ANNUAL REPORT 2017-18
WELCOME Dear Friends, I am delighted to introduce the Cinnamon Network s 2017-18 Annual Report. I trust you will find it an encouraging and inspiring read. At the start of this year, the Cinnamon Leadership Team were reminded of the Bible verse in Isaiah 42:2, which says "Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. We have frequently returned to this scripture throughout the year as we have sought to both lengthen and strengthen the network. 2017-18 was a year of continued momentum for Cinnamon. We lengthened our cords into new areas, supporting more local churches than ever on their journey of community transformation. The launch of the Cinnamon Project Incubator in Ireland, development of the Cinnamon Impact Pathway and arrival of Cinnamon Faith Action Audits on Demand give testimony to the energy we are experiencing across the charity. It was also a year of consolidation, where we invested time in strengthening our infrastructure, building capacity in our team and improving our internal processes. Whilst these tasks have not been headline grabbing, their impact is already being felt across Cinnamon, enabling us to do what we do even better! None of this work would have been possible without the commitment of our supporters, partners and team. We are deeply grateful to all of those who are a part of the Cinnamon story. Together we will continue to support local churches across the UK, Ireland and beyond to make a transforming difference in their communities. Matt Bird, Founder WELCOME 2
ABOUT US Cinnamon Network works closely with churches across the UK and Ireland to help them transform their communities. We describe ourselves as faith-based but not faith-biased because, whilst we are motivated by our faith in Jesus Christ, we indiscriminately serve people of all faiths and none. Our work revolves around three key objectives: INCUBATION We identify and incubate great church-based social action projects, building their capacity to be replicated in other churches. We are committed to innovation and seeking out pioneering projects that meet some of society s most challenging needs. IMPACT We help churches to positively impact their communities by advising them on their journey of community engagement. We also provide a menu of Cinnamon Recognised Projects, volunteer leadership training and civic engagement support to ensure projects are effective and sustainable. INFLUENCE We develop evidence that increases churches confidence that faith is a force for good in our society. That confidence leads to new conversations and collaboration between the church and civic agencies. ABOUT US 3
CINNAMON PROJECT LAB 2017 Across the country local churches are involved in a range of innovative, impactful activities that address priority social issues in their communities. The aim of Cinnamon Project Lab is to help us find more of these initiatives, and then through the Cinnamon Project Incubator help them develop to a point where they can be replicated in other churches. Cinnamon Project Lab 2017, focused on finding projects that were either led by young people (aged 16-25), or helped to tackle issues of poverty and social exclusion faced by young people. Our social media campaign reached nearly 350,000 people, and was viewed over 1.2 million times. As a result, we received 139 expressions of interest, and 39 completed applications, which were shortlisted to just five projects to take part in the Cinnamon Project Lab final. The final was held at Mercers Hall in London, with projects presenting their initiatives to a panel of judges and a wider audience. The five finalists were: BoxUpCrime an initiative that helps young people to rebuild misguided dreams, using non-contact boxing sessions and mentoring. The PrimeTime Project - empowers disadvantaged young people to develop key skills for employment, life and leadership. Tastelife supports young people to break free from eating disorders. Bus Stop equips churches in their work with young people and schools. The Giving Back Project provides entry level work experience and mentoring for young people who are unemployed 4INCUBATION The standard of entries was outstanding and, after much deliberation, the two winners were announced as The PrimeTime Project and BoxUpCrime. The winners were awarded a development grant of 30,000, provided by our Project Lab partner The Mercers Company, plus a place on the Cinnamon Project Incubator where they will receive: expert coaching, world class professional advice, targeted marketing and access to industry and government contacts. In addition to the top prizes, more than 22,050 was pledged on the night by members of the audience to help the other three finalists to participate in the Incubator programme, so they too can develop their capacity to replicate nationally in other local churches.
CINNAMON PROJECT LAB 2016 - A YEAR ON In July 2017, four of the projects that took part in our Cinnamon Project Lab 2016, completed their Cinnamon Project Incubator programme. Through the support of the Incubator, all four projects have gone from strength to strength: Renew Wellbeing was initially running mental health spaces in just two communities; it s now being replicated in eight churches. Ruth Rice, founder of Renew Wellbeing said of the Cinnamon Project Incubator: The Incubator programme has been a life changer for me. As a minister setting up a charity around mental and emotional wellbeing I feel the sessions have enabled me to learn a new language. A language that enables me to reflect on my project to identify good practice, get better systems in place, communicate more clearly and ultimately to replicate what I had thought could only be possible in one space. The courage given, the gentle coaching, the clear and helpful materials produced and guidance given has been even more useful than the money won at Project Lab. What a journey! I hope to keep on it and keep learning like this for many years. Great facilitators, great incubation! Care Home Friends have started a second project in Norfolk, and have trained a further five local churches who are waiting to launch their initiatives. Two more churches are scheduled to be trained over the next couple of months. The project was even featured in The Times newspaper. Onus Safe Church have now trained more than 20 churches to create safe spaces for those who have experienced domestic violence. Onus is in the process of becoming a Cinnamon Recognised Project. Lyrics and Lunch will be held their first information evening for new churches and are in conversation with two local churches who are interested in replicating the project, which helps those with dementia to connect with a caring community. INCUBATION 5
CINNAMON PROJECT INCUBATOR IRELAND In 2017, we recognised a need to find projects that addressed the specific challenges faced by communities across Ireland and so we launched our first ever Cinnamon Project Incubator for Ireland to incubate home-grown projects with the potential to be replicated across Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland and beyond. We are delighted that five excellent projects have joined the Cinnamon Project Incubator for Ireland in September: Moving Forward helps people find employment by developing their building self-esteem, confidence and leadership skills. Love Works Cooperative creates employment through a number of business and helps young men grow meaningful and healthy relationships. Active Listening works with the police in Northern Ireland to support individuals who have had traumatic experiences. Rise mentors and supports young adults in employment, education, physical and spiritual well-being Release runs courses within prisons and provides mentoring to recently released offenders. INCUBATION 6
CINNAMON RECOGNISED PROJECTS Our Cinnamon Recognised Projects continue to be a vital tool to help local churches to effectively address needs in their community. We are delighted to have added two new Cinnamon Recognised Projects to the menu in the last year: Kids Matter equips the church to support disadvantaged parents and carers within their community to develop confidence and parenting skills to enable their children to flourish and to strengthen family life. Creative English is an innovative programme which helps local churches to use a unique, drama-based method to teach English to those with few or no language skills. All Cinnamon Recognised Projects are independent organisations in their own right, but we offer them regular support to help their ongoing development. This includes via our two-day Cinnamon Residential for all Cinnamon Recognised Projects which is held annually in January. This year 20 project leaders representing 18 projects, including winners of Project Lab 2016, came together for the weekend. The two days included practical teaching and training sessions, as well as opportunities for projects to connect with Cinnamon Advisors who champion the projects across the country. We were also joined by guest speakers who challenged the project leaders to reconsider their decision making as a balance between the prophetic and process, and to reflect upon how their initiatives relate to both the church and the culture in which they are working. It was an invaluable opportunity for Cinnamon Recognised Project leaders to share their insights and challenges with one another, and receive input from the Cinnamon team. INCUBATION 7
CINNAMON ADVISORS Relationships are vital to everything we do at Cinnamon and through our network of Cinnamon Advisors spread across the length and breadth of the UK and Ireland, we are able to walk alongside churches as they seek to transform their community by demonstrating the love of God in practical action. communities. At any one time, our team of 12 Advisors collectively have a caseload of between 150-160 local churches, who they are helping in a variety of ways to strengthen their social action and civic engagement. Depending on the needs of the church, sometimes this support is one-off advice, and at other times it is sustained input over a number of months. This means, over the last year, our Cinnamon Advisors have engaged with around 350-400 local churches. At a meeting with Dyfed-Powys Police and local churches, Mandy Bayton, our Cinnamon Advisor for Wales heard how one elderly woman called 999 ninety times in one week because she was lonely. As a result of this meeting, Mandy is now working with a local church in Fishguard to explore how they can most effectively tackle loneliness and isolation in their community. The church are interested in starting a Linking Lives project, to offer befriending to older, isolated people. Mandy is helping them to identify what other services are working locally, and also how they could partner with other churches to develop a response to these issues. Demand for support from our Advisors continues to grow as local churches hear about the impact of our support from other churches. Indeed, in 2017-18 we received over 400 expressions of interest via our website for Cinnamon s support. The pie chart below shows the spread of demand for support across the UK and Ireland last year. IMPACT 8 In response, we are in the process of strategically reviewing the way our Cinnamon Advisors work with churches, and, through our Community Transformation Project, developing a new online toolkit of resources to help us respond to this demand in a sustainable way as we move forward. WEST MIDLANDS WALES SOUTH WEST SOUTH EAST YORKSHIRE SCOTLAND EAST NORTH WEST EAST MIDLANDS IRELAND LONDON NORTH EAST
COMMUNITY TRANSFORMATION PROJECT Two years ago we were awarded funding from Big Lottery Fund to test, refine and evaluate our model of church-based community transformation. Over 30 churches spread across Yorkshire, Essex and Sussex have contributed to the pilot project to date. The churches range in denomination and size and include some with congregations of hundreds, to very small churches with just a handful of families. Through the Community Transformation Project, Alison Linfield, our Cinnamon Advisor for Yorkshire has been working with a group of churches in Northallerton, who have acquired a premise which they are using as a community hub. Alison has spent time with these churches, raising awareness and understanding of the community data available, and how this can help them in their strategy for their community hub Alison has also connected the churches with groups of churches in other, who are already operating a community hub, in order to share learning and experience. In October 2017, we launched the first of our masterclasses with the churches involved in the Community Transformation Project, which focused on addressing some of the key areas of need identified by churches, including: Monitoring and Evaluation - Many churches do incredible work but need practical help in measuring the impact of this to help develop partnerships, secure funding and tell the story of their projects. Social Media - Our social media masterclasses help churches who are daunted by the prospect of using social media, to make good use of the platforms available to share their work and reach those in need. Locality Networks - Our locality network masterclasses bring together leaders of social action networks from different areas to encourage open discussion, the sharing of ideas and collaboration. The project will officially end in June 2018, but we have already been gathering valuable learning along the way. These learnings are being gathered to develop our online toolkit of resources, information and advice that will help churches to serve their communities in the most effective way. 9IMPACT
CINNAMON IMPACT PATHWAY Over the past year we have been developing the Cinnamon Impact Pathway - our approach to helping churches on their journey of community transformation. We identified the four main areas that churches most commonly approach us for support with, as they seek to answer the central question of what is God doing and how to we join in? : COMMUNITY: CIVIC: CHURCH: CHOICE: What are the needs and assets of our community? Who are the other stakeholders, and how do we work with them? What resources do we have, and where do we need to build capacity? What are we going to do in response? Whilst these four areas are common across local churches, we recognise that every church and community is different, with unique opportunities and challenges. We have therefore developed the Cinnamon Impact Pathway, rather than a model or a programme, to acknowledge that each church s journey will be different. To help churches answer these key questions on the Cinnamon Impact Pathway we are developing an online toolkit as part of the Community Transformation Project. This will bring together our existing resources with new ones we are developing.. We believe this pathway is going to be instrumental as we move forward, drawing together various strands of our work for maximum impact. IMPACT 10
DEMAND REDUCTION PARTNERSHIPS Over the last year we are delighted to have launched four new Demand Reduction Partnerships with Hampshire Police and County Council, Cumbria Police, Thames Valley Police and Suffolk Police. These partnerships are enabling us to support local churches in these areas, with a Micro-Grant, Cinnamon Advisor support and Volunteer Leadership Training, to start a Cinnamon Recognised Project that meets local community needs and policing priorities. We had a total of nine live partnerships with police forces operational over the year, and continue to have conversations with other forces interested in our proven partnership model. On 21 September 2017, BBC Two featured our police partnerships on the Victoria Derbyshire show. The ten-minute feature explored how, in light of increasing public sector cuts, Cinnamon is helping to ease the burden on local police. This coverage on the Victoria Derbyshire Show has enabled us to showcase the incredible work being done by lo cal churches in their c ommunity, increasing credibility and confidence. Roger Hirst, Essex Police & Crime Commissioner was featured in the piece and said: Sometimes the police aren t the right response for minor crime. We are enabling people who want to do good in their community to do it in a structured way, in collaboration with police services, so we re trying to achieve goals that are going to make a difference. Cost Effective On average, as part of a Demand Reduction Partnership with Cinnamon, police forces provide a total of 10 Micro-Grants of 2,000 to help local churches to establish social action projects to tackle the key issues faced by their communities. An additional 1,850 per project is also provided to help Cinnamon train, support and develop the projects so they are sustainable in the long-term. As a result, 97% of projects continue into a second year, and over 90% into a third year and beyond. On average, these project will directly impact 40 individuals in the first 12 months. This equates to a project cost of 97 per person. A 10-project partnership would therefore cost about the same as one PCSO - after recruitment, training etc.- and yet will become self-financing in just 12 months. IMPACT 11
CINNAMON MICRO-GRANTS In 2017-18, we provided 36 Cinnamon Micro-Grants of 2,000 to help local churches launch Cinnamon Recognised Projects. Cinnamon Micro-Grants provide vital resources to help initiatives get off the ground. The grant must be match funded by local churches to encourage local ownership. Match funding can be provided either financially or through practical resources such as gifts in kind, premises, or professional services. In addition, the application process itself helps churches to develop the skills they need to pursue investment from additional funders. Our Micro-Grant Officer and team of Cinnamon Advisors are on hand to help coach local churches through the process and guide them toward other potential funders. We are grateful to our Demand Reduction Partners, as well as a number of grant-making trusts, including Andrews Charitable Trust, for funding our Cinnamon Micro-Grant programme this year. Cinnamon Micro-Grants are awarded to a diverse range of churches across the country. For example, over the last two years The average congregation size of churches has been 97 adults - the smallest church had just 6 adults and the largest over 500. 1 in 6 churches had majority Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic congregations. Churches were representative of 14 different denominations including, Anglican, Assemblies of God, Baptist, Church of Wales, The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches, United Reformed Church, Salvation Army and Pentecostal. IMPACT 12 Around 25% of churches were in rural areas. The range of churches who have received a Cinnamon Micro-Grant demonstrates our commitment as a charity to work with local churches of all sizes, traditions and demographics.
CINNAMON LEADERSHIP TRAINING Over the last 12 months we have run 24 Cinnamon Leadership Training courses, which have equipped 471 project leaders and volunteers to run impactful and sustainable church-based social action projects. Cinnamon Leadership Training continues to be a vital tool in equipping social action project leaders. As with our Cinnamon Micro-Grants we aim to reach a diverse group of leaders and volunteers through the training. We have therefore been encouraged over the past year by increased representation from the Black African and African Caribbean communities attending training days. We have also ran events the length and breadth of the country including Belfast, Edinburgh, London, Leeds and Manchester. The core focus of the training revolves around four core modules - Leading Confidently, Team, Promotions and Partnerships and Fundraising and Evaluation - which can be tailored to the specific group of volunteers who are taking part. We continue to develop our training in light of feedback that we receive from participants and our wider research into the most pressing needs of churches. One thing that has become apparent from our Community Transformation Project is the need to provide churches with more tools to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of their programmes. This is something that we will be integrating into our future Cinnamon Leadership Training. What Participants say about Cinnamon Leadership Training: Great to have such excellent training focusing on social action. So much was packed in, covering key areas, especially on leadership and promotion, - Cinnamon Leadership Training Participant in Scotland. So many training sessions have provided me with personal development, new skills and relevant information, however, this training session included our Triune God in every module that made all the difference, - Cinnamon Leadership Training Participant in Leeds. IMPACT 13
CIVIC PRAYER BREAKFASTS As churches seek to make a positive impact in their local communities, it s essential that they have a good relationship with other partners, both faithbased and civic, who are also working for the good of the community. Civic Prayer Breakfasts offer local church networks an incredible opportunity to bring partners together, to pray for them, to pool resources, co-ordinate efforts and create new solutions to help those most in need in communities. The Cinnamon team have been involved in supporting many Civic Prayer Breakfasts this year, including those in Oban, Stoke-on-Trent, Erdington, Sussex, Birmingham and the first Welsh Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast in Cardiff. Our Civic Prayer Breakfast resource booklet has proved to be invaluable in helping organisers plan and maximise the impact of their events. INFLUENCE 14
St David s Day Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast in Wales. Amidst the snow and red weather warnings, the first National Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast for Wales was held on 1 March 2018, St David s Day, at the National Assembly in Cardiff. Darren Millar, Welsh Assembly Member, asked Cinnamon to help to organise the breakfast. The event was well attended by around 80 key people including politicians, Police and Crime Commissioners and bishops from across Wales. Not only was it a privilege to be involved in coordinating the first National Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast but it also provided a fantastic opportunity to launch our first ever dual language resource -the Welsh translation of the Civic Prayer resource booklet. The suggested prayers in the booklet were read in both Welsh and English at the breakfast! Our hope is that this new resource will open up opportunities for more Civic Prayer Breakfasts throughout the nation. INFLUENCE 15
CINNAMON FAITH ACTION AUDIT ON DEMAND Since the launch of our national Cinnamon Faith Action Audit in 2016, many more towns and cities have approached us, wanting to carry out a Cinnamon Faith Action Audit in their area. Our Audits in 2015 and 2016 measured the value of the time contributed by churches and other faith-based groups in 87 towns and cities. To facilitate these new requests however, we launched our Cinnamon Faith Action Audits on Demand this year, enabling us to conduct Audits with smaller groups of towns and cities. The first five On Demand areas - Guernsey, Jersey, Sheffield, London borough of Wandsworth and Telford & Wrekin - carried out their Audits in February 2018. Sheffield will be the single largest UK audit area to date with a population of about 570,000. Data from these audits will feed into our existing database on the scale of church-based social action in the UK, which currently covers around 26% of the population. A Cinnamon Faith Action Audit opened new opportunities for churches in Lincoln to reach those in need. Churches in Lincoln knew they were involved in a lot of social action projects, but had no idea of the scale or breadth of the services they provided. There was also a real disconnect between the churches and the local authorities in the city, so they decided to conduct a Cinnamon Faith Action Audit. The Cinnamon Faith Action Audit they conducted in 2015 showed that collectively churches and faith groups within the city were filling 4,900 volunteers roles to support 63,000 beneficiary interactions through more than 350 social action projects. Collectively the financial value of support they provided equated to 14 million. INFLUENCE 16 As a result, the churches set up the Active Faith Network, to coordinate their social action and to offer one voice with whom the council and others could communicate. The group have now secured funding to take on a member of staff to coordinate the group s efforts to support vulnerable people in the city. In May 2017 they hosted a Civic Prayer Breakfast at Lincoln Cathedral, which provided a wonderful opportunity to maintain the dialogue started by the audit, and to pray strategically for the city of Lincoln.
CINNAMON FAITH ACTION RESEARCH - HEALTH We believes that faith is a force for good in our society and therefore wants to build confidence in and the credibility of the work carried out by local churches and other faith-based organisations. In response, we conducted our first Cinnamon Faith Action Research in 2016 to demonstrate how social action projects run by local churches were helping police forces to address demand. The research has been instrumental in helping Cinnamon and local churches to work more effectively with police forces across the UK. In light of this, in partnership with Allchurches Trust, we have embarked on our second piece of Cinnamon Faith Action Research this year to explore the church s impact on health and care. The research aims to explore the extent to which church-led social action projects can help to support community health and wellbeing and alleviate pressure within the health service. The research will focus on answering two key questions: 1. What impact do church communities currently have on health and social care? 2. What potential is there for them to be scalable and replicable, in order to have more impact? We are being supported by an expert steering group, including an Health Economics Professor from King s College London, and the findings will be published in May 2018 at a national launch event. We hope this will help to provide key insight to inspire a new level of effective partnership working between churches and health care providers across the UK. INFLUENCE 17
CINNAMON INTERNATIONAL We believe passionately in being generous with what God has given us. Having seen the effectiveness of Cinnamon s approach here in the UK and Ireland, we have continued to be invited to share our learning with other nations. Over the past year, we have specifically focused on bringing together national church and social action leaders in South Africa, the US, and the Netherlands to explore how a Cinnamonstyle network would work in their country. As a result, Cinnamon Advisory Councils have been established in both South Africa and the Netherlands. The Councils are made up of leaders from a diverse cross-section of churches and social action charities. They have commenced their national search for community transformation projects that have the potential to be replicated across the country. The goal is that projects from both nations will join with UK-based projects in October 2018 for a Cinnamon Project Incubator residential, so that lessons can be shared internationally between projects on similar journeys of national replication. In addition we have also delivered Cinnamon Leadership Training to over 140 leaders in Ghana and Uganda, to help them run sustainable and impactful social action projects in their communities. INTERNATIONAL 18
OUR FUTURE PLANS As we continue to grow, and demand for our support increases, we want to be wise about how we sustainability manage our resources. The Biblical principle of multiplication inspires us to look for ways to work smarter, rather than just harder, in order to increase our impact. INCUBATION We will continue to provide support to projects currently taking part in our Incubation programme, and monitor their journey of replication. Our Project Lab 2018 competition will focus on finding projects that respond to social needs in Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic communities. We also plan to integrate social action projects from the Netherlands and South Africa into the Cinnamon Project Incubator. IMPACT Cinnamon Recognised Projects, Cinnamon Advisors and our Cinnamon Leadership Training will remain the key ways that we support churches on their journey of community transformation. In view of the incredible demand on our Advisors, we will review the way that we engage with churches. This will include the development an online toolkit of resources, through the Community Transformation Project, to support the Cinnamon Impact Pathway. We will also begin to offer a number of bespoke training days, building on the Community Transformation Project Masterclasses, to ensure we continue to meet the most pressing development needs of volunteers and project leaders. INFLUENCE The launch of the Cinnamon Faith Action Research on health will be a key focus for Cinnamon and will shape our strategy for brokering new partnerships with health services moving forward. We will continue to promote our Civic Prayer Breakfast resource, our Cinnamon Faith Action Audits on Demand, and look forward to seeing the results from the five areas that are currently undertaking the Audit. FUTURE PLANS 19
www.cinnamonnetwork.co.uk team@cinnamonnetwork.co.uk Cinnamon Network Registered Charity no. 1156985 OSCR no. SCO47733