105 - Helping families with rising fuel bills - Dec 2022

 Here we are on Christmas Eve with donation 105 - which is a special one of £1000.


We recently received an amazing additional contribution from a very long standing member, Pam. She held an event selling her late husband's bespoke collection of books and she and her amazing friends raised a whopping £600.  Pam told us in the spirit of her husband's campaigning work throughout his life, she wanted the money to go on to help our recipients at 500 together.  We were just so touched that she and her son chose 500 together to benefit from this collection.  And thank you again to those of you who joined us after attending the event!

We have a nomination from a community worker connected to a housing estate in Sheffield who says there are lots of families she supports who are struggling with the cost of living and keeping gas and electric bills under control. She asked if we could help in a slightly different way and pay 5 families £200 to help them immediately.   

This seemed a perfect way to use our additional funds and get help out to a few families at a critical time of year.

To give an example of one of these families - a single parenting mum rang the community worker in tears.  She works part time on a zero hours contract, so is ineligible for sick pay.  She has been struck down by the 'flu' bug which has hit so many of us recently, so has not only been unable to work, and earn, but has also had to stay at home meaning she had to use more heating.  Her pre-payment meter had used £70 in gas in 3 days ( cooker and heating) and she didn't have anything left to top up or buy food. And then two of her children were off school ill with the same bug. 

This sort of situation is occurring not just throughout this estate, but in so many households, and risks becoming a vicious cycle as families try to save on heating bills.

This mum says: 
'I want to thank you very much.  It has took so much pressure off me over the Christmas period.  I really do appreciate it very very much'.


We thought this was a great way to use our additional funds and a special donation to help more families over this festive period.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

39 - Support for victims & survivors of Domestic Abuse - Rehouse to Rehome - February 2021

Image
For our latest donation we are sending £500 to Francine at  Rehouse to Rehome , a Sheffield based charity supporting and empowering victims and survivors of Domestic Abuse. Our £500 will go towards buying a cooker/fridge/ washing machine for a family that Francine is helping to rehome.  Francine tells us that she has seen a significant rise in requests for help since the beginning of the pandemic. Our donation has been very gratefully received and Francine has kindly sent us this powerful message explaining why: Not having essential household goods often becomes a real and practical barrier that prevents a survivor from leaving an abusive relationship. Even when individuals gather up the immense courage it takes to flee an abusive relationship and, if they are lucky enough to be re-housed by the authorities, there is a strong possibility that they will not get the financial support required to furnish that property with even the most basic of household goods which are a necessity in or
Read more

5. Goldigger Trust - helping young people develop positive self esteem - Jan 2020

Image
This week we are pleased to be able to give £250 to Golddigger Trust.   The nomination came from one of our members whose daughter & family have benefitted from Golddigger’s support. Golddigger is a small Sheffield based charity that offers support for young people in developing positive self esteem and well-being, to allow them to feel more secure and aspire to achieve more.  Their name comes from their aim of ‘digging out the gold’  - the worth and true value of the young people they work with, who may be struggling themselves to see their value due to poor self esteem & negative circumstances.   They offer drop in sessions as well as 1:1 counselling, peer mentorship and courses to support young people aged 11-18 years.  At a time when it is very hard to access the Children & Adolescent Mental Health Service due to such high demand, the availability of a service like Golddigger is invaluable and we are genuinely so pleased to be able to send them a donation.   Golddigger
Read more

118 - Helping SWWOP set up a 'flexi-pot' to allow them to support women in emergency situations.

We often say how lucky we are to have among our members people who work & volunteer in some of Sheffield’s extraordinary local organisations and charities.     We always welcome nominations from them - they see so much need on a daily basis, so when they ask for our help we know our contribution will make a difference. On this occasion SWWOP (Sheffield Working Women's Opportunities Project) , an organisation which provides intensive support to vulnerable women involved in street prostitution, asked if we could help them. SWWOP’s primary service is making contact with women involved in street prostitution and being a friendly face to offer non-judgmental and confidential support and information.  They provide street based outreach and drop in sessions, with an aim to improve the women’s health and safety.  https://www.swwop.org SWWOP told us that since the start of the cost-of-living crisis, they have seen the number of women they support involved in sex work almost triple.  Wom
Read more