2008 Annual Report
The Team at St Peter’s Centre comprises of Trustees all of whom give their time free to the management of the centre, Staff and Volunteers.
Trustees:
The autonomous Management Committee comprises of representatives from partner organisations and local residents.
Name Represents
Mr Phil Jones St Peter’s Church & local resident
Ms Judith Pattern St Peter’s Church & local resident
Mr Percival Robinson St Peter’s Church & Centre Users
Mr Rob Taylor Company Secretary Coventry Law Centre
Ms Penny Walker Chair Peace House (chair from 12 June 2008)
Mr Pat Walsh Watch Ltd. & local resident
Ms Myrtle Gill St Peter’s Church & local resident
Rev Neil Tipple Chair St Peter’s Church (resigned 12 June 2008)
Treasurer
Mark Payne City College
Staff and Volunteers:
Josephine Haywood (Joan) Centre Manager
Balraj Somal Development Officer to August 2008
Yvonne McCloskey Finance Officer
Heather Lee Events Co-ordinator to July 2008
Bertram Green Caretaker
Rudolph Moss Caretaker
Mary Jones Cleaner
Peter Bentley Site Services Officer form March 2008
Irene Irakoze Cleaner temporary
Jaba Habte Cleaner (cover)
Lavern Anderson Events Coordinator
Sheila Lovett Volunteer Administrator
Anthony Francis Volunteer Information and Communication Technology from Hill Hofsetter formerly Reed Smith
Chair’s Report
2008 has been a difficult year for St. Peter’s because of the change in funding trends and the recession but careful budgeting in previous years stood us in good stead to manage the drop in money from funders. Due to this decrease and the rise in costs, sadly part of that adjustment to external changes resulted in us having to make our community worker redundant.
Funders are now looking for larger organisations to provide services regionally or nationally. St. Peter’s Centre is a local grassroots community asset which does not fit into that mould. However, over the year we have been working in partnership with local voluntary, statutory and corporate organisations, aware that we need to be creative in exploring joint ventures to enable us to reduce costs and raise revenue that will be for the benefit of the residents of the area.
Our business plan has also been a useful tool in helping us to respond to economic changes in a flexible way whilst retaining our core values. Flexibility has even resulted in considering changing the size of our rooms in order to accommodate those organisations which contribute hugely to our local community.
The year has also seen the departure of Neil Tipple as chair and the arrival in December of our new Rector Rev Stephen Hartley. I have been straddling the gap as acting chair and am indebted to the other trustees and particularly to our manager Joan Haywood who has used so much ingenuity and worked so hard in helping St Peter’s Centre through this difficult year.
The economic climate will continue to produce challenges to us for some time to come. However, St. Peter’s is still managing to provide a vibrant community hub in Hillfields and by working together we will make the most of our valuable physical and human assets to sustain and develop our wonderful centre.
Penny Walker Chairperson
Centre Managers Report
I finished last year’s report recognising we faced a real challenge to maintain the quality of service we had developed over the past eight years. During 2007 we make significant improvements to the infrastructure of the organisation and in the latter half of 2008 it became evident that those changes would need to be resilient to withstand the challenges faced.
Strategy
At the beginning of the year our focus was to update our Business Plan, this encouraged us to be vigilant of our financial strategy, which was originally set out for the centre to be self financing by 2010. During the first six months of the year we did significantly better than financially predicted, a deficit was planned for the year, therefore the somewhat fraught and constant nagging of financial concerns tended to overshadow the many good things that were happening. Following the Business Plan a marketing and promotion strategy was implemented as was a new Ethical Policy, we also updated the Employment Contract and our Tenancy at Will.
Conference & Office Update
The corporate conference business increased by 8% in the first six months of the year, this increased business put a considerable amount of pressure on our car park, the opening of City College and new Coventry University student accommodation exacerbated the car parking problems in the area. This has given us negative feedback as people are more fraught and sometimes late for meetings. It is difficult to anticipate what effect it will have on our business in the future.
Feedback from organisations, who hired the centre, informed us that our pricing structure was over complex, consequently we streamlined the structure aiming the room prices to remain consistent with 2007. We did however, introduce a freeflow system of tea coffee & biscuits to assist organisations with budgeting, in some cases this did lead to a slight price increase. Further to this we phased out bottled water replacing it with filtered water which is complementary to all organisations, therefore reducing costs.
Whilst the corporate business increased, it was noted by the end of March that the number of community groups using the centre was in decline this was due to the reduced amount of funding available to assist groups. This reduced activity coupled with unsuccessful bids led to the Development Officers post being made redundant in August 2008.
When it became apparent that our direct work with the community was in decline, and then ceased, we were more diligent than ever to exploit our Business Plan to meet the needs of the community
We are therefore delighted to announce that we secured a contract with LEGI (Local Employment Growth Initiative) for a Workmate to use one of our offices to help local long-term unemployed people into work. This was followed by The Children’s Society’s Reunite project team led by Jenny Mahimbo who are also renting one of our offices. The Reunite project supports our ethos of working with the community, their work is focused on young people who go missing from home or care. It offers intensive support to help young people make the right decisions in their lives and to stop incidents of persons running away. Support can include signposting to other organisations, sessions looking at risk and staying safe, and help with family problems.
Kairos who have been renting office space from us since 1st April 2005 were looking to relocate to a new venue that met their growing needs, for the last three months of the year they shared an office with LEGI. During this period we met regularly with the new Kairos staff, as a result we were in a position to offer them an improved service (larger dedicated office) consequently the need to relocate was abolished.
After uncertainty about the future of Hillfields Community Library we were informed at the beginning of December 2008 that the Library would remain. We were however, aware that as the European ERDF Funding would finish the end of December 2008 it would be necessary to enter into a new contract with Culture, Leisure and Libraries.
We are now an official Evacuation Centre by Coventry City Council, the centre was used for this purpose early in 2008.
People
Over the year we said good bye to Trustee Board members who moved on to pastures new, our independent examiner retired and we had some changes within our staff team.
The Rev Neil Tipple, chairperson, moved to the sunny south to become vicar of his own parish. The Rev Stephen Hartley, the new Team Rector at St Peter’s, joined us in November and took the position of chairperson in December 2008.
Keith Dodgson retired and Jim Simmons from Bishop Simmons has taken up the task of Independent Examiner.
Peter Bentley was appointed to the position of Site Services in March 2008. Irene Irakoze and Jaba Habte were appointed to provide holiday and illness cover. Heather Lee resigned from her post as Events Coordinator during July 2008. In the interim period Holly Head was appointed on a two month contract prior to her recommencing her studies. Lavern Anderson took up the post of Events Coordinator the end of September 2008.
Hill Hofsetter formerly Reed Smith, gave us free support and guidance on all legal issues that occurred over the year, saving us £7,500. Further to this Anthony Frances continued to maintain our Information and Communication Technology saving us an additional £2,600 this included a backup software contract he secured on our behalf to the value of £600.
Sheila Lovett continues to be a valued volunteer. She provides a warm welcome to all our visitors on a Friday morning.
Training continues to be a high priority for the centre, thus staff have continued to pursue their individual training needs. All staff have undertaken a CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) check.
Buildings Update
The building is eight years old and as a result periodic inspections and depreciation have and will continue to increase our costs. As a result of Risk Assessments carried out it was necessary to change the glass in St Peter’s hall to ½ hour fire resistant glass also we linked the small kitchen roller to the Fire Alarm. The wooden chairs are being repaired as identified on regular inspections. The boilers struggle to meet the growing needs of the building and continue to drain our budget. We have considered replacing the system and will keep it in constant review.
We have sought quotes to incorporate an office in the Ovie Williams hall whilst maintaining its normal usage. A plaque and photograph will be erected in honour of Ovie Williams.
Our Annual Health & Safety audit was carried out in December 2008.
Development of Partnerships
Under the auspices of Neighbourhood Management North West, we at St Peter’s Centre have jointly worked with WATCH (Working Actively to Change Hillfields), Hope Centre and Enriched Life Centre (former Osaba) to create a more formal structure, endeavoured to bring together our individual expertise and knowledge. This work is progressing with plan to share resources and submit joint funding bids for the benefit of the local community. This partnership is not exclusive to the organisations mentioned.
The Children’s Centre and St Peter’s Centre jointly commenced delivery of the Strengthen Families Strengthening Communities programme in October 2008. This unique programme integrates positive discipline approaches as a vehicle for fostering high self-esteem, self discipline and social competence in children.
We were invited to become involved Extended Services, this central government initiative aims to have a great effect on centres such as ours as it openly encourages schools to work with voluntary organisations for the benefit of families. Unfortunately, this relationship required more resources than we had available.
Aims for the coming year are:
- Review Policies & Procedures
- Secure more conference bookings with a focus on the corporate sector
- Secure a contract with the Hillfields Community Library
- Update our website
- Progress partnerships with local Voluntary and Statutory agencies
- Refurbish the Ovie Williams hall
For almost four years now it has been my good fortune and privilege to be the centre manager of St Peter’s Centre, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the staff and volunteers for their hard work and commitment to St Peter’s Centre.
Joan Haywood Centre Manager