500 together

We are pleased to be able to share news of our latest donation, which has seen us work with a small Sheffield housing charity, Nomad Opening Doors and £430 has been spent to buy some new furniture for two of their tenants, Sarah and Shantel. Both these young girls are tenants with Nomad Opening Doors, a small, locally based housing charity who work to transform people’s lives and help them to transition out of homelessness and into a secure and stable future. The girls are delighted to have been selected by 500 Together for funding for new furniture and will be moving into a newly refurbished flat in August and feel extremely lucky to have the opportunity to choose their own furniture for the first time. We are grateful to them for sharing their stories - which have been anonymised to protect their privacy. Although their stories are different and unique, there are many similarities to their journey with Nomad Opening Doors. Both had references which labelled them as ‘difficult’ or ...

You may remember earlier this year we donated towards the redevelopment of the garden at The Greens - a Sheffield-based accommodation and drug and alcohol-free support service that helps people to re-build their independence and move on.    One of our members, who works at The Greens, has nominated a particular resident for our 51st donation, asking if we would give £229 for a Chromebook. She told us:  ‘we would not apply to buy everyone a Chromebook but this resident has shown such commitment to his recovery since coming here and we know actually how much this will transform his life.  He loves reading about history and we know this will help him immensely to do something he is passionate about.’ We felt this was a nomination we really wanted to follow up, knowing that this resident will be supported at The Greens to make the most of his laptop and it could make a big difference to his recovery. The resident himself has sent us this lovely message of thanks, wh...

Donation number 50 comes from our wonderful member, Jenny, who told us about Mohamad, a man she met during the course of some voluntary work.  Mohamad has been completely blind from birth and was studying Arabic Language at Aleppo University in Syria until January 2012 when he and his family fled the country to escape the atrocities of the civil war. He sought refuge in neighbouring Lebanon with his wife, who he met at university, and their baby son, where they stayed for five years until they were fortunate to find a flight to the UK in 2017.  Sheffield welcomed them as asylum seekers on their arrival. After moving three times within the city they are now settled in their home with their three young children and have been awarded refugee status. Mohamad speaks very warmly of the Sheffield people, describing them as kind, good and friendly. He also spoke about the relief that he and his family felt after arriving in a safe and supportive place. I ndependent mobility has ...

Our member Kate, from the excellent community support organisation Family Voice asked if we could help fund some school uniform for families who work with them.  The request has opened our eyes to the eye-watering cost of some local schools’ uniform requirements - which even include compulsory (Academy) school branded PE socks.  For a family newly settled here, perhaps seeking asylum, the cost of kitting out multiple kids so they can fit in at their new school is astounding. Sheffield council and schools no longer offer financial support (possibly because the demand would be so big.) In addition, schools do not have the same secondhand arrangements they might have operated through PTAs pre covid so families are expected to buy new.  Sadly our £500 isn’t enough to meet the needs of all the families but we did want to offer some help in the situation - we know it will make a difference.  It is hard to imagine not having enough money to buy essentials and also having to...

We are pleased to be able to share news of our   48th donation, which comes from a member who is involved with Sheffield Association of Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus.  She told us about Helen, who has been with the association for some years. In order to remain eligible for her Employment and Support Allowance, Helen is currently permitted to work a few hours a week.  She generally works 5 hours per week (term time) supporting university students with their mental health.  During the pandemic she found that she was supporting incredibly vulnerable students and feeling unable to withdraw this support, she inadvertently exceeded her permitted hours of work.  She has tried to resolve this mistake but has discovered that her ESA has been taken away with immediate effect, leaving her with a dramatic change in her income, meaning she can no longer afford to buy essentials including food.  She is currently relying on food parcels from her local church. ...

One of our members told us about an incident that took place in Walkley on the evening of 5 th   May.  An elderly couple who live on the next street from our member were verbally and physically attacked by a group of four young people who lured them out of their house.  Their idea was to video them causing distress to these people for entertainment using a mobile phone.  When their son intervened he was attacked on his head with a bottle.  The elderly lady attended hospital due to a ‘medical episode’ following the attack. This kind of incident is fortunately extremely rare in Walkley and the community have been quite shocked and upset.  This is the write-up in The Star:   https://www.thestar.co.uk/ news/crime/man-bottled-by- youths-and-grandmother-72- injured-in-horror-sheffield- street-attack-3226736   The local community has rallied round the family and responded generously to a crowdfunding site set up by the grand-daughter of the elderly coupl...