Chair’s Report for Red Kite AGM 2022

2021-2022 has been a challenging year for the entire Charity Sector and Red Kite in particular. This has occurred within a global, national and local context. Funds have been repurposed towards Covid 19 recovery and easing the burden of war on the people of Ukraine. The impacts of these factors have been felt across the whole Charity Sector but more acutely by those not working directly with those who are facing food or fuel shortages. The cost-of-living crisis and the impending recession have been worsened by the recent political upheaval and the full impacts of Brexit being felt as evidenced by the shrinking economy and the erosion of the Countries wealth.

At Red Kite we have accepted that we are being expected to do more with less whilst maintaining financial stability within the constrictions of targeted funding which we are expected to achieve and report on. Our growth is contingent on Red Kite receiving unrestricted funding which allows us to direct our resources to areas of greatest need.

We are immensely proud of all Red Kite Volunteers without whom we could not exist. We are grateful to the Board for setting the strategic direction and maintaining good governance and stewardship of our organisation. Our thanks our Charity Administrator who acts as a first point of contact for most of our external and internal communications.

We are thankful to our suppliers Dizions who provide our customer records management system, ITTSIE who set up and support our IT and Be Creative who host and update our website, as a donation in kind. We are grateful to Simon Walters from The Princes Responsible Business Network for introducing us to industry experts who have provided advice on media and marketing, fundraising (including bid writing) and human resources processes.

We are especially grateful to all our funders, both individual doners and grant funders without whom we could not exist. We are pleased to receive pennies from children during Awareness Raising events and sponsorship for Charity Walks because every penny helps. We have received very generous donations from the Women’s Institute and the Ash Valley Quilters in return for awareness raising talks. We are also grateful to the people who came forward and volunteered their time to host quizzes and run dance demonstrations for us.

We also want to commend all whose with whom we collaborate including Women of Grace (Female Genital Mutilation CIC), Citizens Advice, Mental Health Services, CRI Drug and Alcohol Service and the Healthy Hubs because we are stronger together.

We also want to highlight our Recovery Service Therapists who work with our clients, to enable them to heal from their trauma, and walk with them on their recovery journeys. They contribute their expertise, and accept less than the going rate, to treat Red Kite clients. We offer a hybrid model of service, and our therapists frequently see Red Kite clients in their own consulting rooms at no cost. This allows more clients to benefit.

Through all these measures, we are currently able to convert 97p in every £1 raised into direct client services.

We have recently been fortunate in having been awarded a package of support by the Lloyds Banking Foundation and we are excited and grateful to be given the opportunity to work with their recommended industry experts to enable us to grow as an organisation and strengthen our presence and brand amongst all the communities served.

In line with the new Health Commissioning arrangements, we have agreed to chance our boundaries to include West Essex. As well as aligning with commissioning our main drivers for this development was the feedback, we received from visitors to our stall in Jackson Square, Bishop’s Stortford which we had every Saturday afternoon for a year. Each week we would have at least 2-3 visitors who told us of their failure to get any service from Essex services which appear to be totally overwhelmed by referrals.

As an independent Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Service Red Kite can set it’s own perimeters for service provision and is not bound by the conventions of either Rape Crisis or the Survivors Trust. We also have as one of our values that people who present asking for help to recover from their trauma of sexual violence should be able to access that help immediately and not be put to the end of a long waiting list. This was another driver for our decision.

We are proud of our strengthening links with the School of Law and Criminology at the University of Hertfordshire with whom we co-hosted a weeklong Exhibition called ‘What You Were Wearing’ (when you were raped or sexually assaulted) at the Main University Campus last November. The vignettes were provided by Red Kite. The exhibition was accompanied by a

series of lectures and masterclasses surrounding the topic of rape and sexual abuse delivered by the University. We intend to stage this exhibition again in Spring 2023 in the Howard Centre, Welwyn Garden City on a larger scale thanks to a grant from Welwyn & Hatfield Community Fund.

Red Kite have been privileged to participate with the University of Herts in the Review of Sentencing Guidelines for Judges and in workshops to educate Judges and Crown Prosecutors in how adversely their treatment of victims of sexual violence is affecting the successful prosecutions. We are amongst a small number of organisations who are selected to participate in reviews of various topics regarding sexual violence and the review of the Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy (2021). We are currently participating in the Hertfordshire County Council review of the implementation of the Strategy locally.

We are also grateful for the growing association we have with University College London and as a direct result of this collaboration Red kite has gained a Helpline Volunteers and three trainees and two Honorary Psychology Assistants for a year.

Our priority for the coming year is to maintain Red Kite on a steady financial footing, to grow the organisation in a sustainable manner to ensure the services are there for all who need them. We also want to ensure that our Helpline is open and available every day 365 days per year and all callers get a response to their enquiries withing 24 hours of contacting us.