Chair’s Letter

WE’RE PROUD TO MAKE PLAYS AND CHANGE LIVES

We will all remember 2020/21 as a year when young people were amongst those worst impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and I am immensely proud of the work which Peer Productions undertook in this period to support all our beneficiaries – from our actors on the Peer Actor Development programme whose experience oscillated through the year from in person training to training fully by Zoom, to the young viewers of our work and participants in our outreach projects who all found themselves trapped in a world of online learning from home, and for whom, we at Peer pivoted to support with digital offerings. We were acutely aware of the challenges and difficulties to wellbeing through such isolation and we strove to play our part in providing support. I would like to pay testament to the ingenuity and hardwork of our staff and young volunteers who worked tirelessly, constantly innovating and learning new techniques to bring Digital Hidden to life using just 6 iPhone cameras, to make Digital Generation Girls a reality for our outreach participants and to film series 2 of our Online mini-series 50 Days: Alone Together. I couldn’t be prouder that the Children and Young People Now Awards recognised this hardwork and impactful creativity, with Generation Girls winning the The Young Relationship Award and Digital Hidden being shortlisted for the PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) Award. We also worked tenaciously this year to become a founding member of the new Surrey Wellbeing Partnership - a new alliance of providers changing the face of emotional wellbeing and mental health services for children and young people in Surrey. This is a new service, which came into effect on 1 April 2021, specifically designed to prevent the development of wellbeing issues and spot them early on when they do emerge. We are also immensely proud that, in our 15th year, Peer Productions now has a dedicated home in Woking, Peer Place. Our move at the end of summer 2021 opens up a vast array of exciting possibilities for the future which we will be developing further in the coming year. We hope this annual report helps you better understand who we are and what we do, as well as showcasing some of the highlights from this year. Despite the global challenges, during 2020/21 our financial position was broadly maintained as we delivered new and innovative digital projects and delivered those core projects which we were still able to do - our total net asset position remained healthy and we were able to maintain (in fact slightly improve) our reserves. We can only do what we do thanks to the generosity of those who support us, so however you helped Peer Productions during this year, thank you. On a personal note, I want to extend my thanks to Peer Productions’ Artistic Director, Nina Lemon and Managing Director, Ed Simpson, my fellow trustees, the staff of Peer Productions and our young peer educators for their incredible hard work which allowed the charity to evolve ever further in this year. With gratitude to all our funders & supporters. Best wishes,

MELANIE LAITHWAITE

Chair of the Board