Annual Report - Octopus Communities

Annual Report

Octopus Community Network

Caxton House

129 St John’s Way, Islington

London N19 3RQ

t: 020 7263 7095

www.octopuscommunities.org.uk

Registered Charity Number 1128394

Company Number 4490634

Pledge and Donate

Octopus is a registered charity and pro-actively seeks donations to make what we do amazing! If you can Pledge your spare time and expertise or Donate money you can make a massive impact!

Follow us on:

@OctopusCN #urbanwildplaces

@CCWeekUK #CCWeekUK

/ocn.islington

Funders and Supporters

Special thanks go out to all of those who financially supported us through our Spacehive crowdfundraising campaign, which enabled us to purchase our fantastic vintage milkfloat. This milkfloat is a mobile outdoor potting shed and classroom used by our Urban Wild Places team. BIG Thank YOU!

Directors and Trustees

Colin Adams, MBE Chair Paul Furze Treasurer Michael Ryan Trustee/Director Irene Winter Trustee/Director Lucy Bingham Trustee/Director

Staff and Freelance Team

Julie Parish Development Manager (Freelance)

Anita Gracie UWP Development Officer

Hilary Taylor UWP Development Officer

Sarah Kent UWP Development Officer

Ann Machette UWP Development Officer

Fran Box Project Assistant, Urban Wild Places

Rosie Apperley Projects Assistant

Uzma Ansari SWLW Development Officer, Health and Well-being

Maria Polcicova SWLW Development Officer, Health and Well-being

Franie Smith, UWP Development Officer

Volunteers

Special thanks this year to the following people whose time and dedication has been very much appreciated.

Catharine Christianson, Celia Burgess-Macey, Dorothy Boswell, Ruth Clarke, Laurel Hadleigh

Members of the Network

Caxton House Community Centre

Elizabeth House Blackstock Trust

Finsbury Park Community Hub (Andover Community Centre)

Hanley Crouch Community Association

Highbury Roundhouse Community Centre

Hilldrop Area Community Association

Holloway Neighbourhood Group (The Old Fire Station)

Hornsey Lane Estate Community Centre

Mildmay Community Centre Hub (Mildmay Community Partnership)

The Peel Community Centre (The Peel Institute)

St Luke’s Community Centre (St Luke’s Parochial Trust)

Whittington Park Community Centre

Muslim Welfare House 2016/2017

EAT WELL KEEP MOVING KEEP TALKING TAKE IT EASY THINK POSITIVE

Stay WELL, LIVE WELLChair’s

Report Needs

At the time of making our application to the Big Lottery Reaching Communities Fund, Islington was one of only two boroughs in London where the percentage of adult depression is higher than the national average. The borough was joint second for the number of adults and older people referred to specialist mental health services. Mental ill health among 5-17 year olds was estimated to be 36% higher than the national average. In terms of exercise, poor diet and poverty – the percentage of Islington residents participating in recommended levels of physical exercise was significantly worse than the national average: 17% being over-weight or obese; 27% of reception class children were considered obese. In older residents this translates to a higher percentage of those presenting with chronic heart disease and type2 diabetes.

ActivitiesHealth inequalities are preventable, so we aligned our Stay Well, Live Well project with Islington’s Health Inequality Strategy set out in ‘Closing the Gap’: Tackling Health Inequalities in Islington, by focusing on a range

of diverse activities delivered through six of our Network members, as follows:

Eat Well, Keep MovingKeep Talking, Take it Easy

Think Positive During the first year of the project we have spent time to help each of the six centres develop a strategic local plan and delivery plans for their local neighbourhood. This has helped focus attention on creating a delivery plan that reflects the needs of local residents, rather than delivering a ‘one size fits all’ approach. Importantly, services were being delivered ‘on the doorstep’, which was identified in our research as essential in tackling health inequalities and prevention.

StoriesIt was really important that the volunteers came from the communities we want to reach, so I went to local groups from about eight of our target communities to talk to people face to face about the project. I had a really positive reaction and our volunteers are now engaged and ready for action.

(SWLW team member)

Thanks, brilliant idea: we need so much more of this kind of thing rather than drugs.

(local GP)

When I am dealing with stressful situations, the class helps me to feel centered as well as keep me fit.

(participant)

ResultsSo far, some of our achievements are as follows:• 79 young people said that

they felt more empowered to seek appropriate support and as a result felt they were less socially isolated and could engage more in wider society.

• 11 young people said that they felt less anxious and depressed

• 332 older people said that they had increased their physical exercise resulting in weight loss and less visits to the GP/use of medical services

• 212 older people said that they felt less isolated and reported feeling happier as a result

• 158 vulnerable families said that they felt more empowered to tackle the health inequalities that they faced, with 50 families reporting that they had improved their lifestyles as a result, including 60 children reporting increased physical exercise and weight reduction.

Stay Well, Live Well

Chair Colin Adams, MBE

Learn

As in previous years, our focus this past year has been on building resilience, not only of Octopus as a charity in its own right, but also the network of multi-purpose community centres it coordinates.

Back in February 2017, through our Power to Change funding, much of what had been learnt from the initial stages of the Unlocking Networks programme was transferred to our network Away Day. During this Away Day we focused on agreeing an approach to how members can take more ownership of the network, for example.

We also reviewed our set of values and further defined our purpose, as follows:

Challenge and Innovation We challenge ourselves and others to do the best they can and find new ways to meet their needs with the resources they have.

Diversity and Ethical BehaviourWe celebrate diversity in people and in organisations and to do that well we need to do the right thing and not exploit or abuse others in the way they behave.

Effectiveness and FlexibilityWe do things for and with communities of all types and we aim to be effective in meeting needs and using resources whilst we do it. Being rigid puts people off so we are as flexible as we can be in all our work.

Openness and AccountabilityWe work with people so they need to know what we do and why we do it and have opportunities to change the way we do things – that is what being open and accountable is about to us.

Positive Proactivity We don’t just wait for things to happen and we don’t raise problems without thinking about solutions. Being negative drains people’s energy and stops them doing what they can. Waiting for others to do things means change does not happen – that is why we are positive and proactive within our organisation and when we work with others.

Responsiveness and Dignity We treat people with respect and take their circumstances seriously through discussion and understanding; that is why we respond to what people say about us and our work.

Trust and SupportivenessWe know that people need to trust us and each other to help them help themselves and we support them to do just that.

With these new values and a crisper purpose defined, I feel confident of our future collaborative work and the strength of the network to diversify and grow its membership.

Finally, I would like to thank Julie and the team (Anita, Hilary, Rosie) and welcome new members to the team Uzma, Fran and Frannie, for all their hard work, and determination, and of course, their commitment to community development in Islington.

Islington in Bloom

W CanGroweW

StoriesIn 2016, Octopus Community Network was successful in making an application to join 12 other peer network professionals to form a Community of Practice.

It was really interesting to see how Power to Change assessed our applications – applicants were asked to assess the applications of others, which was a real eye-opening approach. It was quite obvious from that point forward that this Unlocking Networks project was to be very different in its approach.

Julie Parish, Octopus

ResultsSo far, the seven principles have stimulated an interesting discussion within the Network and has had some good results in the Network, mainly reviewing its purpose and identity, which has informed a new set of values being agreed. We’re really excited about what will come out of this project, so already we’re looking forward to reporting the impact next year.

More information about the Unlocking Networks project can be found here:

www.unlockingnetworks.org/

ExchangeNeedsThe Unlocking Networks project is described as a ‘Hub for social movement-makers, community managers and local group leaders to unlock the power of successful peer networks’ So, why are peer networks so important? Power to Change found that 72% of community businesses work closely with other community businesses and 69% actively support the development of community businesses. That, and the feedback from community businesses at events helped

Power to Change better understand that peer networks are one of the most important forms of support a community business can get.

ActivitiesUnlocking Networks is focused on convening the Community of Practice to explore the Seven Principles of Network Development

1. Purpose and Identity2. Leadership and Decision Making3. People and Roles4. Value in Networks5. Supporting Networks6. Measuring Impact

7. Types of Networks

Unlocking Networks

NeedAs the most densely populated borough in London and with the second smallest area of green space per head, Islington needs to make the best use of every open space that it can. With gardening well recognised as an aid to health and wellbeing Islington has been keen to encourage more people to get outdoors and garden through the Islington in Bloom competition that brings local communities, groups, estates and residents together to make the borough a more beautiful place to live in.

ActivitiesFor the past five years Urban Wild Places and Wild Places before that has been working with the Octopus Community Hubs and local residents to create new community gardens where there were none, encourage more people into the parks and help people transform unloved spaces into places that people can be proud of. The Bloomin’ Gardeners, formed in partnership with Age UK from users of their Drovers Centre, transformed a dull area of amenity planting into a glorious, vibrant flower garden.

StoriesCommunity gardens at Hilldrop Community Centre and Holloway Neighbourhood Group, both created by the Wild Places project have been regular award winners in both Islington and London in Bloom competitions. The efforts of the Bloomin’ Gardeners were rewarded with a Silver Gilt Award in Islington in Bloom. More importantly, all these spaces have been turned into living, learning environments that can be shared and enjoyed by everyone.

ResultsIslington’s success in encouraging its communities to come together to create ever more beautiful community spaces has led to it achieving

successive Gold Awards in the London in Bloom large city competition. When the borough was invited to represent London in the Royal Horticultural Society’s prestigious Britain in Bloom competition it was a no brainer for us to join forces with the Council, focussing our newly funded We Can Grow project on improving unloved spaces on estates and encouraging their residents to come out and garden. Our project will be jointly launched with Islington in Bloom 2017 so watch this space for a new batch of awards.

Twitter follower increase from 2016 to 2017

500

450

400

350

300

Facebook ‘likes’ from 2016 to 2017

125

110

95

80

Illustrations by Freepik

Community Centre WeekWith Community Centre Week having been such a huge success in its first two years, we knew 2016

would be even better, and it did not disappoint. We decided to theme the week around the pop-up park, with the dates falling within Islington Council’s ‘Love Parks’ celebrations. As with previous years, we put together lots of information and ideas about the week, encouraging centres to take their activities outside, creating pop-up community centres!

Social media plays an important role in the CCWeek celebrations, and our engagement continues to increase, as more and more accounts get involved. We use #loveyourcc and encourage users to share the love for their community centres. This year

we had over 16,000 impressions on Twitter, as well as over 100 more followers than the previous year. There were also a number of blog posts written about the week, including those by Islington Life and Locality.

Community Centre Week exists in the real world too and lots of events took place across the country, as well as right here in Islington. Caxton House and Hornsey Lane held a pop-up picnic, which included a washing line of comments about why their users love their centres. Elizabeth House held their AGM at the beginning of the week, which was perfect timing to celebrate the centre, and Hilldrop had an Open Day, with a range of activities for the whole community. We also received pictures from events all over the country, from afternoon tea in Swindon, to a range of activities for young people in Devon.

As always we’d like to thank everyone who got involved in the week and shared the community centre love!

@CCWeekUK #loveyourcc

The financial year April 2016 to March 2017 has been another outstanding year for Octopus Community Network which has seen us continue to successfully work toward maximizing resources and collaborate on joint initiatives with a wide range of partners. We have continued to successfully develop and strengthen both existing and new projects.

We have been successful in securing funding from Islington Council until March 2020. With this VCS funding, we have continued to work directly with the 13 funded Strategic Neighbourhood Partners, formed by Community Hubs and Community Centres, helping to develop and direct the progress and expansion of the services the Network delivers, including impact monitoring, joint training for staff and volunteers, and identifying fundraising priorities.

We continue to work closely with our auditors to ensure our internal controls and financial monitoring are robust, including regular financial reporting to Directors. Following the development of our reserves policy, we have continued to build our reserves in order to cover our liabilities.

Our financial performance continues to be strong and during this financial year, we met our expenditure of £224,864 through a combination of grants, fees for services provided, donations from individuals and reserves brought forward from the previous year. The Directors are grateful to the funders and individuals for their continued support.

Treasurer’s Report Paul Furze, Treasurer

Income fromGrantsInvestment Income

Total

ExpenditureRaising FundsCharitable Activities

Total

Net incomeTransfer between FundsNet Movement in Funds

Total Funds brought forward

Total funds carried forward

Restricted Funds2017

£

289,640

289,640

143209,670

209,813

79,8271,374

81,201

77,043

158,244

Unrestricted Funds2017

£

28,95899

29,057

52514,526

15,051

14,006(1,374)12,632

31,600

44,232

TotalFunds2017

£

318,59899

318,697

668224,196

224,864

93,833

93,833

108,643

202,476

TotalFunds2016

£

154,621116

154,737

700128,456

129,156

25,581

25,581

83,062

108,643

community centre

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