ANNUAL REPORTTHE STORY 2013

to free@last’s annual report2013.We hope you enjoy

reading about another yearin the life of our service to

the people of Nechells,Birmingham. Please feel 

free to contact us for moreinformation or if you want 

to support us throughprayer, finance or

volunteering. Thank�you.

Welcome

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.

There have been many changes in our country this past year and many things that

significantly affect the people who we work with. A massive reduction in public spending

and increased competition for charity fundraising has resulted in the closure of many

local services; and subsequently increased the pressure on those of us who are managing

to survive through these difficult times. The benefit system changes and increasing

difficulties in securing long term employment has affected all of us, but those who live in

poverty have to cope with these changes without the resources (financial and emotional)

available to them. 

However, in this grim time of inner city life in 2013 we are continually blessed by God as

He provides the necessary resources, relationships and support for us to continue

offering services to the people of Nechells. Our business developments have enabled us

to secure building core costs and become self-sustaining. Our relationships have

continued to blossom and we are moving into a new era with new people joining our

board and specialist committees in 2014. With the plans for our building also moving

forward and the great team that we have, we know that the future is bright and

free@last will continue to be at the heart of change for the people who live and work in

Nechells.

There is always room for you to join us and we are eternally grateful to those of you who

are part of the bigger team and family of free@last. 

Thank you,

JOHN STREET (Director)

DIRECTORSREPORT

Dear friends,

Once again I would like to thank you for your support, generosity and belief in our vision

to improve the lives of the children and young people of Nechells. Although our staff

team has reduced slightly over these past months we still have a very dedicated and

caring team, which has been added to by an increased amount of volunteers. We

extremely value the special place that volunteers play in our work and have overhauled

our support structure and processes to make sure that all those who wish to commit

their time to us can feel valued, supported and part of the team. We are also making

progress in our plans for future growth and the building programme is pivotal to our

presence and effectiveness in this, and we thank all those who continue to give their time

and support to making this dream of a purpose built facility become a reality.

We recently had a gathering of professionals and local residents to present our work to

them in the hope that they would consider joining our mission. We were overwhelmed

by the response and show of support from such a diverse range of people. As our

strategic board and committees grows and our work becomes more effective we will

continue to fulfil our vision and enable local people to be free@last;  and there is always

room for you if you want to join our journey.

Best wishes always,

WINSTON SERGENT (Chair�of�Trustees)�

TRUSTEES REPORT

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 wide variety of

opportunities and unconditional support

to help them through the difficulties and

challenges they face. 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.

Youth Clubs

At free@last we run several youth clubs

to help give children aged from 5 to 18 an

environment to be safe in, relax and have

fun together whilst building confidence,

new friendships and positive relationships

with the staff. The clubs offer access to

our other services as well as offsite trips

and activities.

p@l Mentoring

The p@l mentoring programme was

started in 2010 to support children and

young people with their personal, social

and educational development. The

programme has continued to support and

minimize the complex needs of 5 to 16

year olds, and also to support their

families too. The main issues we deal with

are anger, confidence and 

academic development. 

This year we have had 22 new referrals

and to date 58 referrals. One of the main

issues for recruiting has been  families

thinking we are connected to social

services. We are currently working on

how to overcome this. Although we

haven’t yet reached the target for the

project we continue to work hard to

encourage the children who need this

service to become involved. 

Some of the comments from children

about their involvement in the project

include “I’m�beginning�to�feel�confident

about�myself” and from parents “I�feel�the

mentoring�has�brought�me�and�my�son

closer�again” and from referrers “it’s

great�that�we�can�have�a�service�that�a

school�can�use�to�support�us�in�filling�an

important�part�of�a�young�person’s�life,

their�well-being.”

CHILDREN & YOUNG PEOPLE

Nechells Young Leaders

Working with a small group of young

people aged 15 to 18 we have delivered a

new 12 month programme to enable and

equip them to fulfil a leadership role

within a variety of arenas within their

own community, including free@last.

Over the past year the young leaders have

had the opportunity to work with the

Police, Fire Service, large and small

businesses and even visit the local council

house. At the end of their training the

group went to Bulgaria to work with 2

organisations supporting the Roma

community in Stara Zagora. Funding was

raised by Birmingham City University

Business School students, local businesses

and 3 local funders to achieve this

amazing experience. Each young leader

also had their own personal mentor,

professionals from businesses, education,

emergency services and the voluntary

sector; who were able to help, guide and

support them through the programme.

The young leaders have now started

working on their individual projects,

ranging from running youth clubs to

organising trips for other young people.

As a pilot project we have been externally

evaluated, which has shown that this is an

excellent project that should be replicated

as it will provide many other young

people with the opportunity to learn skills

in leadership.

Duke of Edinburgh Award

Since the year 2012 we have had 24

people sign up to do their Duke of

Edinburgh. We’ve had 9 people sign up to

do their gold Duke of Edinburgh, 5 to do

silver and 10 for Bronze. Our very own

Adrian completed his gold award this year

and went to meet the Duke himself.

We have successfully signed up a new

bronze group with a team of 5 young

people for the up and coming year 2014,

and we hope to give them a good

experience with us and hopefully see

them all the way through 

to their gold award.

new application form, induction

procedure and safeguarding checklist has

been developed together with a new

volunteer handbook, volunteer

agreement and confidentiality policy. 

Training for all staff regarding the

volunteer policies & procedures will

enable a recruitment drive for new

volunteers during the early part of 2014.

Over this past year we were able to

secure a 12 month grant from Scottish

Power Energy Peoples’ Trust and have

secured a further 4 years of funding from

BLF Reaching Communities, taking 

us up to 2017. 

We have continued to provide a specialist

service that helps local people with their

debt and benefit. 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 difficult 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 652

debt & benefit cases (128 more than the

previous year) with a financial value of

£2,443,513. Since the project began we

have dealt with debt and benefit cases

valuing over £10 million.

The middle of this last year saw the end

of our Lottery funded workshops, which

have been running for over 4 years. For

the first time in our history we do not

have available funding for dedicated

DDIT! work, although we continue to

provide advice, guidance and support to

dads within our core services. A handful

of dads have also received advice and

signposting to additional services. 

Volunteering

Following an Awards for All grant we have

overhauled our volunteer structure and

framework for volunteering, including all

policies and procedures.

free@last now has a generic volunteer

role description that focuses on personal

qualities as well as skills and following

discussions with volunteers and staff a

FAMILIES

As well as providing advice and support

for those in financial hardships we have

been given the opportunity to distribute a

variety of toiletries to our service users .

These items have been donated by Sysco

and provide each person with about 2

weeks supplies of toiletries, which 

they collect from our office on a 

fortnightly basis.

The Norton CentreTwo years on from the purchase of our

building we are still a long way off from

converting the old garage site into a

multi-purpose youth and family centre.

However, we are continually blessed by

meeting people who believe in our work

and have become involved in our building

plans and development. The Erdington

Rotary Club continues to raise funds to

support our work and has recently

enabled us to create a youth area in the

front upstairs offices. This will provide a

small chill out area which can be accessed

from the car park and self-contained by

the youth workers, providing a warm,

friendly and safe space for young people.

Our design team has increased and

joining our longstanding architects and

quantity surveyor, we now have a

consulting contractor and a Structural

Engineer. All of these men continue to

give their time and energy freely. We are

forever grateful for their support 

and generosity.

We have had 2 groups of young people

from The Challenge come and paint and

graffiti the main hall, with paint provided

by Dulux. It looks great now. 

Freax Adventures have again had a very

busy year with many new developments

which has allowed the company to

continue to grow, including new

partnerships with schools and colleges

from Birmingham and London.

We have increased our Prince’s Trust

Residential provision to work with Central

Eltham Youth Project, Lambeth and

Newham colleges from London and Young

Gloucestershire, as well as continuing

with Birmingham Metropolitan College

and Solihull colleges.

It was good to see this year many repeat

bookings from the previous year with

large bookings from several secondary

schools from different parts of the

country using Quinta Hall as their

residential base. We again worked with

Stockland Green School on their

Transition programme for their future

year 7 students and have continued to

deliver onsite camping experiences for

primary schools. We have also continued

to deliver enterprise and whole year

groups activity days for Heartlands

Academy, sometimes working with, over

160 students at once. 

Freax Adventures has become an

Approved Activity Provider for the Duke

of Edinburgh’s award scheme and have

been working with Waverly Studio

College, Waverly School, Aston Manor

Academy, City United and Holte School

bringing the number of young people we

are currently working with to over 200.

This is the first year we have worked with

Living Social and Groupon to deliver

activities at Southfields Farm in Coleshill,

which has kept Freax busy during school

holidays and for weekend bookings.  

BUSINESSES

The FFZ is an entertainment venue at

Birmingham’s largest entertainment

complex, Star City. We have 2 shooting

ranges offering Archery, Crossbows, BB

Guns and Slingshots; an arts & craft area;

a soft play area and in the warmer

months kayaking on the canal. The FFZ is

open on Saturdays and Sundays from 12

till 8pm and throughout local 

school holidays, 

There have been some changes to staffing

during the past few months, however the

FFZ currently employs 6 regular and 3

sessional members of staff, 4 of whom

are young people from Nechells. 

The FFZ has evolved significantly over the

past 18 months and much of this has

been through the hard work of staff and

other organisations/businesses who have

supported us along the way. Foresters

Insurance Company have held several

family days at our venue and a couple of

volunteer days to help us paint and

upgrade the unit. The ceiling was finally

replaced in the entrance of the FFZ and a

new 2 storey soft play area installed in

the right hand entrance. This was

purchased part from FFZ profits and part

from the generosity of Erdington Rotary

Club, which has meant our ‘temporary’

look inside has gone and we have our

new permanent look. 

We are developing a dedicated party area

and are expanding our range of party

packages. In addition to this we are

launching a “My School” reward scheme

where participating schools earn 10%

cash back when their pupils 

purchase activities. 

We have also started working with a new

Rotary Club in Solihull who are using their

business skills and experience to help us

increase our footfall and marketing 

of the Fun Zone.

This is now a registered business with one

of the directors being a local lad Wayde,

who is our graphic designer. Although we

have already secured a small amount of

business we will be moving forward at

speed during 2014 to develop this

business, beginning with a strong focus on

design work.

FINANCE

free@last Supporters Our thanks go to the following for their

support during 2012/2013

Awards For All

Barrow Cadbury Trust

BBC Children in Need 

Big Lottery Fund

Birmingham City University Business School

Business in the Community

Candy Bubbles & Balloons

Chamberlain Forum

CHK Charities Limited

Comic Relief

Community Development Foundation 

Costco, Birmingham

Cromwell School, Nechells 

David Symonds Associates (Structural Surveyors)

David Wilson Partnership (Architects)

Dorcas Housing

Dulux Let’s Colour

Erdington Rotary Club

Foresters 

Four Acre Trust

Frankton-Hill Ltd (Chartered Quantity Surveyors)

Glendale

Heartlands Academy, Nechells

Learning Curve

Locke Williams Accountants

Lloyds TSB Foundation

Nechells Community Chest

Nechells Community First

Nechells POD

Nechells Primary E-Act Academy, Nechells

Print Design Team

Quinta Hall Conference Centre, Oswestry

Sandwell Lions

Scottish Power Energy Peoples’ Trust

Shaylor Group PLC

Smurfit Kappa SSK

Solihull Rotary Club

Southfields Farm

St Clement’s Academy, Nechells

St James’ Place Foundation

St Joseph’s School, Nechells

St Matthew’s School, Nechells

St Vincent’s School, Nechells

Star City Entertainment Centre

Sysco

The Challenge Network

The Norton Foundation

West Midlands Police, Nechells

West Midlands Fire Service, Aston

and all the individual friends and

supporters of free@last

Thank You

Director

John Street

Administrator

Jan Street

Youth Work

Moznur Rahman

Adrian Porter

Dawn Russell

Marian Hills

Pat Short

Naomi Spencer

Families Work

Stuart Radburn

Lin Street

Advice & Guidance

Yousef Behfar

Freax Adventures

Aaron Stone

Adam Male

Daniel Reilly

Shelima Begum

Nick Roberts

Lin Street

Louis Deeley

Stuart Goodwin

Family Fun Zone

Stuart Radburn

Abi Day

Adam Street

Luke Street

Jacob Parris

John Costello

Jonah Street 

Free Spirit Media

Wayde Raphael

Trustees

Winston Sergent – Chair

André Wilkinson – Treasurer

Jacquie Sergent – Secretary

Anne Ebdon

Ricardo Atlan

  

THE TEAM

Websites

www.freeatlast.st

www.falsap.co.uk

www.freaxadventures.co.uk 

www.familyfunzone.co.uk 

www.dadsdoittoo.co.uk 

2�Cattells�Grove

Nechells

Birmingham

B7�5RA

( :0121�327�5959

7 :0121�327�8959

* :free@last1.org.uk

www.freeatlast.st

www.familyfunzone.co.uk

www.freaxadventures.co.uk

www.dadsdoittoo.co.uk

Registered�Charity�number:�1101078��

Private�Limited�Company�number:�4723576

“I have come that you may

have life, and have it to the

full” John 10:10