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Finances and fundraising

2013/14 Income - £367,387

48%

15% 2%

7%

22%

7%

40%

5%

6%

49%

Action Foundation has

experienced great growth and

blessing over the past year.

This is as a result of securing

significant grants; winning a

contract with Newcastle City

Council and an increase in

donations and other earned

income. Our total income has

therefore increased from

£233,336 in 2012/13 to

£367,387 in 2013/14.

Over the last few years we have

been focussed on becoming

less reliant on income from

grants from Charitable Trusts.

We have made significant

progress on this, with increases

in earned income from Action

Language and Action Letting.

This has given us a better mix of

income with 49% coming from

grants, 40% from earned income

and 11% from donations.

Last year 35 Charitable Trusts,

9 other organisations and 37

individuals gave to our work

financially.

We are deeply grateful to all our

funders for their commitment to

Action Foundation. Thank you!

2%

T: 0191 231 3113 W: www.actionfoundation.org.uk E: info@actionfoundation.org.uk

Action Foundation, The CastleGate, Melbourne Street, Newcastle upon Tyne. NE1 2JQ

November 2014

Julian Fellows, (actor and creator

of Downton Abbey) congratulates

the Action Foundation team on

their CSJ Award in London

Action Foundation wins CSJ Award

Resident’s experiences of detention

informs national enquiry

Zrinka Bralo speaks at Charity Dinner

Newcastle City of Sanctuary informs

MP’s in Parliament about destitution

New staff enable Sunderland launch

Newsletter

Grants from Trusts and Foundations - £183,330

Earned income - £147,347

Donations from churches - £20,400

Donations from individuals - £16,310

Salaries, NI and pension - £160,168

Action Language - £24,471

Action Housing - £23,616

Action Letting - £72,716

Action Befriending - £6,233

Support and fundraising - £39,789

Miscellaneous costs - £6,582

A full copy of our accounts can be downloaded from our website.

2013/14 Expenditure - £333,575

Increasing our impact and reach

Over the last year Action Foundation has helped over 750

people and involved over 130 volunteers in our four projects.

Next month will be ten years

since our founder, Julian Prior,

gave up his job to explore how

City Church could support some

of the most marginalised people

in Tyneside. This resulted in our

setting up Action Foundation. It

is very humbling to reflect on

the journey so far and how many

vulnerable people we have been

able to help.

We have come a long way over

the last ten years and are

thinking, “What should we focus

on over the next ten years?”

We are increasing being invited

to have an input into regional and

national initiatives which we are

exploring at the moment. To this

end in May we hosted the

national NACCOM conference for

organisations like us around the

UK that provide housing for

refused asylum seekers.

Our award in October from the

Centre for Social Justice was a

great encouragement. Some of

our staff, a volunteer and a

resident enjoyed the formal

presentation evening in London.

“Too often, destitute asylum

seekers and homeless

refugees become invisible.

But to this charity, they are the

centre of attention. The judges

agreed that Action Foundation

are to be applauded for their

dedication to supporting some

of the most vulnerable people

in our country”

Allan Lamb — (Former England

Cricketer) presenting the award

“For some people,

every week is

refugee week”

Zrinka Bralo speaking at

our Refugee Week Charity

Dinner in June

Sadly one of our residents was

detained by the Immigration

Service in August as they wanted

to interview him about his

nationality. This was a very

distressing experience for him as

he was moved several times and

did not know what the outcome of

his detention was going to be.

We supported him throughout

this process, working with his

solicitor and other supporters as

well as visiting him. After five

weeks we managed to secure his

release on bail and he is now

safely back in Newcastle.

Following his release we

accompanied him to a hearing

organised by Detention Action

that was gathering evidence for a

national enquiry. Our resident

testified very powerfully about the

way he was interviewed by

someone who refused to reveal

his identity and who was asking

him about his political affiliations.

This raises serious concerns

about how this information might

be used and who it may have

been passed to and we hope that

this evidence will positively

influence future detention policy.

Detention hearing in Newcastle

Resident’s experience informs national

detention enquiry

We have housed 11 people this

year bringing the total number of

people we have supported since

we began in 2006 to 43.

In May Newcastle gained City of

Sanctuary status and our CEO

Julian Prior spoke at the launch

event at the Civic Centre. In

September a delegation from

Newcastle was invited to the

Houses of Parliament to speak

about the destitution of asylum

seekers at a ‘Parliament for

Sanctuary’ event. Julian and two

residents attended and spoke of

the injustice of destitution.

“My situation before I moved to

an Action Foundation House

was not good. It was very, very

hard, because living [on the

floor] in different houses every

night, every week, you do not

feel human.

When I moved to the Action

Foundation house I feel like I

became a different person in

the same day because I can

cook for myself, I can go to my

room when-ever I want. I can do

everything I want in the house.

Action Foundation made a very,

very big difference to my life”

Julian Prior speaks at

the ceremony to mark

Newcastle gaining ‘City

of Sanctuary’ status

Action Letting has supported 32

new refugees this year who were

at risk of homelessness. To date

95% of our residents have been

able to move on to independent

living following our support.

The main highlight of the year

involved our application to

Newcastle City Council for a

‘Supporting People’ contract to

provide supported accommodation

to new refugees. This was in

partnership with three other

organisations; Changing Lives,

Thirteen Care and Support,

(previously Norcare) and Praxis.

This contract, which we won in

May, will bring some much

needed financial support as well

as mainstream recognition for the

work that we do with refugees.

In June we were funded by a

grant from The Henry Smith

Charity and The Northern Rock

Foundation that will enable us to

expand in Newcastle and

Gateshead as well as starting our

services in Sunderland.

Sunderland launch

and new staff

Julian Prior with Becky Elton of Changing Lives

We have four new properties in

Newcastle and Gateshead that we

are in the process of leasing and

we are looking for landlords to

work with in Sunderland.

In order to manage this expansion

we have recruited Vin Totton to

the post of Project Manager and

Nasrin Keshavarz as a Support

Worker to strengthen our team.

Vin brings over 25 years of

experience of managing housing

for asylum seekers and other

vulnerable people in the public

and private sector in the North

East. He previously led the

Asylum Seeker Unit for Your

Homes Newcastle for over 10

years while they had the contract

with the Home Office.

Nasrin has been through the UK

asylum process herself and

volunteered for North of England

Refugee Service for many years

as a support worker whilst waiting

for her asylum decision.

Funded by;

“After getting refugee status it

was very difficult for me to find

accommodation as the waiting

list for council housing was

very long and I did not have

enough money for a deposit for

private accommodation. Getting

references was also very

difficult. However, Action

Letting were very supportive

and helped me to find a good

house that I could live in.

This support has given me

some stability and peace of

mind which has enabled me to

find employment and start to

contribute to life in the UK. I

would recommend Action

Letting to any refugee.”

Vin Totton and Nasrin Keshavarz

The demand for our classes

continues to increase with our

biggest ever intake this year.

Registrations for all our classes

have increased from 168 in

2010/11 to 593 in 2013/14 and

we have increased the number of

weekly classes from 9 to 25.

92% of students told us that

their English has improved

95% that entered Skills for Life

exams passed

93% feel more confident as a

result of attending our classes

80% of students said that

classes had improved their life

chances regarding employment,

and further education

We also started an ‘ESOL for

Work’ course focused on

employability and are currently

partnering with Richard Davies

(pictured above with a student) of

‘Own It 2 Own It’ who mentors

students and finds them work

experience placements.

So far 28% of our learners from

this course have gained work.

In May we secured a contract to

teach a five-week course to 29

Filipino nurses. We believe there

is a huge opportunity to earn

income to support our free

classes by providing IELTS and

other ESOL courses widely within

the healthcare sector.

Reaching excluded

communities

Sue Martin presents an exam

certificate to a learner

We know that there are some

communities that cannot or will

not access our classes in

Newcastle City Centre, yet are

very excluded as a result of their

lack of English. This is mainly due

to our city centre location and the

lack of free childcare provision

available with ESOL classes.

In September we started a pilot

ESOL class, in partnership with

The Riverside Community Health

Project (RCHP) based in the west

end of Newcastle. This is much

closer to where the Roma

community, who RCHP already

work with, live and they provide

free childcare alongside our

English classes.

The pilot has been very

successful and we want to

develop this work to identify and

address the isolation of other

excluded communities by

lowering barriers to their

accessing our classes.

Action Language ESOL class

at The Riverside Community

Health Project supported by;

older people in Tyneside Stephen rarely left the house and

had problems with anxiety, which

stopped him from wanting to

engage. He was distressed at

the thought of interacting with

people and told us that he had

“withdrawn from the community”.

Stephen was matched with Kate,

a volunteer befriender who was a

student from a local university.

This has led to great changes in

his life. As a result of Kate’s

encouragement, Stephen now

visits many of the local shops in

the area and is getting to know

people from these trips. Kate also

accompanied and supported

Stephen to purchase a new sofa

and open a bank account. He

was too anxious to do both of

these things before.

Another client recently said;

"Befriending has made a big

difference to my life... We get

on so well with each other, we

laugh a lot. We go out for a

coffee and natter reguarly, I

wouldn't be without her."

In June we hosted our Summer Tea party for approximately 90 older

people. 17 students from Emmanuel College Gateshead helped by

serving on our tables and chatting to our guests.

Good company for

Action Befriending has received

a record number of referrals

(64) for our befriending project

this year. We have provided

befriending to 136 beneficiaries

since we started in September

2012. Over 250 beneficiaries

have attended our social events.

One female guest commented

“It’s wonderful to laugh again”

This year, we started our

‘Supported Friendships’ scheme.

This new project aims to help

older people to develop a new

friendship with someone else

who is seeking companionship.

We will support both individuals

to get to know each other until

the friendship is established.

Our Project Manager has

become a ‘Dementia Friends

Champion’ enabling us to deliver

Dementia Friends information

sessions. This follows an

increased number of referrals of

people living with dementia.

“Being a befriending volunteer

is rewarding and has helped

me see life from a slightly

different point of view, outside

my usual social group. Often I

have derived as much

enjoyment from our activities

as Frank* and I would not

hesitate to recommend

befriending to others.”

* Name changed

Our oldest tea club member

who is 107 years old