GFI CIC Reports - Current report and archive

Social Audit and Managers Report 2022-2023 for Going For Independence CIC (GFI)

For financial year 1^st November 2022 to 31st October 2023

1 About the Going For Independence (GFI) Community Interest Company

Registered in England in October 2008, the Going For Independence CIC was one of the earliest Community Interest Companies.

The main aim of our organisation is to enable and empower individuals to live independently and safely with the best possible quality of life, whatever their age or ability. We have seven Directors on our Board, each of whom has specialist knowledge of sensory loss and disability issues, and who bring a wealth of experience in community engagement.

Our website www.goingforindependence.org has profiles for each of our Board Members.

Going For Independence is grounded in the community, and underlying all our social activity work, we facilitate connections between individuals and Independent Occupational Therapists and provide free impartial advice and information about equipment, gadgets and home / work adaptations. including Electronic Assistive Technology and Telecare.

We are extremely grateful to the National Lottery and National Lottery Players, and to all our other funders, for making it possible for us to develop and deliver our community-based projects which provide vital support for people with sensory loss, other disabilities and Long Term health conditions.

Our impact

In the northeast of England we provide direct support services and assistance with paperwork for people who are Blind and visually impaired, a demographic that is not well supported, especially in the Teesside region. We not only help them to remain independent but also reduce their social isolation and loneliness by bringing them together with their peer group. We provide safe, supported indoor and outdoor activities, various workshops to help them to learn new skills, and have also developed activities for Carers groups to help them to find and make quality time for themselves.

Since our incorporation in 2008 we have steadily grown in reach and have provided support and services to many individuals and their families across the UK. On moving our Registered Office to Teesside in 2012 and seeing the relative lack of opportunities for people with sight loss in the area, we have developed specific services for the Blind and Visually Impaired. We now provide a range of activities, events, and free advice, information and signposting services for anyone needing to know how to help themselves and stay independent and active for as long as possible, covering all sensory loss and physical disability issues.

People in our groups tell us they enjoy our activities and feel safe being with their peer group, and their families and carers tell us they in turn learn more about living independently and how to support their families and friends. We have developed specific ways to assist people with sight loss and to help them to find new ways and new equipment that will help them to stay independent for longer, and we know that there is no other organisation in Teesside that offers a focussed supported activity service like ours.

2 Sea-ing Sense project 2022-2024 - taking people with sight loss on walks along the NE coast - funded by the Heritage Lottery.

We started this project in October 2022, in a formal Partnership with the Tees Valley Wildlife Trust, TVWT.

The project is designed for groups of people with sight loss from across Teesside, and includes winter workshops and summer walks on the beach, the development of specific Sighted Guide training for walks in the natural environment and the creation of Soundscapes of each of the four coastal areas we will visit.

In addition to our formal website, we are setting up a new public facing website to showcase this project and all our other work at http://www.sensingthewild.info, a work in progress.

TVWT lead the summer walks and winter workshops for us, using their expertise to provide a wide range of information about nature and the coast. This project is ongoing and will finish in September 2024.

We will recruit a Graduate volunteer to work with us over the summer of 2024 on our soundscape production and the grant we received will fund a short sound -recording course at the Leeds National Film and Television School, to be attended by a Graduate volunteer.

Our groups are very much enjoying the opportunities this project has provided them in getting out and about in nature; a number of them said it was many years since they had felt able to walk across the sand on a beach to the waters’ edge – only possible because of the support we are able to give them.

3 Social Activities for Older and Isolated People

Our Awards For All small Lottery grant finished in December 2022, and with commissioned funding keeping us going at the start of 2023, we made a successful application to the Reaching Communities Fund for a new two-year project which started in March 2023, in order to continue the vital work we do.

This project is called Uplifting Spirits – Exercise and creativity for socially isolated people.

Through this project visually impaired communities across Teesside will see a benefit as older and disadvantaged people and carers will be more engaged in their society, improving their resilience, health and wellbeing, increasing confidence, and reducing feelings of anxiety and isolation.

Our project will work with people with a visual impairment, and with carers who are supporting people with dementia or other conditions, helping them to become part of a community of peers, coming together to engage in exercise, activities and trips out. The activities we provide through this project are very popular and our groups are growing in numbers. This project will be completed in February 2025.

4 Commissioned Activities and Consultation

We pride ourselves on providing a free service for disadvantaged people and we continue to receive occasional commissions by Teesside charities for the visually impaired to help them to run trips and extra workshops, keeping people with sight loss active and in touch with each other.

Our MD receives requests for consultation work, and together with our Darlington group we have been involved with Darlington South Park and the Durham Brightwater Project this year, providing advice on making the walk to the Sensory Garden in the park more accessible for those with sight loss. This work should result in a new tactile park map, an audio trail and improved way-marking next year.

It is important that our groups feel their views are heard and wherever possible we involve them in consultation opportunities, and make sure their contributions are acknowledged and where possible, rewarded.

In Saltburn by the Sea the Saltburn Valleys CIO has asked the MD to advise on the setting up of a Sensory Garden or Sensory Garden trail, and on accessible routes around the Valley Gardens.
GFI is a national organisation and we are mentoring an Associate in Newcastle who is planning a project working with the local community and council, to create a Wildlife Corridor at Walkerville to provide an accessible outdoor nature walk for the benefit of local people. Building on our experience of delivering guided walks for our visually impaired groups, GFI has initially provided free support and assistance and in due course will also assist with funding applications for the development of this project.
In March 2023 we were invited to attend a Blind Veterans meeting in Teesside and we were able to tell them about the activities we currently offer and the groups we work with across the region. We consulted them about the activities they would like to be able to access and we plan to carry out further research on the range of options provided nationally. This may lead to a research project in 2024.

5 Office Base and Resource storage

In order to make best use of our limited funding, in March 2023 we reluctantly gave up our office at Teesside University and our role as Social Enterprise in Residence; however we remain in touch and offer ongoing information and advice to students and business colleagues on the pros and cons of running social enterprises and charities; we also assist other businesses making the transition from a Ltd company to a CIC.

This work is a great platform for promotion of GFI and for helping to create more successful businesses with a social purpose.

Our thanks to the University which continues to support us through mentoring and networking.

We now hold a considerable volume of essential supplies and activity resources, including bulky spare wheelchairs and walkers for our walks, and a trolley and wheeled cold storage bag for transporting refreshments for picnics, all of which enable us to run our activities and outdoor walks. These are stored in a lockable storage unit, adding to our overhead costs, but proving to be more essential than having an office!

6 New staff and Training

In July 2023 we recruited a Project Assistant for our activities for the visually impaired and provided comprehensive induction training including learning about guiding a person with sight loss and about different eye conditions, and associated specialist reading and audio equipment and technology.

A Disability Awareness and Sighted Guide training session day was delivered to staff at the Tees Valley Wildlife Trust at the start of our Sea-ing Sense project by our Training Consultant.

Leading Growth programme

At our AGM in 2023 we appointed a Deputy Managing Director following a succession-planning mentoring session. This person then attended a Leading Growth programme for senior managers provided through Teesside University, which proved to be a very worthwhile experience.

Leading Growth was a proven six-month leadership and management programme designed for Tees Valley SMEs. Part of the suite of programmes on offer from Teesside University Business School, it aimed to develop the mindsets, skills and networks of business leaders to help them on their journey to growth.

The networking connections made from this programme and the in depth understanding of business structures and modelling has been of significant benefit to GFI, and in addition our Director was able to pass on her expertise about working in a social enterprise to others on the course who were not familiar with the not-for-profit model.

7 Social Prescriptions

We have responded to requests through the Social Prescription process to provide safe activities for a number of individuals with sight loss – one of whom was 100 years old. We continue to receive referrals through this process.

8 Structure, Governance and Reserves

Reserves – policy and position

Our Reserves are used to bridge any gaps between our spending and receipt of income,

and to cover gaps in grant aid funding, any loss of earned income or unplanned costs.

We have a dedicated Reserves account and Unrestricted reserves as at our year end 31^st October 2023 were £4226.91. This is lower than we would like however where possible we will endeavour to build it up to £6000, in order to ensure we have sufficient funds to meet contractual and legal responsibilities.

Governing documents

Going For Independence is a Community Interest Company limited by Guarantee with National reach, founded in 2008, registered in England and Wales with company number 06729549.

The CIC is governed by its Articles of Association which were registered at incorporation.

Structure and Board of Directors

The Company is governed by a Board of Directors, responsible for the overall control and strategic direction of the organisation. We currently have seven Directors, 3 of whom cover the Executive functions, and are official signatories on the bank accounts.

Executive Directors do not receive salaries and contribute their time to the running of the company as volunteers, which enables us to demonstrate exceptional value for money for what we do.

The Board meets 3 times a year and Management Reports are circulated on a regular basis.

Organisational structure

Day-to-day responsibility for the management of the Company is delegated to the Managing Director with support from the Deputy Managing Director.

Additional staff and Consultants are recruited specifically for our funded projects, and are line managed, supervised and mentored on a regular basis to ensure the workforce continues to develop the skills required to maintain the high quality standards we are known for. Our Accountant manages our Payroll and Pension scheme.

9 The year ahead - November 2023 to October 2024

Over the next 12 months we will continue work on our two main projects, supporting people with sight loss across Teesside to help to reduce their isolation and loneliness, and our Carers groups, giving them some respite and time to enjoy a social session with a creative activity. We provide a befriending service for all in our networks and for anyone needing impartial advice and information on independent living.

We will be applying for more funding to develop our social activity provision in the Tees Valley Region so that we can make a seamless transition when our current activity project finishes in early 2025 without a gap in service, which is so important for the individuals in our groups.

We plan to diversify our project funding sources and hope to apply for some core funding to help to make our organisation more secure; we also plan to carry out more research into gaps in provision, and how we might bring in income.

We are aware of the imbalance of services between the south of the country and the north, and as our head office is now located in the north of England, we hope to build on our success and to continue to provide much needed services for the Blind and visually impaired and other disadvantaged people in this area.

Part 2 – Consultation with stakeholders

Our stakeholders include our partners the Tees Valley Wildlife Trust, local and national community charities, social clubs and organisations, and a number of professional individuals working with people with visual impairments. As we expand to reach more people, we will continue to consult with them at every opportunity to ensure we are providing appropriate, safe and sustainable activities for them.

Our network of contacts and volunteers is continually growing, and we discuss our plans for service development with them at every opportunity as we know their support is essential for the work we do. Ideas for future developments come from our network connections and the groups we work with, and we embrace these and look at how to widen our services to reach more people. We receive great feedback from our participants to inform our project evaluations.

GFI has developed a wide business and professional network locally and nationally including Teesside University, businesses in the region and across the country, older and disabled people, young people and children with disabilities, families, friends and carers, students, Occupational Therapists and health and social care professionals.

Pam Bennett - Managing Director November 2023

www.goingforindependence.org and www.sensingthewild.info

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Social Audit Report 2021-2022 for Going For Independence CIC (GFI)

Description of the company’s activities and impact

1 About the Going For Independence (GFI) Community Interest Company

Registered in England in October 2008, the Going For Independence CIC was one of the earliest Community Interest Companies.

The main aim of the organisation is to enable and empower individuals to live independently and safely with the best possible quality of life, whatever their age or ability. We have now added a seventh Director to our Board, who brings a wealth of experience in community engagement and research: our website www.goingforindependence.org has profiles for each of our Board Members.

Working for community benefit, we continue to facilitate connections between individuals and Independent Occupational Therapists and provide free impartial advice and information about equipment, gadgets and home / work adaptations (including Electronic Assistive Technology and Telecare).

We provide direct support services for people who are Blind and visually impaired, a demographic that is not well supported, especially in the Teesside region. We not only help them to remain independent but also reduce their social isolation and loneliness by bringing them together with their peer group. We provide safe, supported outdoor activities, and workshops to help them to learn new skills, and we are also developing services to support carers and people with Mental Health and other Long-Term Conditions.

As GFI is a service provider with limited opportunities for income generation, we have developed a programme of grant funding applications which enable us to continue to provide free services for our communities. We are extremely grateful to the National Lottery and National Lottery Players, and all our other funders, for making it possible for us to develop and deliver our community based projects which provide vital support for people with sensory loss, other disabilities and health conditions.

2 Building on the success of our Sensing the Wild project- City Bridge Project

Called Sensing the Wild - connecting Blind and visually impaired people to nature,

this Heritage Lottery-funded project ended in November 2021. Working closely with the Tees Valley Wildlife Trust, who ran our educational and inspiring workshops and then led walks and talks in local parks across Teesside for local groups, its success has made us realise that this is a significant service for people with visual impairments which we want to continue.

Applying to the City Bridge Trust in London, we made a successful grant application to run a similar pilot project and one of our London-based Directors organised a couple of very successful guided walks for Blind and visually impaired people in April and May 2022 at the Barnes National Wetland Centre. GFI also trained a group of their staff and volunteers as Sighted Guiders. As a result we know the Wetland Centre intend to make some of their walks more accessible in future.

In addition, we successfully applied for funding from the Vision Foundation to run 4 more walks in the Greater London area and hope to start that project next year in March 2023, using our learning from the one at the Wetland Centre to inform that project.

3 Sea-ing Sense project 2022-2024

As our Sensing the Wild project enabled people with sight loss to get out into nature, and with continuous learning from our other projects, we wanted to continue this work so in early 2022 we put together a successful application for a new project, called Sea-ing Sense, taking people with sight loss on walks along the NE coast.

This project started in October 2022, in Partnership with the Tees Valley Wildlife Trust, and includes the development of specific Sighted Guide training for walks in the natural environment and Soundscapes of the places we visit. We will be setting up a new public facing website to showcase this project and all our other work at http://www.sensingthewild.info.

3 Big Lottery Community Fund project

We completed our Big Lottery Community Grant project at the end of May 2022, Building friendships and learning new skills – Social Activities for Older and Isolated People.

We also secured an extension of time for this project after Covid restrictions were lifted, and permission to add further activities in order to be able to spend our grant which has proved to be a challenge. The end of project date was finally set for Spring 2022.

To spend our grant we provided a baking session at a commercial bakery and took people for a guided walk at a Teesside Wetland Nature Reserve.

This project has been very successful and our network of visually impaired groups across Teesside are very hopeful that we can continue to provide social activities for them in their local area.

When our project finished we put in a successful Awards For All small grant application which has enabled us to continue to provide a service until December 2022, and we are also making an application for a two-year project to start in 2023.

4 Commissioned Activities

We pride ourselves on providing a free service for disadvantaged people and as we had a few months without activity funding, we were commissioned by two Tees Valley charities for the visually impaired to run 6 workshops over the summer for two of our groups, keeping people with sight loss active and in touch with each other.

5 Office Base

GFI is Social Enterprise in Residence at Teesside University, and our contribution to students includes providing information and advice on the pros and cons of running social enterprises and charities; we also assist other businesses making the transition from a Ltd company to a CIC. This work is a great platform for promotion of GFI and for helping to create more successful businesses with a social purpose. We may have to give the office up in 2023 as it costs us £100 a month which although low is still too much when we have no core funding or revenue income. Our thanks to the University and to Digital City in Teesside which continue to support us through mentoring and networking.

6 Discuss Game for visually impaired

Although the Discuss game development is now hosted under its own company Across-the-Board Games CIC, it was a GFI initiative and GFI is the nominated Asset Locked Body.

To showcase the game GFI booked a stand at the Sight Village exhibition at the Leeds Armouries in September at which we had some great feedback from people with sight loss, and to look into the technology on show which might be complimentary to the game.

7 Deputy Director

Following a succession-planning mentoring session, the GFI Board of Directors will appoint one of our Directors as Deputy MD at our AGM in the new year.

8 The year ahead 2022-23

Over the next 12 months we will continue our work on our projects, supporting people with sight loss to help to reduce their isolation and loneliness. We provide a befriending service for all in our networks and for anyone needing impartial advice and information on independent living.

We will be applying for more funding to develop our social activity provision in the Tees Valley Region, and hope to extend to support a Carers group.

Our overheads are kept low and Directors work as volunteers which enables us to demonstrate exceptional value for money for what we do. We have great feedback from our participants to inform our project evaluations.

Being located in the north of England, we hope to build on our success and to continue to provide much needed services for Blind and visually impaired people and others in this area.

Part 2 – Consultation with stakeholders

Our stakeholders include local community charities, social clubs and organisations, including those working with people with visual impairments.

Our network of contacts and volunteers is continually growing and we discuss our plans for service development with them at every opportunity as we know their support is essential for the work we do.

Pam Bennett - Managing Director November 2022

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Report for financial year 1^st November 2020 to 31st October 2021

Part 1 Description of the company’s activities and impact

1 About the Going For Independence (GFI) Community Interest Company

The Going For Independence CIC was established in 2008. The main aim of our organisation is to enable and empower individuals to live independently and safely with the best possible quality of life. We now have six Directors, two based in London, one in Manchester and three in Teesside. Our team is supported by a part time employee and we appoint project workers for our main activities. Admin and budget management is carried out by the Managing Director with assistance from other Directors as required. Our Accounts are completed by AbacusBean, an award-winning accountancy based in Stockton on Tees.

In spite of the significant constraints placed on us due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic during this year we have been able to continue to facilitate connections between individuals and Independent Occupational Therapists and provide impartial advice and information about equipment, gadgets and home / work adaptations (including Electronic Assistive Technology and Telecare). This is a free service.

We have developed our ability to use digital technology to stay in touch with our user groups, which will stand us in good stead for the future.

During the year the company has managed successfully to link to and collaborate with a number of key national organisations and with local organisations in the North of England that share our vision.

We are currently specialising in the provision of direct support services for people who are Blind and visually impaired, a demographic that is not well supported. We not only help them to remain independent but also help to reduce their social isolation and learn new skills. We are also developing our services to support people with Mental Ill-Health and other Long- Term Conditions.

Like many other businesses it has been a challenging year as we have adapted to the constraints of the Covid pandemic. With more lockdowns in January 2021 our business model for working from a home office with low overheads has meant we have remained active and able to deliver some of our services, albeit with modifications.

In April 2021 we were able to resume working from our office on campus at Teesside University where we are Social Enterprise in Residence.

With agreement from the National Lottery we have had to extend the end-dates for the main projects we are running. We are extremely grateful to the National Lottery and National Lottery Players for making it possible for us to develop and deliver our three projects during this year, each of which has provided key support to disabled people, much needed at this difficult time.

2 Sensing the Wild Project – connecting Blind and visually impaired people to nature

Funded by the Heritage Lottery

Impact of Covid-19 pandemic during this year- Our financial year started in November 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic was still a major issue nationally.

The Sensing the Wild project was due to finish in November 2020 however the pandemic restrictions and lockdowns meant we had to suspend the final 4 workshops and walks until the restrictions were lifted in the New Year 2021 and our participants felt confident enough to attend. In the end the project ended in November 2021.Our project Evaluation showed how successful this has been and we plan to continue the work of linking people with sensory loss with the natural environment. This Evaluation Report can be viewed on the www.sensingthewild.info website.

3 Building friendships and learning new skills – Social Activities for Older and Isolated People 2019-2021 funded by the Big Lottery Community Fund

We also secured an extension of time for this project and permission to add further activities in order to be able to spend our grant which has proved to be a challenge. The current end of project date is now in the Spring of 2022. We are planning to provide a baking session at a commercial bakery and to take people for a guided walk at a Teesside Wetland Nature Reserve.

4 Audio Support Service project – funded by a SES Covid-19 grant administered by the Key Fund.

Individuals in our visually impaired groups were particularly affected by the lockdowns in that they became very isolated at home and also lost confidence in being out and about because of social distancing requirements, as their loss of vision made this very difficult.

In view of this we successfully applied for a Social Enterprise Covid-19 support grant in September 2020 which enabled us to set up a conference call service for our groups, using landline phones to connect people so they could continue to “meet” and have a conversation. Using the internet and online platforms like Zoom is not helpful to many of our participants many of whom are elderly and some do not use computers or even smart phones. We made contact with other organisations running conference calls and learned a lot about the processes, writing up a report and also carrying out a survey of participants to get their views.

The project also included developing podcasts covering our previous workshops and walks in the parks plus other local information which we launched on various media platforms and also made into CDs for those who used other audio equipment and who could not access the media channels.

We carried out conference calls every month to our groups until the project completed in April 2021.

5 Discuss Game development

Our work on the Discuss game, a conversation game using digital technology to provide an audio dice and questions, had to be put on hold throughout 2020 as we have reached a stage where we need to consult directly with Blind and visually impaired people in order to ensure the game works for them. We have remained in touch with our contacts and will resume work on its development as soon as possible. The lockdown time has enabled us to work on a card game version and to make improvements to the prototype.

In October 2020 we took on an intern for 8 weeks – a graduate from Teesside University - to work on an animation for our game using the dice image to help to show how the game is played. We hope the intern will continue to work with us as a volunteer into 2022.

6 Social Enterprise in Residence at Teesside University

GFI continues to be known as Social Enterprise in Residence at Teesside University and we have supported and advised a number of new business start-ups choosing to be CICs over this past year.

During the year our position as SE in Residence has led to us delivering a number of lectures - to students, to the Vonne network of voluntary organisations for Digital City, to Fashion students and to Occupational Therapist students in the Health and Social Care department, talking about the features and benefits of the not-for-profit sector. When face to face lectures stopped we were able to do this online in spite of the Lockdown restrictions.

This work will develop further in the future and is a great platform for promotion of GFI and for helping to create more successful businesses with a social purpose.

Our thanks to the University and to Digital City in Teesside which continue to support us through mentoring and networking.

7 The year ahead 2021-2022

One of our contacts in London has started to do some work with us this year on the Covid-support project and we plan to invite him to join us on the Board of Directors in the New Year 2022.

We are looking at the potential for running guided walks in the Greater London area for people with sight loss and are on the look out for local grants to facilitate this work.

We are also planning our next HLF fund application, to take people for a walk along our NE coast, and are talking to the Tees Valley Wildlife Trust about how we would work together on this in 2022 and 2023.

We have looked at “Succession Planning” and one of our Directors, Sophie Bishop, has confirmed her interest in acting as Deputy Managing Director in the future. This proposal will be taken to our AGM in January 2022 for consideration.

Directors contribute voluntary time to all of our work which continues to demonstrate value for money and we have great feedback from our participants to inform our project evaluations.

We will build on our success and continue to provide much needed services for a range of older and less able people including those with long-term conditions, mental ill-health and sensory loss in the communities across the Tees Valley region and in addition we are looking at how we might work with organisations in other parts of the country.

Part 2 – Consultation with stakeholders

Working on our Lottery projects means we continue to communicate directly with a range of new and existing stakeholders in the community across the Tees Valley region, including volunteers who work with us. We have started to extend our network into the London area and are in contact with organisations and individuals linked to our work with people with sight loss.

We are planning to hold further discussion with a wide network of stakeholders to further the development of the “Discuss” game, however we have had to do this via social media and online meetings whilst the Covid restrictions apply. We will resume direct consultation with volunteers and consumers to improve the prototypes in response to feedback and to research technology to support the game as soon as we are able.

GFI has developed a wide business and professional network locally and nationally including new links made with Teesside University, businesses and charities in the region and the Greater London area, older and disabled people, young people and children with disabilities, families, friends and carers, students, Occupational Therapists and health and social care professionals

Pam Bennett - Managing Director November 2021

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Archive Reports

Copies of previous year's reports :

2020-2021

2016-2017