500 together

Donation 138 goes to Always An Alternative, a Sheffield based charity that aims to challenge the mindset of young people and support them to make safe and positive life choices.  Our £500 goes towards the mobile youth club that they are setting up, specifically to buy a speaker and put towards the vehicle wrapping (graphics on the outside of the van). Ant Olaseinde from Always an Alternative does amazing work delivering talks and workshops around the dangers of carrying knives in schools, colleges and universities. Always an Alternative also run free youth clubs twice a week and free flag American football once a week to engage young people and teach them positive life skills. Once up and running, the mobile youth club will enable Always an Alternative to get out and about to even more young people in Sheffield. This is such an inspiring initiative that we are really proud to support, and we thank our member for making their nomination.  To find out more about the great work Ant is doi

Donation 137 goes to an incredible local charity Family Voice,  who work with women in the Sharrow, Lowfield and Nether Edge area. Since COVID Family Voice have learnt how to give benefits and housing advice - helping local BAME women with financial inclusivity and helping them live in better conditions. During COVID they were offered funding to cope with the increase in their work, especially whilst other services were closed or changing. This funding allowed them to support isolated women more holistically, build more trust and help prevent further crises.  Family Voice offers a range of free classes (including English language, exercise, driving theory, cooking) and when women come to these classes they also now get access to one to one support. This means Family Voice can have a bigger positive impact on their lives - especially for the many women who do not have the confidence to go elsewhere for support.  Demand for their services continues to increase, and women are suffering mo

Donation 136 goes to a woman, J,    who belongs to SHASBAH (Sheffield Association for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus - a Sheffield charity which helps people affected by spina bifida and/or hydrocephalus). J had been struggling a great deal with increasingly frequent dizzy spells, losing balance and having falls.  She needed a heart monitor fitted for 3 days, but the NHS were unable to offer this any time soon and with her additional health needs and difficulties in getting out of the house, she felt she had no alternative but to pay to get the treatment as a matter of urgency. Our member at SHASBAH asked if we might consider joining them in contributing towards the cost of this.  We understood that J felt she had no choice but to go down this route to try to stop the dizziness and the increasing risk of falling and the dangers associated with that, and agreed to share the cost with SHASBAH. J sends everyone a huge thanks for helping her and is so relieved she has been able to get the

 T his nomination comes from someone who we once helped out with one of our early donations when she was having a tough time.  A couple of months ago, we were delighted to hear things had improved for her and that she had wanted to join our group as a member.  Honestly, that just made us so happy! She asked if she could nominate someone who she had been trying to support, and told us about her friend who had suffered a major heart attack a year and a half ago.  He had to have 2 stents fitted and then months later got diagnosed with MS.  She told us how it's really affected him both physically and mentally. He rarely leaves the house as it’s a struggle for him to walk distances. He has become reluctant to get out to do his shopping and see his friends so he’s always stuck in the house.  She was keen to find a way to try to encourage him to get out more and asked if she could access a donation to buy him a walking stick and a bus pass. We were pleased to help and have sent him £300 f