grows, we continue to know that God is blessing us. Our work cannot happen without other people joining our journey and we are forever indebted to those who have supported us for many years. We are also eternally grateful for the many new people who have joined our rollercoaster and have played an important part in the life of free@last. From Rotary members and business friends to Police and Park keepers our work grows because of their generosity and positive influence on our lives and work. We are now using our own building to run a wider variety of services and we have created a membership scheme to enable all of the community to gain a sense of belonging as we look to create a community of inter-dependence. These are still difficult times, and greater pressures and strains will hit the community organisations, and the people we are here to serve. We pray that God will continue to lead the way and that you will continue, or begin your journey with free@last. Thank you.

JOHN STREET (Director)

TRUSTEE REPORT Dear Friends, I wish to convey on behalf of the charity, our deep felt gratitude for all your support during the course of this past year. Although, as in previous years it has been at times extremely challenging, we are pleased to report that it has been a year of progress and achievement. Such progress and achievement has been attributable to the determined and selfless work of both the staff and our director, whose creative vision and passion has been both infectious and inspiring to all associated with the charity. This year also represents a significant staking post for the charity, as through your un-waivering support we have been able to fully secure a centre within the heart of the Nechells community. As you are all aware we are living in very hard and uncertain times, hence we again express our gratitude for your contributions and support, but we would also ask for your continued help during the forthcoming year, as we believe that the important work of the charity will take on new relevance in assisting many within the community to be free at last from their restraints. Best Wishes Always, WINSTON SERGENT (Chair of Trustees)

The heart and soul of free@last is focused on the children and young people in Nechells, with the aim of broadening their horizons through a plethora of opportunities and unconditional support to help them through the difficulties they face on a daily basis. We are a needs led organisation that builds positive, meaningful relationships with the young people, and through these relationships we are able to constantly adapt and develop our work to reflect the desires and dreams of those we are here to serve. A wide cross section of young people attend our clubs and activities, providing a good representation of the hugely diverse community in which we work. This year we have started a journey with many new youngsters whom have been met in the schools, out on the street and in other centres as well as continuing the relationships with those we have come to know so well. At free@last we believe it is important for young people to have stability and routine, and we always aim to provide regular, weekly activities as well as ad-hoc opportunities when they are presented to us. We have a clear structure and well defined aims in order for us to be more effective in helping children and young people develop better social and emotional skills. The core activity is our ‘Traditional’ style youth clubs with table tennis, computer games and arts & crafts – but these also provides the opportunities for the youth

CHILDREN & YOUNG PEOPLE team to build relationships and challenge behaviour! The focus of our activities this year has remained with Mentoring and crisis support, the Duke of Edinburgh Award, supporting those not in employment, education or training (NEET) and holiday activities. This year has also seen a rise in the amount of parental support due to multi-agency involvement in young peoples’ lives.

Youth Clubs At free@last we run several youth clubs to help give children from 5 to 18 years old an environment to be safe in, relax and to have fun together, whilst building confidence, new friendships and positive relationships with the staff. We have 78 children and young people who have accessed our youth clubs, which have been provided in 2 separate venues. The clubs offer access to other services like sport, team cooperation, art and craft,

CHILDREN & YOUNG PEOPLE creative development, off site trips and activities and visits to other organisations. Through our newly developed handy guide to youth clubs we are able to challenge young people’s actions, attitudes and words whilst encouraging them to realise the consequences of their actions and how to take responsibility for them. Our clubs promote the inclusion of all social and cultural groups and we aim to accommodate the needs of all young people in Nechells by spending time with some of them where they feel comfortable - the parks and streets of our community. The future of these services is changing as we incorporate all our clubs into our new building, offering a wider variety of clubs for children and adults, in a caring and supportive environment where all who come can benefit from a real sense of belonging and appreciation of their worth.

NEET

Not in Education, Employment or Training Our ‘Money for Nothing’ NEET programme is aimed to help 16 – 25 year olds to develop a purposeful career path and to take the positive steps to make this achievable. This particular programme came to an end at the beginning of 2012 with 49 young people involved. Out of the 49 participants 14 secured and retained employment and 23 began further education courses. During this programme we identiﬁed many barriers faced by young people living in our community, including alcohol and substance misuse, police issues, homelessness, legal issues and a lack of support from their own families. The ‘Money for Nothing’ programme gave young people the conﬁdence to attend job interviews, learn how to write their own CV, practice interview techniques and easily carry out job searches. Mentoring and budgeting advice were all delivered as a response to the needs of the young people . We were able to end this programme by recruiting 2 of the participants, Adrian & Sarah, to train with free@last as youth workers, and now they support other young people to understand their own potential and work towards enjoyable employment.

Mentoring Launched last year the p@l mentoring programme set out to support children and young people in their personal, social and educational development. This project wasn’t aiming to be just about school attendance or academic achievement, but one that would support children with the most complex needs in all areas of their lives. We decided, that where appropriate, family members would be included in the mentoring process as well as schools and teachers. On top of this each child would be given their own mentoring contract and action plan, highlighting the programme’s focus on involvement and achievements. To meets its objective more eﬀectively p@l decided to provide its own mandatory mentoring training and even volunteers with prior experience of mentoring attended.

“I would deﬁnitely recommend the mentoring provided and would use p@l mentoring in the future.” That’s the comment from one teacher whose pupil received p@l’s support. To date the project has had 36 referrals and is working closely with 4 local schools. Another teacher states about her referral, “It has helped (him) avoid some problems in school and given him the opportunity to discuss any issues”. She goes on to explain “it has been very useful to us as a school to have the support…it has highlighted (his) needs… this would have taken us longer to assess without the mentoring”. With many positive outcomes and an excellent group of mentors to meet the needs of children and young people the p@l mentoring programme is generating positive feedback amongst children, parents and professionals.

Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme The Duke of Edinburgh Award (DofE) scheme is a real adventure from beginning to end. As a nationally recognised award it is a challenging programme of activities that helps young people to learn new skills, help others, experience adventure and gain a great sense of achievement. There are 3 levels to the award – Bronze, Silver and Gold and it is open to young people aged between 14 and 24 who are ready for a challenge. Many of the opportunities oﬀered by free@last involve the young people in new and challenging activities which help them to push the boundaries of their comfort zone. We have had 6 young people this year work towards their bronze award. It has been a challenging year for these young people so to see them on a regular basis and complete their sections despite their busy lifestyles has shown us the degree of commitment and self-motivation. They have been volunteering at youth clubs and the kayaking club; and enjoying music, drama, singing and canoeing for their other sections. We also ran a gold group this year and 1 of our older young people has successfully completed his expedition and residential. By April 2013 he will be ﬁnished and looking forward to visiting Buckingham Palace!

Debt & Welfare Benefit Advice & Support We have continued to provide a specialist service that helps local people with their debt and benefit enquiries despite a lack of funding for our advice worker. Our experience shows us that a supportive, understanding and approachable service is needed to enable people with financial difficulties to feel relaxed and comfortable speaking about these, often taboo, subjects. We provide a positive influence to our clients in their money management and benefits entitlement awareness. Over the past year we have dealt with 524 debt and benefit cases with a financial value of £1,754,673. Since the project

began in 2008 we have dealt with 1895 debt and benefit cases valuing £7,442,270. We have had positive feedback from our clients showing people’s satisfaction of our service. The above figures reflect not only the struggles of a global recession but of the economic difficulties of living in an inner city community. This is a much needed service which has become part of our core work and will continue to enable many children, young people and families to improve their standards of living through improved economic circumstances and financial intelligence.

Greater Opportunities for Dads and Children Dads Do It Too! has continued to provide cross-generational activities that naturally encourage father and child interaction, stimulate the learning of skills and most of all, develop the father-child bond. The beginning of the year saw the continuation of our 3 main workshops – Create and Compete, Better Bikes and Dad’s Go Digital. Create and compete, with its continually varying art based activities and competitions, still attracts the widest age range of children of all of our workshops, the youngest being 6 months old and the eldest 13 years. Better Bikes continued but this time it was the course content that was stripped down rather than the bikes. Following requests from dad’s and children alike the focus on bike maintenance was reduced to simply include the key elements of puncture repair, brake upkeep and the general care of the bike. This left more time for riding techniques, road safety and trying skills on our various bike tracks. Once again we were able to deliver these workshops at 2 local primary schools, St Clements and St Matthews. Initially 11 dads signed up with 15 children. Dads’ attendance may have been sporadic but our visible presence weekly on the playground certainly created a buzz

amongst the pupils, particularly on the rare occasion that a teacher took to the saddle. Our multi-media workshops Dads Go Digital were this time marketed with two options: 1. make your own animation/short ﬁlms or 2. capture your own family portraits. The family portrait option had been made available thanks to the kindness of STAR CITY management in letting us use their studio facilities. Unfortunately neither of these options came to realisation, interest was shown, volunteers gave valuable time leaﬂeting and talking to passersby in STAR CITY, but unfortunately attendance never developed. We know from experience that the engagement of large numbers of dads into activities with their children is never easy, and once again Dads Do It Too! faced the problem of increasing its numbers. During the middle of the year

we re-consulted with our funders the Big Lottery with the proposal of offering a new range of workshops each to run over 6 weeks compared to 12, (12 weeks commitment alone was a barrier to some dads). This agreed we rolled out our new timetable, which allowed us to offer additional craft workshops at Nechells Primary School and Bloomsbury Children’s Centre, whilst retaining our original Wednesday evening craft club. We also continued to work with St Clements and St Matthews primary schools; however, the cycling skills were replaced with the introduction of soft archery. The soft archery sessions were complemented with the excitement of full target archery in our new building on Friday afternoons. The final and for some our most thrilling addition to our workshops was kayaking and canoeing on Saturday Mornings. The introduction of these workshops not only provided us with the opportunity to attract more dads, but gave Dads Do It Too! the chance to work on a regular basis with Freax, free@last’s outdoor activity team. This in turn saw us working

with dads at Slade Road Primary School, some of whom later engaged in our Friday archery sessions. Families from our craft club swapped painting for paddling and took to kayaking like ducks to water, some encouraging their uncles and cousins to attend with them. Meanwhile a couple of dads with military backgrounds would hear nothing of their children or grandchildren missing an archery session afterschool. The new timetable may not have increased ﬁgures to record proportions, however it did increase them, raised the proﬁle of Dads Do It Too! by making us more visible and provided inter-agency development through increased team work. A running total at the beginning of the Kayaking showed over 70 dads sessions booked on Saturdays in a 6 month period, this was paired with 111 children’s sessions. New monitoring following this showed that 31 dads and 55 children had signed up to kayaking over a 3 month period. With the new timetable in place at the end of the summer we were working with

74 dads and 125 children. This does not include the number of returning families we worked with from previous years, or the varied one-to-one and sensitive work we do around custody and access.

the sounds of nature were drowned out by cries of ‘where are you?’ Once at our location however all was well as the compulsory marshmallows were placed on sticks and inserted into the ﬁre.

The next stage in our dads work is to develop a bank of local volunteers, particularly dads, with the skills, drive and enthusiasm to mirror our work. We have already started this exciting process with our Devoted Dads Residential.

The next day we took to the lake for a spot of Kayaking. With two infants attending and all other family members wanting to kayak the dads worker was left with a bit of baby-sitting at the lake-side. Thanks to our kayaking facilities at Brookvale Park Erdington most family members had some experience of paddling and all enjoyed a pleasant afternoon. To ﬁnish things oﬀ the Freax

Devoted Dads Residential Following a successful application to the Big Lottery’s Supporting Change Fund we were able to begin the process of championing past dad’s as future facilitators of our work. For the first step in this process we hosted an activity filled family residential where families could take part in activities, while the dads could observe the elements of leadership. 18 children and parents attended this residential. As with most free@last residentials the activities were varied. Within minutes of arrival we were enjoying a game of hand-ball in the open air swimming pool. Even the youngest member of the group at under 12 months couldn’t resist the draw of the water, resulting in his dad accompanying him fully clothed. The first evening was spent deep in the depth of Quinta’s woods making tracks to an open fire. This mainly highlighted that city dwellers aren’t natural orienteers, as

team threw in a few trust and balancing games to build up our appetite for dinner. A second evening of swimming was followed with another night around the campfire. This time hot chocolate accompanied the marshmallows and it was fair to say that fatigue set in for most by the end of the mug. The final morning saw an improvised activity take place as family members took charge of the cooked breakfast, which they accomplished with military precision. Perhaps they were getting ready for the final activity, archery! The

residential ended with a few rounds of ﬁeld archery, followed by crossbows. This generated the most curiosity from dads, who showed an interest in becoming instructors. Following the residential, and after talking to various dads and volunteers free@last have arranged for Archery GB to train up to 12 instructors in archery, this will be the second stage of our supporting change programme, to take place in late 2012.

We oﬀer a huge variety of activities from archery, crossbows, mountain biking, team building and camping experiences to week long residentials, rock climbing, canoeing and kayaking; and much more.

Businesses

We have seen the success of our own mobile climbing wall grow with a huge amount of bookings over the summer period for schools, fun days and sporting events. Prince’s Trust residential provision has continued to grow as we develop excellent relationships with Birmingham Metropolitan College, Solihull College and Bournville College. Our partnership work with Quinta Christian Conference Centre in Oswestry has seen Freax work with youth groups and schools from across the country from The Convent of Jesus & Mary Language College in NW London to Bridge Church’s youth group from Bolton.

Freax continues to be our most successful business and this year has seen Aaron Stone taking on the role of Business Manager and doubling its income, reaching an income of £145k. Freax operates as a mobile adventurous activity provider based in Nechells, Birmingham. Our main unique selling point is the ability to be fully mobile and ﬂexible allowing us to reduce the travel costs for schools, business and other organisations. As well as this we are a very friendly, experienced and ﬂexible team, able to work in any situation and circumstance to deliver high quality adventurous activities and team building challenges.

This year has seen an encouraging amount of repeat bookings from schools building on from their extremely positive and exciting experiences with us. Examples include Cromwell School enjoyed their on-site camping experiences for the 4th year running, and Stockland Green School have used our services for 2 months of weekly after school activities and a 2 week long ‘summer school’.

Due to our hard work, excellent reputation and quality of service Freax has prospered and increased its provision signiﬁcantly during this past year. Freax have launched 2 new websites: www.freaxadventures.co.uk and www.mobileclimbingwallhire.co.uk

This year we have worked with: Bridge Church group (Bolton), Convent of Jesus & Mary Language College (London), Eden Youth Group (Manchester), Mary Webb School (Shrewsbury), Quinta (Oswestry)

From Birmingham: Prince’s Trust groups from Bourneville, BMET and Solihull colleges. Cromwell Primary school, St Clements Primary, St Matthews Primary, Greenholm Primary, Slade School. Stockland Green Secondary, Fairfax Secondary, Heartlands Academy, Aston Manor Academy, YMCA, BMET College Public Services Course, Probation services and free@last.

mile, our aim is to average 75% of our profit going directly towards supporting the children of Nechells. At this stage of developments our opening times have yet to be set in stone, however we have covered the summer school holidays of 2012, together with following half terms and each Saturday in between. free@last is proud of its history in delivering projects that are innovative and different and in the summer of 2012 it continued this tradition with the launch of its ‘Family Fun Zone’. Initially coupled with the strap line ‘a charity shop with a difference’ the Family Fun Zone was born out of a mutual desire from free@last and the management of STAR CITY to improve the opportunities of the local community to access family based leisure services. We knew that STAR CITY had many attractions that appealed to the ‘have a go’ culture of its passing trade and that the Family Fun Zone would be best aimed at interests in this market. By incorporating every member of the family we aimed to provide a service where you could enjoy an activity or relax in a safe, fun and friendly environment – hence Family Fun Zone and the new strap line - ‘a place for the whole family’. The Family Fun Zone would at the same time generate income to support free@last and its many projects. Through running the Family Fun Zone at minimal cost, with the support of volunteers, family, friends and staff going the extra

With a variety of activities taking into account family members interests, age, gender and skill (i.e. would a 1st timer give it a go), the Family Fun Zone has been a hive of activity, laughter, competition and joy, for both its customers and staﬀ. We have seen people pop in for a single go at archery while on the way to the cinema, at the same time as some families go from activity to activity making an afternoon of it and enjoying a coﬀee along the way.

Activities Archery Crossbows Slingshots BB firing range Kayaking Paint a Plate, Money Box or Ornament Make a Bracelet Make a Mask Decorate a Door Hanger Teas, coffees and snacks We are also developing party booking and a voucher scheme. To find out our opening times and upcoming new activities visit www.facebook.com/ familyfunzonebirmingham

An Exciting Opportunity With a constant visible presence in the main atrium of Star City and thousands of visitors each week, there is a fantastic opportunity for other businesses with a Corporate Social Responsibility to support us whilst promoting their own work. If you would to sponsor the Family Fun Zone or display your products in our shop please email free@last1.org.uk

cash injection from the council. While this is being carried out a temporary Portacabin and toilets have very kindly been donated by 2 local companies.

The first full year of Freax canoe club has been extremely popular and successful with over 450 people paddling on Brookvale Lake, Erdington. We have seen many new and returning faces this year as over 100 children, young people and adults have enjoyed splashing around in the canoes, kayaks and sit-on top kayaks. Membership to the club has also increased with an age range from 10 to 65 years old, proving this is a sport for anyone to enjoy. The canoe club went on its first ever river trip this year, enjoying the relaxing delights of the river Severn. Starting from Arley and paddling down to Bewdley there were 9 paddlers using a range of boats from sit-on-tops to closed cockpit touring kayaks and play boats. The canoe club now has membership on the Brookvale Park Development Group which enables us to work together with other users, including local Counsellors, to develop all the facilities for everyone to use. The sailing club house is the first big change as it is being renovated with a

Sergeant Si Hensley from West Midlands Police has continued his support of the club and has secured funding for 6 sit-on-top kayaks to enable parents to paddle the water with their children; and our friendly park keeper Paddy, is always on hand to help us in any way he can. Through our work with local schools many children have accessed the canoe club during our evening and weekend sessions and some of these have become members themselves. Several young paddlers have achieved their British Canoe Union Paddle Power Start awards and Paddle Power Passports. It has been really great for local residents to come and enjoy the water and access the lake where it has previously been impossible. There is a great buzz and feel around the lake and it is great to be a part of something positive and local.

One year on from the date of purchase we are still a long way from redeveloping the old garage site into a multi-purpose youth and family centre, mainly due to the difficulties of finding large grant making trusts to share their financial resource with us. However, we have been blessed by several people who do believe in the work we are doing and the vision we have for positively influencing the local community. The Rotary Club of Erdington very generously gave us enough money to make the necessary safety and cosmetic improvements in the main hall (toilets and a new kitchen area) to start running our youth and children’s clubs, and our dads and kids workshops from our own building. They have also encouraged other Rotarians, including the RIBI President, to visit and show their support for our work. A consultation with local people was held at the beginning of 2012 to discuss the needs of local children, young people and adults and to see how they would like the building to develop. Over 165 people came and shared their thoughts, ideas and aspirations for the centre, and unanimously chose the most expensive options – but as I say, why shouldn’t we have the best in Nechells?!

THE NORTON CENTRE We continue to get excellent support from Jim Gardener (architect) and Ian Frankton (Quantity Surveyor) who have stuck with us, providing Probono work for this redevelopment to be successful. Our current state is to break down each area into individual projects and try to attract funding in stages for these rather than the whole building in one go. It may take us many years to secure all the funding but we will have a facility for local people to call their own and be proud of.

If you would like to be involved with the development of our building please get in touch with John Street.

FINANCE Income £110371 Grant Making Trusts £0 Statutory Funds £10158 General & Gift Aid Donations £179202 Building Fund Trading Income

£21231