SRG Annual Report 2024

From 10th June 2023 to 15th July 2024


Objectives and Activities


Shaftesbury Refugee Group is a Community Interest Organisation (CIO), a registered charity, 1204787.  Our charity’s objects are as follows:

To advance the education and relieve financial hardship of those granted refugee status and other displaced people in Shaftesbury, Gillingham, Motcombe and the adjacent villages and towns through:

  • increasing opportunities to engage with service providers, to enable those providers to adapt services to better meet the needs of that community.

  • providing peer support and other activities that build people’s confidence and enable them to participate more effectively with the wider community.

  • promoting educational, training, social and recreational events involving the local community.

We were initially established as a small charity in 2017 and became a CIO in September 2023.  Our purpose has not changed since our inception. This report covers the calendar year of activity for both entities. Our formal reporting to the Charity Commission as a CIO commences in December 2025.

A summary of our main activities in the year in relation to our objects:

  • Provide befriending services that help refugees establish themselves within the local community and the life of the UK and take the journey to citizenship.

  • Provide some financial assistance to refugees to establish businesses, attend education, and meet domestic, health and well-being needs.

  • Continue to improve and add content to an active website which provides advice and support to refugees and their hosts, and establishes a point of contact with the community.

  • Organise the distribution and collection of IT equipment for refugees with our partners, DonateIT.

  • Seek grants and arrange events to raise funds such as Quiz Nights in Motcombe.

  • Arrange free and subsidised events to enable refugees to meet together and with the local community 

  • Support English language development through conversation partners and summer school places.

  • Help furnish accommodation for people new to our community.

  • Assist the matching and rematching of refugees from Ukraine and hosts in the area as part of the Homes for Ukraine scheme.

  • Develop a wider network of partners and friends that can provide support when necessary for the needs of refugees.

  • Raise awareness of the plight of displaced people through the website, media, in schools, Refugee Week and through our events.

  • Be advocates for refugees in situations where they need support to make their needs clear.

  • Signpost displaced people and those keen to support them to relevant services such as Local Authorities and Job Centres.

  • Maintain a scheme to help with transport needs, including support for driving lessons and tests


A summary of our achievements and performance:


  • The numbers of people (displaced people, hosts), our service has been in direct contact with so far this year reduced slightly as some Ukrainian guests have returned to Ukraine but remains over 200

  • We have had 57,324 visits and 53.477 unique visitors to our website from 76 countries since it was launched in May 2022, and in the period of this report an average of 2,243 unique visits per month for advice and support online, up from 1,500 in the previous year. 


  • Our Treasurer’s Finance Report, which follows, shows our income in the period to December 31st 2023, was £26,221.38, our income in 2022 was £10,804. The greatest reason for the increase in funds was linked to the expenditure on the visit of Kyiv City Ballet.


  • We arranged the visit of Kyiv City Ballet which is reported on more fully in the appendix and was attended by over 500 people.

  • We have arranged 8 more social events that have helped people in the Homes for Ukraine scheme to connect with each other.  These were attended by over 350 people and also raised funds to support our work. They included the Gillingham and Shaftesbury Show, Independence Day, The visit of Kyiv City Ballet, Wimborne and Kingston Lacy, Christmas lino cutting workshop, Yoga sessions, Make a Film in a week, Flavours of Ukraine, Stand with Ukraine, Maslenitsa, Vyshyvanka, Ivan Kupalo, The Spring Countryside Show, Neurographica session, Semley Music Festival, and PotFest.

  • With our partners DonateIT, we have distributed a number of laptops, tablets and phones, and offered grants for printers to meet the educational and professional needs of refugees.

  • With our partners Friends of Guys Marsh Prison we have distributed 8 sewing machines.

  • With our partners Marnhull Tennis Club we have enabled children and adults to join and be coached.

  • We have reflected with hosts on the experience of hosting to learn the lessons for supporting new hosts and helped with matching new guests.

  • We have written articles for local papers, spoken on local radio many times and used our events to raise awareness of the plight of displaced people and these have maintained over 100 Friends of our charity from the local community, and over 50 partner organisations.

  • We have maintained a group of 19 volunteers 10 of whom are providing conversational English sessions with 11 refugees whilst others support IT donations, translation and photography.

  • We have supported Ukrainian guests who have moved into private accommodation, faced bereavement and forthcoming births.

  • We have supported Syrian refugees who have successfully applied for and gained their British citizenship. A wonderful thing to celebrate. We have helped them develop their businesses through opportunities for catering at our quizzes and via their websites.

  • We have provided 30 week long places at a 5 week long summer school with our partners English Country Schools and Port Regis.

  • We have liaised with the Dorset Council resettlement team and support workers locally where families have encountered hardship or additional challenges. We have very good trusting relationships with Dorset Council and other statutory agencies.

  • We have represented our group at Dorset Together meetings, enabling us to link to wider services and partners across Dorset.

  • We have opened Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn social accounts to make our work more visible.

  • We have instituted a clearer and data safe newsletter service through MailChimp 

  • We have met regularly as Trustees and developed a Business Plan that sets out our ambitions and approach for the next four years. We have secured funding that will enable us to achieve our goals for the coming year.


Financial Review

Financial position:

The opening bank balance on 1 Jan 2023 was £8,604.06.  Income in the year to December 31st 2023 totalled £26,221.38.  

Payments made under our Refugee Support criteria totalled £23,715.28, of which we spent £399.02 on administration, legal and professional costs.    

This resulted in a surplus of £2,506.10 for the year, reflected in the closing bank balance on 31 Dec 2023 of £11,162.96.  

(Please see the attached Treasurer’s record of our annual accounts.)


The SRG’s accumulated funds at the end of June 2024 are healthy at £15,430.36.  


Reserves policy:

In order to continue with our vital work into the future we hold a small reserve of £500 which allows us to retain our capacity and to be resilient in the face of any issues such as declining donations.

The charity is not in deficit and there are no uncertainties about the charity as a going concern.





Governance of the Charity


Shaftesbury Refugee Group is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation who’s only voting members are its charity trustees.  It has a constitution based on the Charity Commission Foundation model as its governing document. https://www.shaftesburyrefugeegroup.org/constitution.


The charity is managed by a committee of trustees. There are currently 7 trustees.  Two trustees resigned and two were appointed in year.


Trustee name

Office (if any)

Dates acted if not for whole year

Carolyn Godfrey Chair

Sara Delano Jacson MBE Secretary

John Macpherson OBE Treasurer Resigned November 2023

Andrea Blows Trustee Resigned June 2023

Rosalind Hanby Trustee

Stuart Twiss Trustee (Health and Safety Officer, Information Officer, Website Manager)

Eric Squires Trustee Resigned December 2023

Julia Markus Trustee

Stephen Wiles Treasurer Appointed October 2023

Nicola Pender Trustee Appointed January 2024

We would like to acknowledge the immense service provided by John Macpherson as our treasurer until December 2023 and the support of Trustee, Eric Squires.  We recognise the skill and clarity that they brought to their roles and for their continuing support for individual refugees. Thank you most sincerely, from your fellow Trustees.

We are delighted to welcome Stephen Wiles as treasurer and Nicola Pender as Trustee, they bring a wealth of experience and expertise to the group.

Meetings

The trustees have held 11 quorate and minuted meetings since our last Annual Report with the increased number due to the additional activity, especially the visit of Kyiv City Ballet.

Probity

The Trustees are all fit and proper persons and have agreed to act in line with the following policies, 

  • Code of Conduct

  • Equality

  • Safeguarding

  • Health and Safety

  • Environment (new)

  • Finance

  • Reserves

  • Expenses

  • Grant Giving

  • Incident Reporting (new)

  • Personal Data and Privacy

  • Risk

  • Complaints

See our website. https://www.shaftesburyrefugeegroup.org/our-policies 

Volunteers supporting our work need to be aware of and agree to the same policies and all hold a current enhanced DBS certificate, accept the Volunteer Guidance (new) and accept their obligations to maintain confidentiality.

Public benefit

The Trustees of the charity are aware of the guidance on Public Benefit (PB1, 2 and 3) provided by the Charity Commission and have taken it into account when making decisions to which the guidance was relevant.  We have had no reason for departing from this guidance.

Thanks

We would like to thank all current and past Trustees for their support and dedication to our charity.

We would also like to thank all of the hosts who have welcomed Ukrainian guests; the Syrian families and the Friends of Shaftesbury Refugee Group who have welcomed new refugees into our community.

We have been able to achieve more by working within a community of partners upon whom we can rely for additional services such as IT, clothing, furniture, fund raising and advice. In particular we have been helped greatly by The Grosvenor Arms, TLW Dance Foundation and the Tiffany Longley-Wolff Dance School, Bill Hamilton of Compton McRae, Jamie Randall Photography, Donate IT, Friends of Guys-Marsh, Shaftesbury and Gillingham Town Councils and their respective mayors and Dorset Council.

Our English Conversation volunteers are in regular contact with families and meet a prime need to learn fluent English but also support in many ways, as friends and local support. Their assistance is invaluable for displaced people.

Finally we welcome, and celebrate the courage and resilience of all refugees coming to Shaftesbury and the surrounding area.  ‘No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a lion’, Warsan Shire.


The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above. 


Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees at the AGM

Chair - Carolyn Godfrey

Secretary - Sara Jacson

Correspondence:

Shaftesbury Refugee Group

CIO charity: 1204787

c/o Julia Markus, Trustee

Shaftesbury Refugee Group

Gold Hill Cottage

2-4 St. James Street

SHAFTESBURY

Dorset

SP7 8HA

Appendix: The visit of Kyiv City Ballet 1st to 9th October 2023

It was our aim during the week to give all the children in local Ukrainian families a chance to see and meet this internationally renowned company of dancers and identify with them. Schools had done a huge amount to support and integrate Ukrainian children and we hoped that school visits would in some way recognise this and give thanks for it.

There were 5 workshops in 5 schools on Tuesday 3rd and Thursday 5th October where Ukrainian and other children from 8 schools met the dance company, learned something of their lives and experience, and the rigours of a dancer’s life and had a chance to dance with them.

We provided young local dancers with an inspiring opportunity to be coached by the company. We also encouraged young people to start to dance and be uplifted by the challenge and potential it offers. We arranged a class for Ukrainian children and 4 coaching classes by the Directors and members of the Ballet Company for novice and senior dancers with our partner, TLW Dance on Saturday 7th October.

We wanted the week to build community and to be a reason for Ukrainian people to meet with each other, speak Russian or Ukrainian, share meals based on Ukrainian cuisine, and celebrate their resilience. We gave Ukrainian guests a chance to invite the community and especially their hosts to their events, to give thanks and celebrate the kindness and security that has been given. There was a ‘Bread and Salt’ welcome drinks reception at Compton MCrae on Monday 2nd October, catered by and hosted by guests for their hosts, KCB and the partners that supported the week In addition to the Bread and Salt welcome there were two evening discussion events in Shaftesbury on 4th October and Gillingham on 5th October. There was a film and talk at Shaftesbury Arts Centre on 6th October and the Mayor of Shaftesbury held a thank you reception in her Parlour and Town Hall Chamber on Sunday 8th October. Through this series of events the ballet company visit gave a strong signal to Ukrainian guests that the community of N Dorset has high regard for people from Ukraine who have been displaced.

We used the visit of KCB to draw attention to the positive influence of refugees on our community. How their endeavour, cultural transfer and economic contribution makes for a richer local life. The highlight of this and of the week was a rich performance of Ukrainian culture including Kyiv City Ballet, in Sturminster Newton on Sunday 8th October

Finally, we were conscious that the dancers live a life as displaced people as challenging as the guests in our area. We therefore provided some moments of respite for the Company and celebrated with them the beautiful landscapes of Dorset and South Wiltshire on the journeys we took. We ensured there were two recreation days for the Company where they were able to visit local landmarks, undertake favourite pastimes and receive therapies.

Financial summary

  • Actual Income for planned activity  £11,950

  • Actual Expenditure for planned activity  £11,852

  • Additional income from ticket sales £2,625

  • Additional Income from incidental sales of merchandise  £1,1297