Bringing light and hope

CORNERSTONE

Annual Report 2015

The Benwell Christian Shop Project (A Company Limited by Guarantee)

Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31st March 2015

Benwell Christian Shop Project – A Company Limited by Guarantee Registered in England & Wales No. 2349218.

Registered Charity No. 701263

January 2015: a new day dawns

Cornerstone has a long term commitment to serve the people of Benwell by working to:

Include the excluded Empower the disempowered Encourage the discouraged

Celebrate all that is good We are inspired by this passage from Isaiah 58:

What I’m interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry,

inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad

Trustees and Directors at 31st March 2015 Rev Catherine Pickford (Chair) Ena Gatenby Peter Michell Carol Davison Edith Hutchinson Richard Stephenson Elsie Dixon MBE Shirley Irving Secretary Peter Michell Registered Office Bankers 62 Armstrong Road TSB plc Benwell 104 Milvain Ave Newcastle upon Tyne Fenham NE4 7TU NE4 9QA T: 0191 226 0941 E: cornerstonecs@btconnect.com W: www.cornerstone.btck.co.uk

The Trustees confirm that they have complied with the duty in Section 4 of the Charities Act 2006 to have due regard to the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit.

Chair’s Report In June this year our chair, Rev Catherine Pickford, moved to take up a new post in Stannington. We pray for God’s blessing on her and her family in that move, and we will miss her commitment to Cornerstone and to the community. We are delighted to welcome our new chair, Peter Hindle, and he introduces himself here.

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Cornerstone is a joint Church of England and Methodist Church project. When Revd. Catherine Pickford moved on from St. James Church earlier this year, the next Chair of Trustees should be from the Newcastle West Circuit and I was delighted to take up the role. I was born in East Lancashire and brought up there and in Leicestershire. I studied Chemistry at Oxford and joined Procter & Gamble at Longbenton in 1970. After two years, I moved overseas and spent almost all of the rest of my career living and working abroad. I later moved in to communications work and ended my career leading communications world-wide for the company’s laundry and household cleaning products. I have been a Methodist Lay Preacher for almost 50 years. For almost 30 years of those I performed a similar role in the Church of England, mostly abroad. My first wife, Jan, died in 2011, from early and rapid on-set Alz-heimer’s. We had been retired less than 3 years when she was diagnosed with the disease aged 60. I looked after her at home until she became so violent and abusive that she needed spe-cialist nursing care for the rest of her life – both in hospital and in a specialist care home. We have a son who is married with two young sons. I re-married in 2012 to Isobel who has three adult sons, the eldest of whom has a rare chromosome disorder Isobel has an infant granddaughter. I look forward to ensuring that the valuable work of Cornerstone continues. It is clear that there is much to do for the needs are great.

Peter Hindle

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Children and Young People St John’s school welcomes Elsie and I on most Thursday lunchtimes as we share Bible crafts. We are working our way through the Bible, beginning with the creation story. Some sto-ries need two or three weeks of crafts, but I find this a great way to tell the Bible in a way that can be remembered. Links with the Early Years Unit continue with class assemblies. At the begin-ning of the Autumn term the schools team transformed the bun-galow into a wonderful Prayer Space and every child visited for nearly an hour. This led to another opportunity, when I was asked to host a Prayer Space for Reception children, and it was a delight to see the enthusiasm of children and staff as the prayer space evolved during the week. Apart from Messy Church days, Wednesday afternoons before Christmas were dedicated to Year 5 children at Atkinson Road Primary as the children completed several challenges connect-ed to the Archbishop of York’s Primary Leaders Award. Collective Worship continues half-termly at Atkinson Road and St John’s schools. Kathy, Dee and I have attended training for Open the Book, a national initiative to take the Bible into prima-ry schools regularly through acting out Bible stories. We hope to be able to develop this work in our local schools. Messy Church at St James’ meets on the first Wednesday of each month and has become a committed gathering of families who enjoy refreshments, crafts and worship. There is a real sense of belonging to Messy Church, and caring relationships between families from different schools are developing. The Canning Street lunch club for eight selected children ran weekly from September till February, and we followed material based on raising self-esteem and relying on God. Christmas and Easter are always busy times for the team and I am so grateful to the willingness of Dee, Kathy, Catherine and Allison for sharing their puppetry skills with the children in four local schools to tell the story of Jesus. Sadly Canning Street did not opt in this year, but we had the pleasure of visiting Newcas-tle West Academy instead. Christmas Through the Keyhole was

again very well received, the volunteers’ excellent portrayal of characters from the Christmas story making this a big hit with schools: we could have doubled bookings from two schools! Christmas Through the Keyhole was showcased at a Diocesan Children’s Task Group meeting, with much interest being shown. For the first time we offered Experience Easter in St James’ Church, which allowed the Easter story to unfold as children vis-ited areas set up around the church and engaged in reflective activities. These events are always popular with the schools, and with the departure of Catherine Pickford and Tim Ferguson from the area I am increasingly concerned about the recruitment of volunteers. A successful funding bid led to an after-school Family Fun club opening on Mondays at Cornerstone. After a slow start in Janu-ary, we now have a regular group of families attending with chil-dren aged from a few weeks to early teens. The club provides snacks, as well as crafts and games, and adults enjoy the crafts as much as the children. Through this we are building good rela-tionships with the families and are hoping to be able to develop this during the summer. It has been another busy year, and we continue to thank God for the blessings of opportunities to tell the Christian story in a varie-ty of ways and places. Paulette E Thompson The Welcome Project March 2014 brought the good news that my post was to be ex-tended as the Northern Rock Foundation money came to a close. The Henry Smith Charity, through the Community Foun-dation, is providing funding for the next three years. In the light of this the Mill Club were able to hold a much needed planning evening to organise activities for the year ahead. Club members were keen to input their ideas & we created a full cal-endar of activities on the night. Club activities at Cornerstone have included a visit by M i n i b e a s t s which gave the club members an informative, tactile & educa-tional evening, and a Rookie Golf session which was action

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packed & ensured full participation. Club activities away from Cornerstone have taken us and the Knit & Natter ladies to Scarborough. An Armed Forces celebra-tion was taking place along the sea front with marching bands & an aerial display of wartime planes which added an extra dimen-sion to the club members’ visit. The Theatre Royal gave a relaxed performance of Snow White for people with disabilities which was equally enjoyed by the sup-port staff present on the day. The Healthy Cooking & Gym sessions have attracted additional funding from the Greggs Foundation and the Elswick and Win-

grove Ward Committees. This has ensured continuity of this valuable project activity. The art group came up with an idea for a low cost activity: they decided to decorate sea shore pebbles. Braving the cold North-umberland coastline the group col-lected as many as they could car-ry. After sorting the pebbles, they decorated them with all sorts of things like feathers, string, coffee beans, pasta shells, gems & piec-es of broken jewellery. Soon their creativity produced all manner of wonderful creatures: mermaids, jelly fish, turtles, octopus & dol-phins. These creatures have been

mounted onto painted boards to create impressive underwater scenes. Thanks go to our art tutor Louise for inspiring the group, thanks also to the invaluable contribution made by the Mill Club volun-teers & finally to John for writing the successful funding applica-tion to keep me in my role at Cornerstone. Denise Scott

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Natural Art

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South Benwell Community Church The Community Church continues to meet fortnightly at Cor-nerstone, offering a meal and fellowship to a small but enthu-siastic group of regulars. Imaginative activity is a hallmark of the meetings, as we explore how we might encounter God in our lives. Collaboration is important, too, as everyone plays a part in cooking, serving, clearing and creating. Thanks are especially due to Elsie for continuing to oversee the meal, and for Allison & Jamie, Catherine and Tim for helping lead. Creativity Over the second half of the year we have hosted two new cre-ative activities: a flower-arranging group and a card-making group. Both of them attracted a friendly crowd of ladies who come up with some amazing creations. A couple of pictures

illustrate some of the beautiful designs that the flower-arrangers have created. We haven’t got any pictures of the cards, but we have been amazed at the talent that is shown by that group too. Knit & Natter Another creative activity is the Knit and Natter group, which continues to meet weekly to do just what it says on the tin. Over the course of the year numbers have grown, with a good few people being welcomed to become regular members.

As well as the weekly sessions at Cornerstone, the group have arranged sales of knitted goods to raise funds for 4 local charities, including Cornerstone, and we are so grateful for their enthusiasm and creativity. Baby and Toddler Group Our baby and toddler group continues to be a friendly group, meeting weekly in term-time to provide fun, friendship and support. Over the years we have watched a number of chil-dren change from babies to confident young people ready to step out into the world of school. It is always sad to see famil-iar faces move on, but it is a natural part of life. And we are then able to make room for more new arrivals who, in turn, become part of the scene. None of this would be possible without the amazing dedica-tion of our team of volunteers. Gail, Kathy, Dee and Sonja come faithfully week by week, and we must pay tribute to the hard work that they put in to make it all happen. We also need to thank David who helps prepare and clear, and always has a cheery welcome for the children. Older people It has been another full year as we continue to provide a good meal in enjoyable surroundings week by week, as well as running the occasional trip out. This year our Christmas meal was enhanced thanks to the generosity of the local branch of Iceland and their customers, as they very generously donated

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food to make it an even more special occasion than usual. The pictures show some of the regulars tucking into their din-ner, as well as some of our volunteers getting ready to serve. Good food, good company and a game of bingo continue to be the features of our lunches, and we are immensely grateful to all those who help make it happen. Culture Kitchen Culture Kitchen is a small local charity that uses volunteers

from various countries of origin to create opportunities for people in the community to meet, eat and tell stories to-gether. During the year we hosted one of the events, and around 25 people turned up on a wet Saturday to enjoy a wide

range of tasty food. Eating is something common to all, and we relax as we eat together, so this was a great way of getting to know one an-other, and getting to know what food others eat. Everybody enjoyed the event, and we hope to be able to do more in the future. Final Word The last year has been typical of many at Cornerstone. We have seen many people pass through our doors, some regu-larly and others just occasionally, and we endeavour to offer a

Yummy! My favourite food at Culture Kitchen

Can I have some more?

hand of friendship to all. It has to be admitted that some are easier to welcome than others, but we try our best to build pos-itive relationships with all people. Connections are important: connections with other organisa-tions, connections with different people, and connections be-tween different groups. Some of our activities enable such connections to be made: Knit and Natter having a trip with the Millennium Club, our volunteers from the community working in the local schools, the Culture Kitchen event. Even those who donate goods to us become connected in some way with those who benefit from their generosity. And I’m reminded in all of this of God, who connects to us both in creation and through the life of Jesus, identifying with us and living amongst us. Sometimes we see signs of that connection in the lives of those around us, even in unexpected places. I have been par-ticularly struck by the Godly care and generosity shown to one of our regular contacts, an alcoholic who died of cancer after a long illness. Towards the end, his neighbours made sure he was safe and as comfortable as possible, popping in regularly to see him. Occasions such as that remind me of the good that is found this community, and the hope that can be known in our lives. May you know, see and experience that hope in the coming year. John Carr

Financial Report Cornerstone continues to face the financial challenges that many other organisations and individuals face. During the last year we have managed to break even, thanks to the hard work of staff and volunteers in making the money stretch as far as possible, and thanks to the generosity of our supporters. It is never right to single individuals out, but once again I do want to especially thank the “Friends of Cornerstone” for their regular commitment to us and our work. It is an encourage-ment to know that there are many who take seriously our work in the community, and who want to see it continue. Thank you for your thoughts, contributions and prayers.

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Major contributors in the last year have been St James, Benwell, St John’s, Benwell, All Saints, Gosforth, Denton Burn Methodist Church, Heddon-on-the-wall Methodist Church, Lemington Meth-odist Church, Newburn Parish Church, Ponteland Methodist Church, Ponteland United Reformed Church, St Mary’s, Ponte-land, St Columba’s, Wideopen, Benfield Motors Charitable Trust, Comic Relief, The Greggs Foundation, The William Leech Chari-ty, Partners in Community Action, Prudhoe Street Mission Foun-dation, The Henry Smith Charity, Wesley Orphan House. In addition, we have received a number of significant individual donations. To all of these we send our thanks. Chris Carr September 2015 The following page shows a summary financial report for year ended 31st March 2015. A full version of the accounts is available by request. The accounts were prepared in accordance with the Charity Commission Statement of Recommended Practice (Revised 2000) with particular reference to the exemptions provided for small charities in paragraphs 344-358, in particular paragraphs 353 & 354. I agree that this is a true and fair reflection of the Corner stone accounts for Chris Carr 2014/15 Cornerstone Treasurer Simon Bissell September 2015 September 2015

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Financial Summary for year ended 31st March 2015

Balance Sheet Opening Balances Closing Balances

Assets

Fixed Assets 5117.95 3838.46

Debtors 2000.00 2000.00 (1)

Bank/cash 81867.17 85567.46

Total Assets 88985.12 91405.92

Liabilities

I&E Account C/Fwd 88966.32 91405.92

Creditors 18.80 0

88985.12 91405.92

Notes: (1) Accrual for unpaid Gift Aid

Summary of receipts & payments:

Receipts: £ Payments: £

Salary Grants 33158 Staff Costs (Salaries) 68617

School Workers Grants

2500 Management & Running Costs

14311

Welcome Project Grants

21129 User Costs 497

Group Income & Grants

12617 Group Activities 8849

General Donations & Grants

13649 Group Supplies 857

Other Income 13797 Depreciation 1279

Total Receipts: 96850 Total Payments: 94410

Surplus 2014/15 2440