On 28 November, we welcomed members, guests, staff and volunteers to our 2024 Annual General Meeting (AGM).
This first part of our 2024 Annual General Meeting (AGM) started with the formal business section where we asked our Full Members in attendance to vote on the following items:
Approval of Trustees’ Report and Financial Statements 2023-24
We are pleased to confirm that the Full Members in attendance approved our York CVS Trustees’ Report and Financial Statements 2023-24.
Trustee Elections
We are delighted that our Full Members in attendance voted to elect Shamim, Kallum and Katy to the York CVS Board. You can read more about their reasons for joining our Board in the linked papers below.
- Shamim Eimaan – Trustee Election Form
- Kallum Taylor – Trustee Election Form
- Katy Ridsdill-Smith – Trustee Election Form
Special Resolution – Amendment to Articles of Association
Full Members in attendance approved the changes to objects as outlined in the following document: Special Resolution 2024 AGM – Amendment to Articles of Association.
A huge THANK YOU to our outgoing Chair
This was David Harbourne’s last AGM as Chair of York CVS. Alison shared a special thank you video which included comments and videos from staff and trustees thanking David for his wisdom, kindness, patience and leadership. We are so grateful that David walked into the York Volunteer Fair at the Priory Street Centre all those years ago and joined our Board!
David will remain on our Board for the next few months as we transition to our new Chair, Lee Probert.
The Role of the VCSE sector in Police, Fire and Crime
We welcomed Jo Coles, York and North Yorkshire Deputy Mayor for Policing, Fire and Crime as our guest speaker. Jo spoke about the sector’s intelligence in knowing our community’s needs, how we maximise added value and how our partnerships and connections are vital to supporting our communities.
Jo emphasised that York’s VCSE sector is a crucial partner to the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority, and that there is a lot to be learned from our agility and our fast response to supporting the changing needs of our communities.
The public consultation to identify the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority’s key priorities for the next four years closed at the beginning of November. The findings will be shared shortly, but you can find out more about the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority via their website linked below.
Celebrating our impact during 2023-24
Our Chief Executive, Alison Semmence highlighted our key achievements and showcased Our Impact Report 2023-24.
Alison shared more about our grant giving partnership and activities. During 2023-24 we were able to distribute £345k to 40 community projects in York!
- £88k was awarded through the Ways to Wellbeing Small Grants Fund from the Better Care Fund, City of York Council Public Health.
- 250k was awarded through the Community Mental Health Transformation Grant Fund on behalf of York Mental Health Partnership and the Connecting Our City partnership.
- We supported 24 community groups through our grass roots project and distributed funding totalling £5,369 to 11 community groups.
- We also managed a small pot of funding from our national membership body NAVCA (National Association for Voluntary and Community Action) which allowed us to award £1,000 to 5 organisations.
The funds are helping VCSE organisations in York to support people to connect; reducing loneliness and isolation, reducing health inequalities, and supporting people with serious mental illness with a focus on prevention and early intervention and addressing the cost of living crisis.
Social Prescribing at York CVS
Social Prescribing continues to be a really important area of our work and is making an incredible difference to people’s lives in York.
Loneliness is one of the biggest concerns that our Social Prescribers support patients with, whether this is the reason for the initial referral, or it is an underlying issue causing other problems leading to referral.
Our Ways to Wellbeing project supported 242 people in hundreds of different ways through the pain sailing group, craft groups, individual support and through the Frailty Advice and Information Hub. The impact from the work of the Ways to Wellbeing team saw:
- 97% of respondents felt more able to manage their health and wellbeing since working with their social prescriber.
- Only 9% said they would have made the changes necessary to improve their lives without the support of the Social Prescriber.
During 2023-24 the Primary Care Link Workers received over 4000 patient referrals from members of staff working within GP surgeries, Adult Social Care, Local Area Coordinators and through self-referrals using our dedicated Social Prescribing phone number. The impact from the work of the Primary Care Link Workers saw:
- 94% of patients reported that they were more satisfied with their lives after having input from the social prescribing team.
- 60% reduction in GP attendances with the patients that we have worked with.
- 75% reduction in A&E attendances with the patients that we have worked with.
Capacity Building Project
Another key highlight of our work during 2023-24 was our Capacity Building Project. We received 148k over a 19 month period to support local VCSE organisations to build their capacity. This enabled us to run a fantastic training programme and to provide one to one paid for specialist VCSE consultant support. We were able to carry out in-depth health checks to identify what issues an organisation needed to address, and then we appointed an appropriate consultant.
Katy Ridsdill-Smith, Chief Executive, Community Furniture Stores shared their experience of being supported by the Capacity Building Project and how the support enabled them to launch a change programme to enhance and develop their charitable activities.
York Poverty Truth Commission
To highlight the amazing work of the York Poverty Truth Commission, we were joined by Community Commissioners, Lynne and Kate. As part of the question and answer session, David, who was also a Civic Commissioner asked Lynne and Kate about their experiences of being part of the York Poverty Truth Commission. Kate, Lynne and David all said that the experience had been extremely powerful and had a positive impact on their lives. It had given them purpose and a passion for instigating change. Watch / listen to the video from the York Poverty Truth Commission celebration event below: