OXFoRD HoUSE ANNUaL REVIEW: 2011-12
CONTENTS
About Us............... 4 INTRODUCTION...... 6 Our year 1. Community Hub............................ 8 2. Volunteering and Internships........ 10 3. Creative Arts................................. 12 4. Strenghtening the core................. 14 5. Legacy and all that........................ 16 Our finances....... 18 Thanks to............. 20 Contact Us........... 22 Admin...................... 22
ABOUT US Founded by Keble College, Oxford University in 1884 as part of the 19th Century Settlement movement Oxford House in Bethnal Green (but known simply as Oxford House) is now a thriving, independent, multi-purpose community and arts centre. Oxford House was established in 1884 as one of the first “settlement houses� where students and graduates from its founding body (Keble College, Oxford University), undertook a period of residential volunteering to learn first-hand about the problems of disadvantaged areas while providing practical support to the local community to ease the effects of urban deprivation. The charitable objects as set out in the current governing document are: (a) to provide a centre of religious, charitable, social and educational work among the poor of East London;
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(b) to undertake and carry on religious, charitable, social and educational work in London and elsewhere.
While there has been no formal change in the charity objects, Oxford House has interpreted its purposes through a more contemporary mission statement:
To be the place where community & voluntary sector groups, arts organisations, and social businesses come together to work, learn, explore, create and celebrate. Today Oxford House meets this mission through three main areas of work: 1. providing a community hub and managing a variety of office and venue space for the local community, charities and social enterprises
2. providing a volunteering and internship programme to tackle youth employability
3. providing an Arts Centre and programme of activities using a theatre, dance studio and art gallery
STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT Oxford House is governed by company directors (also known as trustees) within the meaning of charity law. Fergus Early is the current Chair of the board. John Ryan has been the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) since June 2008 and leads the staff team.
Oxford House believes it is important that our trustees reflect the diversity of the local community but also have the skills and expertise to govern the charity. A review of governance took place during the year. New trustees were recruited in Spring 2012, adding vital skills and experience to the board.
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INTRODUCTION 1. Message from the Chair 2011- 12 has been a tremendous year for Oxford House. It has been a year where we continued to develop our three strands of work: (1) as a community hub; (2) offering a programme of youth volunteering and internships opportunities and (3) providing a centre for the creative arts in East London. We have also continued to improve our financial position; finishing the year with a surplus despite the challenges of a difficult social and economic climate. Oxford House has again shown that there is a need for enterprising and imaginative organisations that help support community life. I should like to thank the staff, trustees, volunteers, funders and many partners who have contributed to making this a great year. Fergus Early OBE Chair
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2. Onward and upwards Wow! What a year. It is so difficult to summarise our year however three events symbolise this for me: 1. Developing a great partnership that led to the creation of our resident youth theatre: Y & T Rep Company. This successful partnership between Oxford House and Young & Talented Theatre School with funding from Esmee Fairbairn and the talents of some great young actors and technicians resulted in The Killing Class; a brand new play being showcased and the start of a new youth theatre. A panto is already planned for Christmas 2012. Oh yes it is! 2. Gaining external accreditation for being good at what we do. We are really pleased to have achieved the Charities Evaluation Service PQASSO quality mark in 2012. 3. Being enterprising and resourceful. We have managed to generate over 90% of our income from the building. Now, that’s what I call a social enterprise. Needless to say we are looking forward to 2013 and the challenges that await. The biggest of these will be investing in our infrastructure, especially in a wonderful but creaking Victorian building. Watch out for more news on this in 2013. In the meantime why don’t you pop in and visit us in the near future and see for yourself? John Ryan Chief Executive
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OUR YEAR The transition from being grant dependent continued with the charity generating over 90% of income for the building through imaginative community use. Other significant achievements during the year included:
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Welcomed over 50,000 visitors during the year
Ensured that over 90% of room hire was at an affordable rate to community groups, charities and social enterprises
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Offered accessible space for many different community uses and opened 51 weeks of the year and 7 days a week
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1. COMMUNITY HUB:
events
Saw an 8% increase in event bookings (2011/12 2,400 events, 2010/11 2,200 events)
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Provided over £10,000 worth of venue hire so that new and emerging groups without funds were able to run their events at Oxford House
Welcomed Unity Kitchensocial enterprise arm of the Camden Society - as the new operator of our café
a Offered a range of events & classes that met a variety of needs including performing arts, education and learning, advocacy, campaigning and religious groups
b
c
Hosted Civitas’ Sanaton Saturday School for primary and secondary pupils.
Organisations hiring Oxford House included corporate ‘away day’ (Adidas, BBC, Film London and Tower Hamlets Homes) and training days for national and local charities (National Childbirth Trust, Operation Black Vote, East London Business Place and Complete Works)
Increased the diversity of events and activities held at OH
Hosted visits to Oxford House from guests as far afield as New York University Settlement, New Zealand social action centres and the Oxford Student Hub
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OUR YEAR
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2. Volunteering and internships:
Provided approximately 12,300 hours of volunteering & work experience for young people (16 – 26) at an estimated value of £71,800
Secured funding from LB Tower Hamlets to develop the youth volunteering project
Rekindled a relationship with Goldsmith’s College Youth & Community work course and hosted a work placement student Appointed a new Youth Volunteer Project worker, Refeia Begum
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Continued to develop partnerships with other training providers and offered work experience opportunities to City Gateway and the Tower Project
Created a work experience project with London Painting Company and their painting and decorating apprentices who are engaged in a major redecoration of Oxford House where OH buys the materials and apprentices are trained and supervised
Continued to develop our work with the Student Hubs movement and offered a summer internship to a current undergraduate
Provided much needed free space to young people from somewhereto_ (an Olympic legacy project). Highlights included a showcase by young people in March 2012 in the theatre and gallery.
Attended Keble College, Oxford, Internship Fayre to promote volunteering at OH
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OUR YEAR
3. Creative Arts: During the year we continued to develop Oxford House as a creative arts hub. Approximately half of our tenants are arts organisations working in different areas of the arts as diverse as dance, performance, combined arts, Somali arts and arts PR. We offered a portfolio of work using our mixed arts spaces – studio theatre, gallery and dance studio. Our programme of work included our first Open Show, hosting a range of visiting companies and providing rehearsal space for emerging artists. Significant progress was also made developing creative partnerships with resident arts companies.
PERFORMING Arts: > OH developed an exciting partnership with Suzann MacLean, from Young & Talented Theatre School to encourage performing arts at OH Theatre. > OH secured funding from Esmee Fairbairn to develop the Young and Talented Rep Co (a theatre company for young people between 14 - 19) that produced their first stage show in August 2012. > Resident dance company, Green Candle, ran a week long intergenerational dance project, “Threads”, based on Bethnal Green’s rich history. > Welcomed new theatre companies including Graeae Theatre Company, Bangla Brigade, Outside Edge Theatre Company, East End Shed and Complete Works Theatre Company. > Hosted the annual East London Pride event and the ever popular Somali Arts Week.
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VISUAL Arts: Curated a range of visual arts programmes in the gallery space throughout the year that included: > The first ‘Oxford House Open Show’ that proved very popular with over 70 people exhibiting. > Contribution towards the Open Show from the Cooperative Community Fund. > Photo Month double show with the Control collective and 4 Amigos. > New Hanbury Project’s show of work created by clients. > Kerry Simons Welcome to Dreamland & A life without leisure! Oh what to do?. > Intersection – a joint photography show by Jon Spencer and Oliver Woods. > Secured a grant from Awards for All for an intergenerational photography project that exhibited during August 2012. 13
OUR YEAR
4. Strengthening the core :
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quality mark accreditation
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PQASSO
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As well as developing our three strands of work we also concentrated on strengthening the core of the organisation. This has been a crucial step towards our future sustainability. We have made excellent progress. In particular:
Secured the PQASSO level accreditation in March 2012
Increased spending on building maintenance and completed repairs to boilers
Secured a 2 year grant from Esmee Fairbairn Foundation towards core costs
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Developed and improved our marketing and communications:
Refreshed the Oxford House website
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Created a monthly E-newsletter
Created Oxford House Facebook page, Twitter, Flickr & Pinterest presence
96% would recommend OH to others
92% rated their overall venue/booking experience as very good /good
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Introduced a new satisfaction survey for users that showed very high levels of satisfaction including specific comments that:
90% were very satisfied / satisfied that OH provided value for money
Developed Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) relationships with:
Sandaire donated much needed office furniture for our Admin Office
Allen & Overy provided pro bono legal property advice and donated IT equipment
University of Oxford and Keble College
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OUR YEAR
5. IMPACT and all that... 2012 onwards will be seen as sparking years of legacy for East London following the London 2012 Olympic Games. Oxford House is an example of how legacy works in practice and provides insights into how sustainable development might work. A clear vision, great governance and management and support from the local community will be essential to this. As Oxford House approaches its 130th anniversary in 2014 the challenge of being relevant to community life focuses our efforts. Our work from 2012 onwards will centre on developing the three strands of our work – providing a community hub, offering solutions to youth employability and being a hub for the creative arts. To help us achieve this we are refreshing our business plan and developing our ideas to build the capacity of Oxford House. Part of this will be the identification and securing of resources to invest in the building and staff/volunteers. We will complete our first Impact Report to help us assess how well we are doing in meeting our objectives.
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developing three strands of our work providing a
being a hub for the
community hub
creative arts
offering solutions to
youth employability to help us achieve this
refresh our
BUSINESS PLAN
develop our ideas to
build the capacity OF OH
will complete our first
IMPACT REPORT to help us asses how well we are doing in meeting our objectives 17
OUR FINANCES
2012
total:
2011
total:
£383,054
2012
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100
150
£28,328 £5,454
2011
SURPLUS
£
£399,505 0
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INCOME
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Oxford House generated income for the year to 31 March 2012 of £383,054 (2011: £399,505). Expenditure decreased from £404,959 in 2011 to £354,726 in the year ended 31 March 2012. Overall the net surplus of income over expenditure for the year ended 31 March 2012 amounted to £28,328 (2011: £5,454 deficit). Underlying this figure is an unrestricted surplus of £45,648.
deficit
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2012
2011
EXPENDITURE total:
£354,726
£404,959
200 250 300 350 400 450
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THANKS TO
OH TRUSTEES Helen Hughes Fergus Early Linda Kaur Hafiz Jafferji Paul O’ Brien
Mark Newton Rebecca Clarkson Beverley Vara Saffron Woodcraft Josh Spero
Deborah Crow Liane Hartley Louise Alexander Michael Judge Cllr. Sirajal Islam
Christine Lee Lee Richefond Annie Gao
Evelyn Maison Jean Phillips Refeia Begum
Judd Ryan Rachel Irwin Zoe Michelle Shannon Walsh Rima Begum Bruno Falabella Rebecca Rosington Saidul Islam Sayeed Islam Eva Carmona Katie Hendricks Muhammed Hammam Khan
Rifa Begum Afjal Hussain Lim Siong Murshed Ahmed Sakib Hussain Musa Alam Angela Wang Nazmin Akther Nazmin Rafique Ema Khatun
OH STAFF John Ryan Baz Browne Anisa Khanom Enus Ali
OH VOLUNTEERS Tom Powter Matthew Stacey Giovanni Raso Jessica Jockisch Becky Shaw Louise Moss Bansi Ruparelia Michelle Kalu Majeda Begum Tessa Mo Octavian Starr Malaika Clements
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PARTNERS Green Candle Dance Somewhereto_ City Gateway
Young & Talented London Painting Company Keble College
TENANTS based AT OXFORD HOUSE Language of Dance Centre Monsoon Press Stand not Amazed The Basque Society Kayd Somali Arts dANTE OR dIE Theatre Green Candle Dance Company Shared Assets Phoenix Community Housing Co-operative East London Asian Family Counselling Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement British Union of Spiritist Societies Asylum Support Appeals Project Play Association Tower Hamlets
Kazzum Silsila Productions Tower Hamlets College The Camden Society Positive Care Link Hestia Housing & Support Mpensi People’s Project Zimbabwe Association Pearl Advertising UK Charles Harrison Associates
FUNDERS Esmee Fairbairn Foundation LB. Tower Hamlets Big Lottery Fund – Awards for All
Capacity Builders Co-operative Community Fund
This Annual Review was designed by Maite Otondo, a Graphic Design Intern at Oxford House. maite.otondo@gmail.com 21
CONTACT US CEO
John Ryan
Phone
0207 739 9001
info@oxfordhouse.org.uk
Address
Oxford House, Derbyshire Street, Bethnal Green, London, E2 6HG
Website
www.oxfordhouse.org.uk
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Oxford-House/205629787434 Twitter
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FLICKR
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Pinterest http://pinterest.com/oxfordhouse/
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Oxford House in Bethnal Green Oxford House | Derbyshire Street | London E2 6HG Company N˚: 59858 Charity N˚: 208582
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