OXFORD HOUSE ANNUAL REVIEW: 2011-12

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

CONTENTS

4

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:

(b) to undertake and carry on religious, charitable, social and educational work in London and elsewhere.

(a) to provide a centre of religious, charitable, social and educational work among the poor of East London;

5

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

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.

stRuCtuRe, GoVeRNANCe AND mANAGemeNt

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.

6

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 OBEChair

7

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 RyanChief Executive

8

£10,000

over

of v

enue

hire

£10,000

over

of v

enue

hire

50,000vi

sitor

saf

ford

able

Offered accessible space for many different community uses and opened 51 weeks of the year and 7 days a week

mon - sun

Ensured that over 90% of room hire was at an affordable rate to community groups, charities and social enterprises

Saw an 8% increase in event bookings (2011/12 2,400 events, 2010/11 2,200 events)

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 Kitchen- social enterprise arm of the Camden Society - as the new operator of our café

Welcomed over 50,000 visitors during the year

events

OUR YEARThe 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:

1. CommuNIty hub:

9

Increased the diversity of events and activities held at OH

Organisations hiring Oxford House included corporate ‘away day’ (Adidas, BBC, Film London and Tower HamletsHomes) and training days for national and local charities (National Childbirth Trust, Operation Black Vote, East London Business Place and Complete Works)

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

Offered a range of events & classes that met a variety of needs including performing arts, education and learning, advocacy, campaigning and religious groups

Hosted Civitas’ Sanaton Saturday School for primary and secondary pupils.

ab c

10

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

Continued to develop partnerships with other training providers and offered work experience opportunities to City Gateway and the Tower Project

Appointed a new Youth Volunteer Project worker, Refeia Begum

£71,800

12,300ho

urs

OUR YEAR

11

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

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.

Continued to develop our work with the Student Hubs movement and offered a summer internship to a current undergraduate

Attended Keble College, Oxford, Internship Fayre to promote volunteering at OH

12

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.

3. CReAtIVe ARts:

OUR YEAR

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.

13

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.

14

@

Secured the PQASSO level accreditation in March 2012

Secured a 2 year grant from Esmee Fairbairn Foundation towards core costs

Developed and improved our marketing and communications:

Refreshed the Oxford House website

Created a monthly E-newsletter

Created Oxford HouseFacebook page, Twitter,Flickr & Pinterest presence

Increased spending on building maintenance and completed repairs to boilers

4. stReNGtheNING the CoRe :

OUR YEAR

As well as developing our three strands of work wealso concentrated on strengthening the core of theorganisation. This has been a crucial step towards ourfuture sustainability. We have made excellent progress.In particular:

££

£

££

£2 y

ear

gran

t

pQAssoaccreditationquality mark

15

909296

Introduced a new satisfaction survey for users that showed very high levels of satisfaction including specific comments that:

Developed Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) relationships with:

96% would recommend OH to others

92% rated their overall venue/booking experience as very good /good

90% were very satisfied /satisfied that OH provided value for money

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

96 92 90

16

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.

5. ImpACt AND All thAt...

OUR YEAR

17

providing a

CommuNIty hub

refresh our

busINess plAN

develop our ideas to

buIlD the CApACIty of oh

will complete our first

to help us asses how well we are doing in meeting our objectives

ImpACt RepoRt

developing three strands of our work

to help us achieve this

youth employAbIlIty

offering solutions to

being a hub for the

CReAtIVe ARts

18

INC

om

e2

01

1

£399,505total:

20

12

£41,204

gran

ts£25,0

20

dona

tions

£316,830

rent

al in

com

e

£41,204

rest

ricte

d

£341,850

unre

stric

ted

£383,054total:

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450

OUR FINANCES

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.

-10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30

20

12

20

11

£28,328

deficit£5,454

su

Rp

lu

s

19

eX

pe

ND

Itu

Re

20

11

£404,959total:

20

12

£5,150

gove

rnan

ce co

sts

£210,780

prov

ision

of c

omm

unity

faci

litie

s and

serv

ices

£81,785

rent

al e

xpen

ditu

re

£57,011

rest

ricte

d

£297,715

unre

stric

ted

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450

£354,726total:

20

THANKS TO

Helen HughesFergus EarlyLinda KaurHafiz JafferjiPaul O’ Brien

Mark NewtonRebecca ClarksonBeverley VaraSaffron WoodcraftJosh Spero

Deborah CrowLiane HartleyLouise AlexanderMichael JudgeCllr. Sirajal Islam

oh tRustees

Evelyn MaisonJean PhillipsRefeia Begum

John RyanBaz BrowneAnisa KhanomEnus Ali

Christine LeeLee RichefondAnnie Gao

oh stAff

Tom PowterMatthew StaceyGiovanni RasoJessica JockischBecky ShawLouise MossBansi RupareliaMichelle KaluMajeda BegumTessa MoOctavian StarrMalaika Clements

Judd RyanRachel IrwinZoe MichelleShannon WalshRima BegumBruno FalabellaRebecca RosingtonSaidul IslamSayeed IslamEva CarmonaKatie HendricksMuhammed Hammam Khan

Rifa BegumAfjal HussainLim SiongMurshed AhmedSakib HussainMusa AlamAngela WangNazmin AktherNazmin RafiqueEma Khatun

oh VoluNteeRs

21

Esmee Fairbairn Foundation LB. Tower Hamlets Capacity BuildersBig Lottery Fund – Awards for All Co-operative Community Fund

fuNDeRs

Green Candle Dance Young & Talented Somewhereto_ London Painting CompanyCity Gateway Keble College

pARtNeRs

teNANts bAseD At oXfoRD house

Language of Dance Centre Monsoon Press Kazzum Stand not Amazed The Basque Society Silsila ProductionsKayd Somali Arts dANTE OR dIE Theatre Tower Hamlets CollegeGreen Candle Dance Company Shared Assets The Camden SocietyPhoenix Community Housing Co-operative Positive Care LinkEast London Asian Family Counselling Hestia Housing & Support Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement Mpensi People’s ProjectBritish Union of Spiritist Societies Zimbabwe Association Asylum Support Appeals Project Pearl Advertising UKPlay Association Tower Hamlets Charles Harrison Associates

This Annual Review was designed by Maite Otondo, a Graphic Design Intern at Oxford House. maite.otondo@gmail.com

22

bethNAl GReeN

shoReDItCh hIGh stReet

lIVeRpool stReet

olD stReet bethNAl GReeN

CONTACT US

bANkeRsNatWest Bank Plc, East London Business Centre, Gredley House, 1/11 Broadway, Stratford, London, E15 4BQCharity Bank Limited, 194 High Street, Tonbridge TN9 1BE

ADmIN

CEO John Ryan

PhOnE 0207 739 9001

Email 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 https://twitter.com/oxhse

FliCkr http://www.flickr.com/photos/oxfordhousebg/

PintErEst http://pinterest.com/oxfordhouse/

23

stRAtfoRDolympic park

bethNAl GReeN RD

Weavers Field

bEthnal GrEEn

bEthnal GrEEn

VA

ll

AN

Ce

RD

DuNbRIDGe st

CA

mb

RID

Ge

he

At

h R

D

AuDItoRshaysmacintyre Fairfax House, 15 Fulwood Place, London WC1V 6AY

solICItoRs Russell-Cooke LLP, 8 Bedford Row, London WC1R 4BX

Oxford House in Bethnal GreenOxford House | Derbyshire Street | London E2 6HGCompany N˚: 59858 Charity N˚: 208582 VAT N˚: 752 0306 67