The Annual General Meeting for Active and In Touch, Frome (A&IT), took place on Monday 16th September in Frome Town Hall’s council chamber. In excess of 30 people were present to hear the chair of trustees, Julia Castiglione, report on the year’s events.
It was, as Julia identified, a pleasure for her to open the meeting by welcoming everyone, especially Jane Wood and members of her family.
Charles Wood, Jane’s husband, who sadly died a year ago was the previous chair of trustees, and had carried out sterling work for A&IT until immediately before his death. To applause from those present, Julia presented Jane with a bouquet of flowers. Julia also paid tribute to Lucia Chadwick, for her work until recently as service manager for AIT, and introduced her successor Dougie Brown, appointed in late July, as well as the current trustees.
After ensuring the regulatory elements of the AGM were addressed, the main focus of the meeting was for Dougie to report on progress and to share the charity’s vision and strategy for the next five years.
Dougie was delighted to confirm A&IT as an intergenerational Frome charity, established to help the well-being and health of people by combatting loneliness in Frome and the surrounding villages. This is achieved in a variety of ways including one-to-one matched befriending sessions between members and volunteers based on their mutual interests, weekly meetings offering a caring and pleasant small group environment and social inclusion groups for adults of all ages.
Throughout the year a range of special events are also provided including such varied activities as a visit to Weymouth, a tea dance, Christmas party and an Active autumn lunch. Dougie was pleased to be able to identify that within the last 12 months, 105 members (plus a further 15 awaiting) and in excess of 80 volunteers had been in involved in almost 5,000 events or meeting opportunities.
Using a powerpoint presentation, Dougie shared AIT’s strategy for 2019 – 2024, building on original survey work led by Kate Hellard from the town council with the trustees and others.
Dougie articulated the person-centred, kindly, non- judgmental, approachable and collaborative values at the centre of the organisation. The objectives are to grow the membership to 200+ and to increase even further its intergenerational emphasis. Along with accurate reporting, clear and sustainable financial governance and funding and a greater collaboration with other providers, particularly the NHS social prescribing initiatives, the impact of AIT will thus be seen even more widely across Frome and the surrounding villages.
An interactive session followed where members of the audience raised questions, responded to what they had heard and put forward suggestions. These included comments on funding, especially local giving, the relationship between A&IT and village agents, the area beyond Frome benefiting from the charity’s work and input and the possibility of supporting other towns if they wished to follow suit.
The AGM concluded with Julia thanking individual people and organisations who had supported AIT over the past year, amongst them being Frome Town Council, the Mayor of Frome, the Carnival team and the Rotary club. The formal part of the evening continued as all present joined together over refreshments and an opportunity for the sharing of further information and ideas and reminisces of people and events and the fun and progress which had been witnessed over the past year.
If you are interested in hearing more about AIT, would like to explore becoming a volunteer or would like to make contact because you wish to take part in activities, be visited or know of someone who would benefit from befriending and visits, please contact enquiries@activeandintouch.org
