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 description of how they have benefited the community. Empowerment for Heya CIC Heya Nottingham continued to grow as a grassroots organisation led by and rooted in the Arab women’s community in Nottingham. We worked with women and families from a wide range of backgrounds, including refugees, asylum seekers, migrants, students and women who were experiencing isolation, poverty, language barriers or difficulties accessing mainstream services. Our work is about much more than running activities. Heya provides a trusted bridge between communities and services. We listen to women, identify barriers, bring people together and work with partners to make sure that women who are often overlooked are heard, respected and included. Reaching people who are often underserved A major part of Heya's work in 2025 was our continued outreach to families living in difficult circumstances, including our regular visits and engagement with residents at the Britannia Hotel and temporary accommodations. For women and families living in temporary accommodation, isolation can be particularly severe. Many had newly arrived in the UK, had limited English, little knowledge of local services and very few people they could turn to. Our visits were therefore about much more than delivering information. We built relationships and trust. We listened to families, identified what they needed and connected them with practical support, activities and opportunities. We supported people with essential items, clothing, children's needs, digital access, information and community connections. We also provided culturally appropriate clothing,food and other culturally relevant support, recognising that dignity and belonging are important parts of wellbeing. Our approach was simple: we went to where people were, rather than expecting people who were already struggling to find their way to us. Equality, diversity and inclusion Equality and inclusion were at the heart of our work throughout 2025. Many of the women we support experience several barriers at the same time language, poverty, migration status, lack of confidence, childcare responsibilities, unfamiliarity with services and sometimes discrimination or racism. Heya worked to reduce these barriers by providing culturally sensitive support, information in Arabic, community outreach and opportunities for women to participate on their own terms. We also worked with public services and community organisations to help them better understand the experiences of Arab women and families. Our partnerships have helped bring issues of language, culture, representation and access into wider conversations about health, safety, services and community participation. Heya has previously been identified as a community partner helping organisations reach Arabic speaking families and develop more culturally inclusive approaches. This work is important because equality is not simply about treating everyone the same. It is about recognising when people face additional barriers and working together to remove them. Building a cohesive community Throughout 2025, Heya brought women and families together across different nationalities, ages and experiences. Our community includes women from countries including Syria, Egypt, Sudan, Jordan, Algeria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. Although their experiences are different, many share the same challenges of rebuilding their lives and finding a sense of belonging. Through shared meals, cooking, digital support, culturally appropriate food gathering and food parcels, cultural activities, Eid and Ramadan events, family activities, sport, walking, swimming, arts and crafts and informal gatherings, Heya created opportunities for people to meet one another and build friendships. We also encouraged connections beyond the Arab community. Our partnerships with local organisations and wider community events helped create opportunities for Arab women to participate in Nottingham's wider social and cultural life. This has helped Heya become a place where difference is not a barrier to connection but something that can be shared and celebrated. Culture, dignity and belonging An important part of our support was recognising that culture matters. Providing culturally appropriate clothing, food, activities and spaces helped women feel seen and respected. For women who may have experienced displacement or a major loss of their previous life, being able to maintain aspects of their culture while building a new life in Nottingham can be an important part of belonging. Our cultural activities also became a way of sharing Arab culture with the wider community. Our partnership with Primary during 2025 is a strong example. Heya women participated in creative and community activity, including work connected to Human Life in Motion. Primary's 2025 programme also included monthly events with Heya covering cooking, creative workshops, health and wellbeing and women's empowerment, as well as a family activity day bringing different community organisations together. Giving women a voice One of Heya's greatest achievements during the year was creating opportunities for women to move from being people who receive support to people who shape and provide support. Women were encouraged to volunteer, become community champions, share their experiences and support other women. This matters because women who have experienced isolation are often described as beneficiaries, but they also have knowledge, skills, ideas and lived experience that can benefit the wider community. Heya has increasingly worked in partnership with organisations that want to hear directly from communities that are under-represented in services and decision-making. Our role has been to help create the trust and safe environment needed for women to speak openly and participate. Sport, wellbeing and the This Girl Can journey Physical activity became an important way of bringing women together and improving wellbeing. Through swimming, walking, exercise and other activities, women were able to become more active in an environment where they felt comfortable and supported. Our involvement with This Girl Can was particularly significant. It demonstrated how grass-roots community activity can encourage women who may previously have felt excluded from sport to participate. The recognition Heya and its community received through the This Girl Can awards, including being shortlisted recognised for the work, was meaningful not simply as an award but be-cause it represented the women themselves women who had overcome barriers to participation and had encouraged one another to become active. Community champions, volunteers and leadership The work Heya delivered would not have been possible without our volunteers and community champions. During 2025, we continued to develop a network of women who gave their time, welcomed new members, helped at activities, shared information and encouraged others to participate. Some women began as participants and gradually became volunteers and community champions. This is a powerful example of the longer-term impact of Heya: support creates confidence, confidence creates participation, and participation creates new community leaders. Our wider partnership work has also recognised the importance of culturally diverse volunteers and community champions in improving access for families from Arabic backgrounds. We are proud that Heya is not built around a traditional model where support is simply delivered to people. Instead, our community members are part of delivering the work and shaping what happens next. Recognition of community contribution The contribution of Heya and its volunteers was also recognised beyond our own organisation. Marwa Soliman, founder of Heya, has previously received community recognition for work supporting women and families and promoting belonging and cohesion within and beyond the Arab community. For us, however, recognition is most meaningful when it reflects the contribution of the whole community – the women who attend, the volunteers who give their time, the families who encourage one another and the partner organisations that work alongside us. Partnership and collaboration Collaboration was central to our work in 2025. We worked with local authorities, health services, community organisations, women's organisations, research partners, cultural organisations and other grassroots groups. These partnerships allowed us to achieve things that would not have been possible alone. Part-ners brought expertise, resources and opportunities, while Heya brought something equally important: the trust and relationships we have built with women and families in the community. For example, Heya has been involved in partnership work with organisations across Notting-ham around health, inclusion, community engagement, research, culture and wellbeing. Heya's role has repeatedly been to help partners reach communities who may otherwise be difficult to engage. The difference Heya made in 2025 The impact of Heya cannot be fully captured by the number of sessions we delivered.

Our key stakeholders include our directors, who meet regularly to strategize and secure funding for our projects. However, our major stakeholders are the vulnerable service users from Arab and African backgrounds living in our local communities. We hold meetings once a month to discuss and shape the direction of our organization. As many of our stakeholders are volunteers actively involved in our projects, we consult every last Friday of the month to identify and address key areas of need. This regular engagement ensures our initiatives are effectively tailored to the needs of our community.

No remuneration was received

No transfer of assets other than for full consideration