Umbrella Yoga CIC

PART 1 - GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COMPANY’S ACTIVITIES AND IMPACT In the space provided below, please insert a general account of the company’s activities in the financial year to which the report relates, including a fair and accurate description of how they have benefited the community, or a section of the community, which the company is intended to serve. Umbrella Yoga is an organisation devoted to improving the health and wellbeing of people with additional mental and physical needs through provision of specialised yoga sessions. We operate within Kirklees, West Yorkshire. Over the course of the last twelve months we have grown as a company and developed as a service in multiple ways. SERVICE DELIVERY & IMPACT: From 1st April 2024 to 31st March 2025, we delivered a total of 1181 group yoga sessions. Each targeted one of our core participant areas: community yoga, including refugees and migrants, parents and carers, women-only groups and faith groups (442 sessions); adults with learning disabilities (379); older adults including people with dementia (227); trauma survivors, including sexual abuse survivors and brain injury survivors (115) and Staff Wellbeing sessions (18). Total number of attendances across all sessions was 15024. Repeat attendance was high, indicating an enthusiasm to build yoga into a regular routine; 1880 unique individuals from Kirklees participated in our classes. These figures represent only a marginal increase on the previous year (total number of sessions in 2023-2024 was 1120). This is because the financial growth we have generated over the last 12 months has been directed at expanding our range of services in order to diversify income and build a more robust business model. The services we have developed, in addition to our primary service of yoga for additional needs and community groups, are: - Training and Workshops - Staff Wellbeing Yoga / ESG - Virtual Studio & Live Online We have maintained an active grant cycle and enhanced our income via paid sessions with partner organisations. We will review each of these activities in turn. Training and Workshops Two specialised training programs are being developed, which will be delivered for the first time in June and October respectively. 1. A 30-hour training program for yoga teachers to develop skills in teaching yoga to adults with learning disabilities. This course is accredited by Yoga Alliance (a leading regulatory body for yoga practices in the UK). The course will serve to enhance our income as well as spread the approach and message of Umbrella Yoga more widely. 2. A 6-hour workshop for healthcare professionals and carers, to learn how the principles of yoga can be harnessed for the people they work with. This workshop does not qualify others to teach yoga to groups, but instead gives people a deeper understanding of yoga and the confidence to use some of the techniques and practices to improve health outcomes for themselves and the people they care for. We anticipate an income loss for the first course. However after that, we expect to see more interest and bookings, and a reduction in preparation time for content, leading to a profit that Umbrella Yoga can feed back into the primary activities. Financial situation for training and workshops from 1/4/2024 - 31/3/2025: - Income: £1050. - Expenditure on preparation (to date): £550 - Expenditure on course registration with Yoga Alliance: £750 - Website updates: £300. Staff Wellbeing Yoga / ESG We offer online and in-person yoga and wellbeing sessions for staff groups. We aim to tap into businesses’ budget for ESG and staff wellbeing, with profits generated being ploughed back into our primary service and our community. We think this service has the potential to produce significant income for Umbrella Yoga, but as yet have not managed to achieve the level of engagement we are aiming for. To foster its development we have: attended multiple networking events to showcase what we can do; engaged the support of a professional digital marketing company (Jaywood); dedicated Director time and resources into engagement and service user experiences. Recently, we have engaged the support of a Masters Business Management student team from Northumberland University to review and advise next steps. Financial situation for Staff Wellbeing / ESG from 1/4/2024 - 31/3/2025 - Income: £2400. - Expenditure on Teaching: £560 - Expenditure on Marketing: £1700 (from a grant) - Expenditure on managing the programme: estimated at £5000 (director’s time) Virtual Studio & Live Online: This is an online platform where members of our community can pay to access pre-recorded yoga sessions and meditations. We are marketing the Virtual Studio to our yoga community as well as partner organisations and business partners. The subscription model allows for various payment structures (2 levels for individuals (salaried and non-salaried) and 2 levels of businesses (+/- 50 employees). The recordings will be continually added to. The platform, website and initial recordings were launched officially in March 2025. We anticipate our online community growing over the next 12 months and beyond. Financial situation for Virtual Studio & Live Online from 1/4/2024 - 31/3/2025 - Income: £0 (no paid subscribers during this tax year) - Expenditure on filming yoga sessions: £400 - Expenditure on website building: £500 - Expenditure on managing the platform: £1000 (director’s time) GRANT FUNDING: Restricted grants have remained the single largest source of income. In the last tax year we were awarded 20 grants; 19 of our applications were rejected. We’ve had success with local funding bodies - including Third Sector Leaders Kirklees, One Community, Kirklees Council, University of Huddersfield, and Creative Minds / South West Yorkshire NHS Trust. We’ve accessed national funding via the National Lottery and Sports England. We’ve supported our partners to access funds from new providers - such as the Baily Thomas fund who provide funding for research and delivery of support to people with learning disabilities. Our grant success rate and total number awarded was lower than in previous years (although combined income was higher). We have found that local sources have been far less available - for example Kirklees Council Local Ward funding budgets being cut by half, and several grant opportunities were unavailable for re-applications. Research and Evaluation: Our major development with evaluations this year was to assess the impact of a 12-week yoga program for adults with learning disabilities. We found a reduction in anxiety symptoms; an improvement in hand-grip strength; and a marginal improvement in leg strength. Most importantly, we were able to pilot novel methods of objectively measuring change in functional movement and mental health in people with learning disabilities. A recently secured grant will allow us to develop this evaluation this year. With our community yoga participants and trauma survivors, we continue to hold ‘tea & chat’ events which represent informal steering groups and enable us to gather feedback verbally and via surveys. Some feedback includes: I enjoy the class because it suits my movement, strength limitations. The class is small in numbers which again suits me as I have a compromised immune system. This group session is exercise and also meditation and managing breath which is also beneficial for me. Social side is also good for my mental health. Excellent! This class has helped me so much. I love the community aspect about it, the teacher and the gentle movement. Incredibly grateful to be back in class and to have moved from fear and dislike of being in my body to feeling held and safe. Feeling happier than when I came here. I was full of pain and after the session I feel well and relaxed. PARTNERS: We have worked in partnership with over 35 organisations during the last 12 months. By collaborating with other service providers in Kirklees we are able to reach more people that will benefit from our service, and we are able to develop our skills and knowledge base in relation to each of the participant groups we support. Significant new partners include the Kirkwood, HOOT, Hopton Care Cottages, and Afghan Ladies Group. PEOPLE: Our board of directors has undergone minor changes: Catherine Eleanor Firth (Founding Director) remains in position as CEO and Anna Riddell-Roberts continues to Chair the board. Pollyanna Steiner and Rachel Gosling remain in post as Exec Directors. Carole Roberts resigned from her post as non-executive Director in March 2025. We are now recruiting to replace her. We are seeking 2-3 new NEDs to support with: marketing, corporate partnerships; human resources. Our team of yoga session leaders remains the same - with no one leaving, and no need to add to the team at this stage, Helen White continues to manage our accounts; Alida Gulamhussein remains in post as our Community Yoga Co-ordinator; Catherine Addy remains our part-time administrator. OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS & DEVELOPMENTS: - Invited presentations this year have included: - One Community AGM; - Women In Business - Huddersfield Giants Network; - Community Yoga Network hosted by Brighton Yoga; - UnLtd ‘Movement For Good’ network; - British Institute of Learning Disabilities Annual Conference, themed: ‘Growing Old with LD’ - Improved our social media presence, particularly on LinkedIn. - Developed our Volunteer Program - we now have 6 official volunteers. - Reviewed all our policies. - Published articles in Yoga Magazine and Om Magazine.