Annual General Meeting 28/02/2025
On 28th February 2025, the BUBIC community came together to celebrate and reflect on a year of growth at our Annual General Meeting (AGM) held at 639 High Road Tottenham. People accessing support through BUBIC, staff, volunteers, and peer mentors were joined by range of organisations, supporters and stakeholders such as the Office of Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) which is part of the Department of Health and Social Care, Haringey Council, and a very special guest, Professor Dame Carol Black, author of the two-part Independent Review of Drugs.
Photo credits : nigelbrunsdon.com
The Annual report, outlining key achievements of last year was presented by our chair Bola Kwapong.
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The Annual statement of Accounts report was presented by our finance director Andi Dolia and with an overview by our treasurer Laura Pechey.
We were delighted to elect four new board members to join our existing team of trustees.
We also reconfirmed the appointments of our existing four trustees including roles of Chair, Treasurer and Secretary.
Most excitingly, we also got to hear from the Chief Executive about the background to BUBIC over 22 years: “In 2002, we were invited to a multidisciplinary open day where a discussion took place about establishing a support group run by people who had left treatment. I said, ‘We could do that’ and out of the blue, a woman replied: ‘So why don’t you?’ She turned out to be Marion Morris, the DASH service manager. The idea of Bringing Unity Back Into the Community (BUBIC) was born.”. Lanre outlined how BUBIC developed with no start-up funds and a phone previously used for dealing, with planning meetings in kitchens and working out of the boots of cars into a charitable company delivering a range of harm reduction, peer support and recovery support across Haringey.
The different BUBIC team’s including volunteers and peer mentors outlined the amazing work they do, ranging from the day and night outreach and the night service (Nabil Diafi, Ronald Duberry, Christopher Walters and Helena Jones), peer groups (Matthew Duberry-Lawrence), volunteer coordination (Angela Panzera), the rough sleepers project, (Beverlee Williams), treatment in-reach (Joanne Celnik), the 24 hour helpline (Ade Adetimole) and the new strategic engagement lead (Monica Roucou), along with poems and testimonies from current community members and staff.
Lanre Babalola- CEO
When Dame Carol Black took the stage, she talked passionately about the remarkable knowledge, experience and generosity of lived experience recovery organisations like BUBIC and how they are helping other peer-led initiatives to be set up and sustain their models, ultimately helping more people to reduce harm, get support and initiate and sustain recovery.
Against a backdrop of ever-increasing drug-related deaths and the global epidemic of loneliness, the need for BUBIC is greater than ever. It can be all too easy to feel like things are moving in the wrong direction, however with supporters like Dame Carol Black on side, the AGM provided the opportunity to celebrate and acknowledge just how far BUBIC has come as an independently peer-led service.
The Board and team have been working together to develop our 2025/26 strategy. Our 4 priorities are:
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Business development: including working towards a long-term ambition of owning our own building
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Staff and volunteer development: including team wellbeing initiatives and broadening out our existing training offer to support staff into education through securing bursaries
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Service development: including looking at strengthening staff safety on outreach through technology and looking to extend our service offer
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Governance: including meeting the requirements of us as a charity through annual accounting and reporting via an AGM and further expanding our Board
Marion ended the day by congratulating Lanre and Ronnie for their hard work over the years and honouring those we have lost who were also instrumental in helping to establish BUBIC. She emphasised the importance of trust, belief and the need to take risks, so organisation’s like BUBIC can grow and flourish.
The beginning
Special thanks to Laura, our Treasurer, who played a huge part in bringing together our AGM and legendary harm reduction photographer, Nigel Brunsdon, who has been photographing workers, advocates, people who use drugs and academics for over 2 decades. His photos (showcased here) captured the emotions between people and the energy of the day so well.