Community Adverse Experience Scheme

1. Community Adverse Experience Outcomes

If you meet the eligibility criteria for the Community Adverse Experience Scheme, you may be entitled to:

• An individual cash Support Grant of £500 towards counselling, training or other support.
• A written Apology and an acceptance of responsibility by the Jesus Fellowship.
• Return of outstanding Capital Contributions for former Trust Members
  

Please note: The current scope of the Community Adverse Experience Scheme is limited due to legal priorities relating to the closure of the Jesus Fellowship Community Trust, and ensuring sufficient funding for the entire Jesus Fellowship Redress Scheme.

If, at the closure of the Jesus Fellowship Redress Scheme, sufficient funds remain, the Jesus Fellowship Community Trust may seek to extend the Community Adverse Experience Scheme scope to also provide for compensation payments.

Subject to the above, compensation payments will be considered only for those who have successfully applied for the Community Adverse Experience Scheme by 31st December 2023. Applicants will be contacted directly in in January 2024 with information on availability, and if so, the process and amount to be paid.

2. Who can apply

Any person who can establish they are/were:

• A Trust Member

AND/OR

• a Dependant of a Trust Member family resident in Community for three months or more;

AND

Who can identify as having suffered from a Community Adverse Experience, as defined below.

Community Adverse Experiences

The Jesus Fellowship Redress Scheme will not be investigating individual applicants’ Community Adverse Experiences, as the Trust believes these were systemic failings within the Community, set out in the Trust’s Closure Statement.

Please note. For purposes of clarity, residing in Community would mean the applicant was living in a property owned or leased by the Jesus Fellowship with effect from 14th June 1974 to 26th May 2019.

It is up to you, as an applicant, to identify which of the Community Adverse Experiences, as defined below, may apply to you. The Community Adverse Experience (CAE) application form does allow space for you to share details of your experience, providing an option to have your voice heard.

Capital Refunds

• Capital Contributions made in cash to the Trust whilst they were a Trust Member, which contributions have not been refunded by the Trust, or which have only been partially refunded.

Child in Community
Community Adverse Experiences for individuals who were a under the age of 18 years when they lived in Community;

• Witnessing abuse of others (sexual, physical or emotional).
• Removal as a Child from parenting or the domestic family unit.
• Lack of safeguarding, opportunity to access medical care, protection from harm that had been reported to an adult.
• Unhealthy religious practice in childhood; exorcisms and/or extreme schedule of worship which caused harm.
• Being denied educational engagement or educational activities owing to the influence or direction of the Jesus Fellowship Leadership.
• Being denied social interaction (outside of Community and preventing male/female friendships in and outside Community) owing to the influence of Jesus Fellowship Leadership.
• Child labour in circumstances where there was alleged neglect or harm was caused.
• Having toys, games, childhood comforts removed.

Adult in Community
Community Adverse Experiences for individuals who were adults when they lived in Community;

• Harmful treatment of women as subordinates and/or women suffering detriment and harm through being placed in positions of servitude.
• Being forced to leave a positive relationship, or remain in an abusive relationship.
• Prevention of access to the outside world (doctors, police, social services).
• Failure of individuals in position of leadership to act positively to reports of abuse or harm.

Who cannot apply to the Community Adverse Experience Scheme?

Anyone who:

• Is under the age of 18 years at the time of making an application;
• Has received a criminal conviction in respect of their conduct towards others in the Jesus Fellowship.
• Was a member of the Covering Authority and/or Apostolic Group of the Jesus Fellowship.

3. How to apply

Application Form

Please see below information that will be required to complete the application form for the Community Adverse Experience Scheme.

Information Required

1. Identification
You will be asked to provide certified proof of identity. The following is a list of the types of ID that will be accepted:

• a certified photocopy of a passport or EU identity card
• a certified photocopy of a driver’s licence
• a certified photocopy of a bank card/post office account card (both sides of card with account details blacked out)
• a recent passport sized colour photograph, signed and witnessed, on the back, by an appropriate professional (solicitor or Medical practitioner) who can confirm your identity.

If you have had a legal change of name either by marriage, divorce or by deed poll since your time in the Jesus Fellowship Community Trust, then you will need to provide evidence of the name change (e.g. a marriage certificate).

All ID must be certified to be accepted. Certified ID is a way of confirming that the document provided is a true copy of the original.

A full list of accepted ID and how to certify ID can be found on the FAQ page.

2. Details of Community
You need to have been a Dependant, Trust Member or both and a resident in Community, in order to be eligible for the Community Adverse Experience Scheme.

In order to help confirm your eligibility, you will be asked to provide details relating to your period/s of residence in Community. Information required is as follows:

• Address/es of community properties in which you resided.
• Community household name/s
• Date/s you resided in the Community property
  

3. Identification of Community Adverse Experience/s
The Jesus Fellowship Redress Scheme will not be investigating individual applicant’s Community Adverse Experiences, as the Trust believes these were systemic failings within Community, as per the Trust’s Closure Statement.

It is up to you as an applicant to identify which Community Adverse Experience may apply to you. 

The CAE Application form does allow space for you to share details of your experience, providing an option to have your voice heard.

4. Capital Refunds (if applicable)
When applying for a Capital Refund you will be asked to confirm if you made a Capital Contribution to the Trust. You may have additional documentation to support your application, such as a receipt of payment to the Trust.

This can be uploaded to the application. More information on Capital Refunds can be found in the section below.

5. Processing your personal data
You will need to sign a declaration to confirm that you have read the Jesus Fellowship Redress Scheme Privacy Notice and to confirm that you understand how your information is shared and kept, before submitting their application. For all information on how personal data is collected, stored and used please see the Privacy Notice here.

Checklist
You can download the Community Adverse Experience Application Checklist here to ensure you have collected all the relevant documents and information before applying.

Third party support with application
You can be assisted by an Attorney.

If you elect to be represented in this way, you must provide a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) when applying for the Community Adverse Experience Scheme as well as certified ID for the Attorney. 

More information on LPAs can be found on the FAQ page.

4. Capital Refund

Please note: This information is only relevant to those who are applying for a Capital Refund, as part of their application. If this does not apply to you, please continue to the next section.

What is a Capital Refund?

A Capital Contribution refers to contribution/s of Capital made in cash to the Trust from former Trust Members and received by the Trustees of the Trust.

It is available to those who have not received any refund, or only a partial refund, of Capital Contribution/s they have made to the Trust during their time as a Trust Member.

You will need to have made a Capital Contribution to the Trust in your own name.

Inflation will be added to the value of the outstanding Capital Contribution/s to be refunded. This will be calculated from the date the Capital Contribution was made, to the date it was decided to close the Jesus Fellowship Community Trust, that is 10^th December 2020.

What is not included?

Capital Refunds will not include the following Capital Contributions:

• Capital Assets, for example vehicles and/or furniture, unless previously recorded on the Trust records;
• Inflation on Capital Refunds that have been previously made by the Trust;
• Capital Contributions made by a Trust Member who is deceased;
• Properties (these contributions will be reviewed on a case by case basis).

How will my Capital Refund be decided?

• Once eligibility has been confirmed, the Trust records will be reviewed against your name and you will be supplied with a Capital Contribution record. This will detail any contributions made to the Trust as well any previous refunds you may have received.
• You will then be required to respond by either agreeing that the record is correct or providing further evidence should you believe that the record is inaccurate. 
• If you provide further evidence, the Trust records will be investigated against the evidence you have provided. 
• The Trustees will then make a final offer of a Capital Refund or reject the evidence provided. This decision will be at the discretion of the Trustees.

If you are unsure whether you are due a Capital Refund, please see the FAQ page for more information.

5. Next Steps

Once your application has been received, you will receive an email acknowledgement. This will include a unique reference code and it is important that you keep this email.

You will receive email updates regarding the status of your application during the process. The Trust is anticipating a large volume of Community Adverse Experience Scheme applications and will be working through these on a first applied, first processed basis.

Please see below what happens once the application is being processed.

• When your application is being processed:
  
  • Firstly, your ID is checked against Trust Member records.
    
  • Secondly, your application is checked to confirm that a Community Adverse Experience has been identified by the applicant.
    
  • If you have submitted a Capital Refund claim: you will be sent a Capital Contribution record, detailing any contributions to the Trust and subsequent refunds. You will then have the opportunity to confirm your acceptance of this as an accurate record or to provide further evidence.
    
  • Trustees will make a decision on all applications and provide applicants with an outcome letter, and apology if applicable.
    
  • If your outcome letter requires the Trust to make a payment to the applicant, a payment form will then be provided in order that the applicant may accept the offer and provide bank details. Please note that the Trust may be required to phone you in order to confirm bank details.
    
  • The Jesus Fellowship Redress Scheme will process your payment/s and close your application.

Whilst we will endeavor to respond to all applications in a timely manner, we expect that the process could take anything from a few weeks to a few months, depending on the volume of applications received.