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Director's Report

As seamless as the execution of the foregoing activities may have appeared, the planning that went into their successful outcome extended well into the previous year, consumed a considerable amount of our time and only be attributed to the competence and dedication of our staff at all levels of operation. In the entire year leading to our Silver Jubilee, while attending to its detailed planning, we were also successfully building on the foundations of the past, and have been able to successfully continue our drive towards improving the quality of our premises. We have also improved the range and quality of our health-based, recreation-based, occupational-based and home care services to our treasured members. In so doing we are proud to say that we have remained steadfast in living out our creed of our Mission Statement to provide a comprehensive, high quality service to older people from the African and Caribbean community in Kensington and Chelsea and neighbouring boroughs, to enable them to live more independently in their own homes.

In our quest to accomplish this mission, we have lifted our profile and expanded our fund raising activities. We have increased the extent and quality of our partnership relationships with other vo9luntary organisations, Social Services and Primary Care Trust. We have more efficiently coordinated our own internal operations and created a better working environment for, and relationship among, our team of trustees, staff, volunteers, members and friends of Pepper Pot.

I continue to be grateful for, and appreciative of, the wide support and assistance afforded me both by the Pepper Pot’s management committee, staff and members as well as by the wider community reflected by the Royal Borough’s Social Services Team, the local Primary Care Trust, Sixty Plus, Kensington Community Transport, EPICS Day Centre, the Dementia Team, the local Citizens Advice Bureau, the BME Network, the local police, and many other local community groups and individuals. Their indispensable and valued support has been a source of constant encouragement to me and has given me cause to believe that a great future lies ahead not only for Pepper Pot but for the increasing number of deserving older persons we serve on a daily basis. My heartfelt thanks to all of you for your generosity.

Inspired by our accomplishments of the past and the welcome support received from all quarters, I am encouraged to outline a vision for the future of Pepper Pot Day Centre. A vision engendered by a strong desire to establish and maintain this organisation at the heart of influencing local policies, decision making, and the major player in the strategic planning of services for African Caribbean Older People aimed at empowering those people to live more productive, useful and meaningful lives.

To this end, and for the present year and next few years to come we shall promote the following:

1. Further raise our profile and expand our funding base and methods.
2. Provide a more adaptable transport service for our members, particularly our wheelchair users, and those with mobility aids.
3. Increase membership, and encourage more elderly people to participate in healthy lifestyle activities.
4. Provide more flexible opening hours, encourage expanded activities and diversified use of the premises.
5. Develop and expand the outreach programme to encourage pensioners to access and use as a right the existing local services and facilities, without the stigma arising from their popularly held belief that they would be perceived as beggars – a strong contradiction to their fiercely independent instincts.
6. Create a more efficient management team and staff, developing their skills through training programmes and fine-tuning all aspects of our operations to improve the quality of services available to all our members.

Success in these areas will enhance even further the support and cooperation received from all sectors of the community thereby making the Pepper pot Day Centre the undisputed and most important flagship in London’s African Caribbean Community.

Louise Farray