THE BRICKQUEENS HALL ACTION ON POVERTY

ANNUAL REPORT1st April - 31st March

2016 2017Vision Statement

To eradicate poverty and homelessness in our community.

Mission statement

Operating with Christian values and working with people of all faiths or no faith, we

will help empower people through positive engagement to; build independent

lifestyles,

live in good housing,

be ready to take up work opportunities, and

gain financial independence

Trustees

John Parker Kathleen Pitt

Chairman of the Chief Executive

Chair's UpdateFor The Brick it has been a memorable year. Here are a few highlights:

Re-branding the charity as The Brick.

The growing recognition of The Brick and its good work around Wigan, culminating with us being chosen as Wigan Athletics chosen charity for the next 12 months and being highlighted on M & S's Wigan website.

Trish Green being awarded a 'star' by WiganCouncil for being 'Champion of the Homeless'.

Paul Johnson being recruited to our team as Chaplain.

The support we have received from the public, the Council, the Church in Wigan and businesses.

The birthday celebration.

The staff and volunteer appreciation day.

But the main highlight is the number of clients we have helped.

One thing that has really excited me in the last year has been how many volunteers and staff have grown and developed.

In my role as Chair of Trustees I have the privilege of showing people round our facilities. It is such a

reassuring experience because when I do it in a leisurely fashion visitors are invariably impressed by what we do. They are impressed not by the buildings, or statistics or my elegant language. They are impressed by the people they meet: clients, staff, volunteers and even trustees.

The good we do and the reputation we have is built on how we compassionately help others and each other.

May the Lord our God continue to help each of us grow in compassion.

CEO's Update

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetimeThank you to everyone who has made this past year an absolute pleasure and privilege to be part of the team at the Brick. Together we have achieved so much in making the Brick an even stronger agency supporting the excellent work that everyone does.

We have worked hard to fulfil our vision and mission and worked steadily through our strategic plan with the aims and objectives of its 7 headings of governance, existing services, new services, staff and volunteers, finance, marketing and communications, and physical resources. We have built on the essential work assisting people's move from crisis and dependency to stability and independence that has been going on at the Brick shop for 40 years, the Brick Project for 9 years and the Brick Works for almost 3 years.

The sustainability grant from the Lottery and Cabinet Office has given us the opportunity to build up lots of new business relationships which has offered many mutual benefits and we look forward to the future with our commercial partners support.

We also launched our first fundraising campaign

Rebuilding Lives.

As always we are grateful to our staff, volunteers, and supporters for everything that they do for us.

Please read through the following pages to get a feel of the breadth and depth of the work as we strive to eradicate poverty and homelessness in our community.

With my very best wishes, Rata.ee.e

Values statementWe undertake social action which nurtures the fullness of life for service users, staff and volunteers.

We will innovate and take managed risks to support people and make a real difference to their lives.

We offer an inclusive, non-judgemental service where discrimination in any form will not be tolerated.

We employ a professional staff and volunteer team dedicated to the potential of our service users.

We develop relationships and partnerships which are central to our work.

We are a caring, compassionate organisation that values our staff, volunteers, partners and service users.

We will offer a local and user led service.

We work in a way that is sustainable to the physical environment.

Operations Director UpdateWow, what an amazing year. We grow from to strength every year and it astonishes me just how much we accomplish.

2016/17 Gave me the opportunity to be promoted to the Operations Director and this for me was such an honour. Having worked for the Brick since 2011, like all our staff and volunteers, I have put my heart, sweat and tears into the Charity.

Danielle was promoted to the Brick Project Manager and her commitment to the Charity has allowed us to grow even more and Danielle continues to successfully manage the heart of what we do.

Rachel joined me at the Brick Works and has been a friendly face and voice at the Brick Works.During this year, we were introduced to many new services and opportunities,

o Our relationship with MayDay Trust and ongoing negotiations secured the Brick as a partnering agency delivering the Asset Coaching for the North West.

o We were successful in our partnership with FCC and Wigan Council to provide a Reuse Shop on the Recycling Site, this will come into reality at the end of November

o Our accommodation hopes had been put on hold temporarily, while we continued to search for suitable properties and Fiona became the new Volunteer Coordinator.

o James had a role change and was successfully promoted to the Crisis Intervention Coordinator. o Unfortunately we had 2 Domestic Homicide Reviews and 1 Coroner's Inquest, however, these reviews and Inquest highlighted the good partner working we have with other agencies and we were praised for our dedication to our service users.

It was as always a very busy year and I look forward to another year in which we help people to make positive choices and alleviate hardships.

Thank you to all our valuable, dedicated volunteers and staff.

THE PROJECT

QUEENS HALL ACTION ON POVERTY

The Brick Project is a small project that delivers big results for the community it serves. It offers services to people who are homeless, in poverty or facing debt crisis. As it name suggests, it provides a safe, solid building block for people in crisis to begin to construct a new life and become valuable members of society.The services run by the Brick Project includes the Crisis Intervention Service and Wigan's largest foodbank. Both are managed by a small staff team but the main support to our service users is delivered by volunteers. The Brick Project also operates statutory tendered projects; support to people in their tenancies; the Council's No Second Night Out Service; the Clinical Commissioning Group's hospital and health services for those who are homeless or facing homelessness whilst receiving medical care. Staff and volunteers at the Brick Project help people tackle the root causes of homelessness, debt, poverty and hunger.

Kick Start Project: Helping a group of homeless people to get involved in physical activity.

THE PROJECT

QUEENS HALL ACTION ON POVERTY

#RebuiIdingLives

Clients accommodated in B & B: 69

Number of clients accessing No Second Night Out provision: 78

Number of clients from NSNO successfully moving to private tenancy, Wigan and Leigh Homes or supported accommodation: 60

Number of clients from NSNO who were supported to return to family and friends: 16

Clients receiving Crisis Intervention service in the community: 246

Number of clients receiving tenancy support: 68

370provided: Breakfasts and Showers

194outreach: street on seen Clients

FOOD BANK

Number of food parcels given out: 5535

Number of food parcel referrals: 3272

Number of food parcels for adults: 3974

Number of food parcels for children: 1561

Number of Christmas Hampers provided to families in need: 109

THE BRiCK

WORKSQUEENS HALL ACTION ON POVERTY

The Brick Works offers training to increase the employment opportunities for people who are unemployed for a variety of reasons. This may include homelessness or recently housed people referred by the Brick Project. The Brick Works has a small staff team, mentors teaching new skills, and volunteer mentors. There is also a shop selling second hand goods and goods recycled on site.

Recycling and reuse is key to the Brick Works.

THE Number of trainees engaged in work experience and training during the year: 53

Number of trainees becoming volunteers: 11

Number of trainees gaining employment: 6

Number of welfare packages: 89 (Singles: 57 Families: 32)

Number of crisis referral (internal) packages: 53 (Singles: 44 Families: 9)

SHOPQUEENS HALL ACTION ON POVERTY

The Brick Shop is a charity shop selling donated goods, often to people on low incomes. The shop gives clothes free of charge to people referred by Wigan Council. The shop is one ofthe main hubs within its local community, reducing isolation and supporting local residents. The Charity opened a second temporary shop on Market Street, Wigan, in December 2016 but this closed in May 2017.

THE

The shop continued with welfare referrals for clothes with 151 referrals in the year.

The shop continues to offer low priced clothing and furniture to people in need and retains its community hub ethos.

BRiCK GIVING

QUEENS HALL ACTION ON POVERTYIn September 2016 we appointed a Fundraising and Business Engagement manager to help increase support to our donors and offer opportunities to local businesses to become more involved with us. Janet has been very involved in our Rebuilding Lives campaign and in arranging local events.

We very much appreciate all the support we receive from local people, the Church, and businesses to help us in our vision to eradicate poverty and homelessness in our community and reach out to people in need.

Janet Mitchell - Fundraising &Business Engagement Manager

THE

ON L UAL QUEENS

Summary of AccountsIncome E900,OOO

Operating grants €235,000

Trading to benefit clients f217,OOO

• Donations f183,OOO (E87,ooo money; €96,000 food)

Service contracts E139,OOO

Shop income E120,OOO

Other income €6,000

Expenditure E895,OOOStaff costs, charitable activities €328,000

Client welfare, training and foodbenk El/ 3,000Costs of trad'ng to be neft clients €147,000 Shop operating costs

E 107,000

Premises costs ard depreciation +61

Admimstrative staff costs f57,O

OO

Management anc ddrnillislralior f42,OOO

The Brick Looking ForwardWe aim to continuously improve and develop all of our current services on offer, and also develop new and exciting services. In particular;

THE RE-USEQUEENS HALL ACTION ON POVERTY

To establish a Brick Recycling Project at the Ince Household Waste Recycling Centre which will divert donated unwanted goods to sell to people in need, offer further training opportunities on the site and at the Brick Works for people who are unemployed, offer more volunteer opportunities for local people, and give a further source of income to the charity.

To develop an education centre at the Ince Household Waste Recycling Centre which will particularly reach out to people in the most deprived areas to encourage recycling, and community pride, whilst avoiding fines for inappropriate waste disposal.

To seek out potential accommodation projects for emergency and longer stay.

To provide pre-loved furniture in partnership with Unify Credit Union to help people avoid long term debt for expensive household items.

To respond to appropriate development opportunities.

The Charity's strateqies for achieving its aims and obiectives in the future.

The Charity's strategies to ensure the sustainability of the work undertaken include:

Working in partnership with other voluntary agencies, Churches, statutory agencies and commercial agencies.

Researching and applying for relevant grant funding, and developing other fundraising activities.

Ensuring the recruitment and retention of caring and compassionate staff and volunteers.

Developing relevant media and publicity material to become better known and enhance our reputation.

To undertake regular risk assessments in all areas of governance and operations to ensure that risk is properly managed.

THE GIVING

OUEÉNS

ONACTION HALL

TextBRIK18 CIO

to 70070

to provide 4 days of hot lunches for a person in need

#RebuildingLives

THE PROJECT 01942 236953

THE BRiCKSHOP 01942 324883

THE WORKS 01942 417290'@TheBrickWigan