The Harpenden Trust's 2023 AGM was held on Tuesday, 17 October.
A significant aspect of more recent years has been the story of how the Harpenden Trust responded in such a magnificent way to the global pandemic and related lockdowns, as over 500 local people stepped forward to support our Harpenden community. That is now (hopefully) largely behind us, but during these last 12 months we have witnessed no slowdown in the Trust’s work and activity levels, quite the reverse in fact. As circumstances change and evolve: from the horrific war in the Ukraine, to the growing domestic cost of living crisis, to the increasing recognition of many individuals’ personal challenges around their mental health & overall wellbeing; the Trust continues to seek to respond to the resulting growing local needs and challenges.
Our purpose
We remain focused on our core purpose - supporting those in need across our local community.
For the last 75 years, since our formation in 1948, the Harpenden Trust has sought to be a source of local support for anyone across our Harpenden community who needs help – whatever their age, whatever their background. So often, a small amount of local practical support can make a big difference. The simple underlying principle behind the Trust is being that good neighbour. To local people, the Trust offers that degree of readily accessible, practical support – either accessing our range of core services and activities, or by the Trust signposting people towards relevant local expertise where they can find the support or advice they need.
Rising to local challenges
Our Care Fund and our Community Fund both continue to support individuals and local organisations in many ways.
The Care Fund, with the support of so many volunteers and the financial resources generated from the annual Christmas Appeal, and supplemented by generous legacies over many years, continues to operate its programme of Home Visits offering support to those who seek our help. This is alongside the increasingly popular Tuesday and Thursday weekly Tea and Coffee mornings (with over 60 attendees last week); the regular Seniors’ Outings; the various organised Family Outings; the Christmas Parcels delivered to over 100 local residents generating a little additional Christmas cheer; grants for those in most financial need to assist with utilities payments or for educational expenses; and transportation to Trust events. The Care Fund has experienced an ever-increasing number of local people approaching it, maybe in part reflecting the growing awareness of everything the Trust does.
Our more recent Wellbeing initiative has continued to develop at some considerable pace. The partnership with our three local GP surgeries and Mind in Mid Herts, which was the genesis of the “Harpenden Wellbeing Hub”, is now increasingly visible across the town: from the Frazzled Café (providing a safe confidential and non-judgemental environment for people who are feeling overwhelmed with the stresses of modern life) - to the Memory Lane Café (welcoming people with dementia and a family member, friend or carer every Monday afternoon) - to the Arts on Prescription programme (as increasing evidence emerges that the arts have an important contribution to make to health and wellbeing) - to coaching sessions to help individuals move their lives forward. These are just four of the increasingly varied and growing initiatives we have in place. Our long-standing Befriending service, offering companionship to anyone who seeks it, also continues to grow and thrive, now reaching out to approaching 100 local residents.
The Community Fund continues to access the financial reserves built up since 2008 following the endowment the Trust received from Abbeyfield. Alongside many local projects and support for local charities, the Community Fund’s contribution to outdoor facilities at various local Harpenden schools over the last year has been a highly visible sign of the Community Fund’s continued great work and contribution to the local community.
Over the last twelve months our focus has also been on ensuring our support reaches some of our younger residents across the local community: this has included funding and supporting the Stormbreak initiative to improve child mental health, which has been rolled out across eight primary schools in Harpenden. We are equally delighted to be working in partnership with Youth Talk, the St Albans based free and confidential counselling service for 13 to 25 year olds, establishing this year a presence in Harpenden by launching a new pilot to provide group counselling services.
This last year we have also responded to some other very specific needs. We are now working in partnership with the Harpenden Library to provide volunteers to keep the Library service open on Wednesday afternoons. Libraries are often at the heart of local communities - a warm space where anyone can go to read, borrow, learn, access information or get online. We have continued to offer assistance to Ukrainian refugees housed across the Harpenden area. And, of course, Vaccination Centre support has also continued in support of our GPs surgeries, with Covid and flu vaccination rollout programmes at various times.
Determined to do more
I am sure we all recognise that there is a real need for every community to have affordable spaces for local clubs and organisations to meet and thrive. We were therefore delighted to announce in January this year the acquisition of the Methodist Church Halls’ lease in Southdown, ensuring that this valuable community resource remains available and accessible to the Harpenden community for many more years to come. The combination of the Southdown Halls (directly above the Co-Op store at No.130a Southdown Road) and our existing Harpenden Trust Centre (at No.90 Southdown Road) means that the Trust now has a total of five large halls for hire, ranging from 300sqft to over 1,500sqft.
Indeed, our halls have never been busier: in the just over nine months of the current calendar year, we now have 31 regular local hirers (running 53 classes per week), 2 regular community based hirers, we have held 38 children’s parties and also 6 ad-hoc more random hires (from a Flamenco charity fundraiser, to acting as a Polling Station).
We are excited that the building also provides the Trust itself with some of the additional space required to support both our existing and also other planned future community initiatives. One real highlight has been the “Well Bean Community Café”, staffed by Trust volunteers, which opened at No.130 in June. Offering a coffee, a cake, a chat (or all three), it is free of charge to all, so importantly wholly accessible to everyone (as we are accepting donations only). The Café is open every weekday between 10.30 and 12.30. A very special word of thanks here to the volunteers who have put so much time into this and the building, and without whom all this could never have happened so swiftly. And I must also thank both local artist Rory Browne and the students of St Georges School, whose Art Department have collaborated with the Trust to establish a rolling exhibition of student’s work for all visitors to the Well Bean Café to enjoy, showcasing some really fabulous local creative talent. It’s a really wonderful space.
We have already been able to offer other local charities space in the building free of charge, sometimes also utilising the café. The Ribbon Cancer Support Group that we are supporting has already begun meeting in the building together with MIND Drop-in-Games, PCN Yoga, PD Buddies and Charlotte White counselling. More initiatives will follow once the extensive refurbishment programme at No.130 is completed and we really look forward to welcoming everyone to our expanded space.
Separately, in response to various conversations and requests, the Trust is also excited to be taking possession of a new 16 seater minibus later on this year – we hope! The Harpenden Trust Community Minibus will be made available to any local Harpenden community group (whether a school, society, sports team, church or any other local group or organisation) to enable such groups far greater flexibility in expanding their offering to local residents.
Thanking everyone
To our Volunteers, our Partners, our Funders and our long-standing Supporters - these last twelve months have yet again truly been a most fabulous team effort.
Firstly, to our amazing volunteers. What can I say! The Harpenden Trust is a voluntary organisation, everyone giving so generously of their time and their experience in support of the Trust, wholly free of charge. The Harpenden Trust simply could not achieve all that it does without the kindness and generosity of all its many, many volunteers - over 500 local people again during this last year! The Trust is such a collective team effort – and I would hope it is also an equally rewarding organisation to be part of, especially as one experiences the positive impact we have witnessed across so many local people’s lives.
At times, a simple “Thank you”, two very simple words that we say time after time, feels somewhat inadequate. However, my Chair’s Statement is my formal opportunity each year to thank more formally everyone who has been able to assist so many individuals, families, charities and organisations across our local community. Everyone has played their part – from all my colleagues on the main Trust Board; to the members of the Care Fund and Community Fund Committees; to the members of the various related sub-Committees and teams that volunteer in all these areas; to those who have established the Harpenden Wellbeing Hub and all the many related Wellbeing initiatives; to those who now form the new Property Team and Facilities Team as our expanded footprint in Southdown starts to take shape; to the over 30 Well Bean Café volunteer Barristas enabling the Well Bean Café to open every weekday morning free of charge to any local resident seeking a coffee or a chat; to the Trust Office teams answering the phones each day, and those arranging the hall bookings; to the Care Fund Home Visitor teams - whose work is so often and necessarily anonymous and hidden from plain sight; to all those so kindly befriending local residents; to those members of the Audit, Risk and Governance Committee and Investment Committee who carefully monitor and oversee our assets and governance; to the Trust's annual Christmas Appeal team, involving Area Organisers and so many individual Street Collectors; to all the volunteers at the Harpenden Library, to the Minibus Team seeking to provide additional resources to benefit local groups and local organisations; to the volunteers continuing to assist at our GP surgery vaccination centres; to the External Affairs team building awareness of the Trust’s work through our fabulous six-monthly Newsletters and our various media channels; and indeed to everyone else who has made such a difference to the Harpenden Trust over the course of the last year. Thank you everyone.
A special thank you also to the residents of Harpenden who support our Christmas Appeal each year, with such generosity. The Harpenden Trust’s Christmas Appeal is an incredibly important source of revenue for the Care Fund – and this year’s total funds raised of over £60,000 served yet again to highlight the kindness and generosity local people have for their neighbours in Harpenden.
And thank you also to our many valued partners. We are increasingly working with both national and local partners to assist in amplifying their work across our town.
· National valued partners include us working …
o with Macmillan, we have partnered to help establish the Ribbon Cancer Support group locally;
o with Parkinsons UK & Everyone Active, we have partnered to help establish PD Buddies locally;
o with Frazzled and Ruby Wax, we have partnered to help establish Harpenden’s very own Frazzled Café.
· And our more local valued partners, we are working for example …
o with our three local GP surgeries and MIND in Mid Herts, we have partnered to establish the overall Harpenden Wellbeing Hub;
o with the Harpenden Town Council and the Salvation Army, we have partnered to help establish the Memory Lane Café every Monday afternoon - a place for anyone living with dementia and their loved ones to enjoy a cup of tea and a piece of cake in an understanding, relaxed environment; alongside a varied programme of activities and entertainment;
§ and also now more recently broadening this out alongside the local Clover Singing Group and Sir John Laws School to form Harpenden’s Intergenerational Choir.
o with Rennie Grove Peace, we are partnering and in the process of opening a Compassionate Cafe – an open invitation twice a month for anyone locally who has been affected by bereavement or any type of loss to have a friendly chat and a chance to meet others.
And yes, we have more plans into the coming year. We would thank all our national and our local valued partners – as together I believe we are amplifying each others’ work and making a real positive tangible difference across our local community.
And to my fellow Trustees : I would like to thank my colleagues and fellow Board members who have worked tirelessly throughout the year. There have been no new appointments during the year, but I would like to single out Terry Heritage this evening, who joined the Harpenden Trust as a Director between June 2007 and October 2016, stepping on to be our President. Terry has decided it is time to step down as the Trust’s President this evening, at the conclusion of this AGM. Terry has taken on the role of President elect for Rotary and steps up to be President there in 2024. On behalf of all those who have worked with Terry, and those whom she has supported over the years – a huge thank you on behalf of us all.
Personally, it has been a huge privilege over the last year continuing to work alongside so many wonderful local people, supporting local residents across our local Harpenden community. If we are going to make the world a better place, why not start in our own local corner.
Thank you everyone for the extraordinary kindness shown by so many; for everyone’s generosity with their time; for the continued fun, laughter and friendships built along the way. It has been another year when the Trust has truly lived up to its founding principles.
I would like to close with one final thought. There is a famous quote, attributed to various people over the years, that reads:
“They may forget what you said –
they may forget exactly what you did –
but they will never forget how you made them feel”.
To my fellow volunteers and our many valued partners – thank you for being that good neighbour, who this last year has made someone locally, feel that bit better.
Thank You.
Richard Nichols, Chairman
18 October 2023
