500 together

Donation number 59 of £500 goes to a Sheffield family to help fund some childcare whilst Mum is recovering from serious illness and Dad is out of the country visiting his very unwell Mother. With no family or close friends here, and three children to care for including a toddler and new baby, Family Voice (a fantastic local community organisation) have been doing all they can to support this family, helping (among other things) to fund full-time child care for the toddler.  Family Voice also reached out to us to see if we could help to keep the toddler in nursery for 2 more weeks while Dad is abroad, allowing the Mum more recovery time and to care for the new baby.  Family Voice say the toddler has grown to love nursery and they expect the next 2 weeks to continue in the same way so that by the time the Dad returns, the Mum will be stronger and the toddler can be at home more with the Dad around to help.  Family Voice tell us that our help has averted a serious crisis, one that could h

Donation   58   goes to Yes2Ventures, a Social Enterprise based in Snig Hill in Sheffield that provides opportunities for vulnerable adults who have difficulties in finding full time employment. Our £500 will pay for a 10 session workshop for 4 new catering trainees, culminating in a showcase meal before Christmas, providing them with vital skills for working in the catering industry.    We talked to the founder of Yes2Ventures, and he explained how throughout his 40 year career working with vulnerable/disadvantaged people, one fact has shone through; people want to work.  Yes2Ventures trains and employs people who are disadvantaged in the labour market, who struggle to get a foot in the door, and as much as possible aims to reach them before their worklessness becomes entrenched and institutionalised. Yes2Ventures provides people with skills directly needed by employers and along the way sells its good and services (e.g. food/meals, transportation services, a telephone research unit)

We are pleased to be able to share news of donation number 57 of £500, which goes to 15 year old ‘S’ a Syrian refugee, to help with tuition for her GCSE Physics and Chemistry.   To be honest, this one caused some debate amongst the 500 Together admin group, as we wondered if this was the most important help we could give for this family. We heard about their background - that this family came from Syria about 4 years ago, English is not their first language, Dad is in work but has some health conditions, and several members of the family including Mum have been unwell and in hospital this year, so it has been an incredibly challenging year. We also thought about how prevalent tutoring is amongst middle class families with little thought or worry about the cost of tutoring, even when sometimes their children already go to top performing schools.  However it is these written words sent to us from 15 year old S, in which she expresses her ambition so clearly, that made us think that our d

Our 56th donation goes to St Wilfrid's Centre a well known charity in Sheffield that supports vulnerable, isolated and homeless adults. Sadly there was recently a break-in at the Centre, so 500 Together has donated £190 to meet the costs of replacing the window that was severely damaged in the break-in. The charity say they are extremely grateful to everyone from 500 Together, and send a big thank you for our help. Repairing the window has meant that clients can feel secure and comfortable again and it also means the Centre doesn’t have to use vital funds on repairing the window and can use it to support the people who need help instead.

This one comes from a member who nominated Jim to receive funds to buy a laptop. Grab a cuppa to have read. Jim and his nominator have been kind enough to share his story.   As you will see, having access to his own laptop will have a significant impact on many aspects of Jim's life and he's had a tough time of it, so we really hope this will make a few things easier for him. We have made a few of these kinds of donations. As I sit here at my laptop writing this, I realise once again how much I take it for granted that I have such ready access to my multiple devices. It is so easy for me to connect with friends, do shopping, follow the news, be entertained, fill in forms... These donations have untold impacts. And so to Jim. Jim is a man in his 50s. Until recently he lived with his brother Paul and their two dogs. Jim and Paul were very close all their lives; they had had a very difficult upbringing and this had caused difficulties for both of them into their adult lives. As a