500 together

This week we can tell you about donation 176 which has helped a mum and her kids who have fled from domestic abuse. When our member contacted us, they explained she had left her family home and she and her kids were sleeping on the floor of a friend’s one bedroom flat.    She is being supported to find housing, but negotiating for these services is sadly becoming increasingly hard.  There is so little provision. Where they are currently living is so far away from schools the kids attend, so they are having to get buses    - which mum is struggling to pay for. They cannot apply for bus passes until they get temporary housing - and even then there will be a waiting time and no guarantee of success.    Our member had calculated that a month of bus travel to school for the kids would be around £350 and asked if we might be able to help. This lady has clearly taken such a brave step to leave her home and now faces such an uncertain time with her kids as they try to find work out their next

  This week we have sent £500 to T, a mum with 4 children under 14yrs,     2 of whom have additional needs and all of whom have been through a lot of trauma.  T was hospitalised by her abusive ex and in a coma for 6 weeks.  He is now in prison but T and the children have had to start again from scratch.      Their situation is very difficult and they have fallen into debt trying to keep up with bills.  Her nominator has seen the letters threatening bailiffs and the removal of things like the family tv etc .   It is just so difficult for families to cope financially in situations like this and we are pleased to have been able to support our member who made this nomination to help T clear her debts and hopefully find a way to move forward.  We wish her and her family all the best.

  Our friends at SHASBAH  (Sheffield Association for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus - a Sheffield charity which helps people affected by spina bifida and/or hydrocephalus) asked if we could help one of their members J who needed to travel to London to access a specialist standing scan machine for a heart condition. This is at a personal cost to her of £633 as it is not offered in Sheffield.  Our member explained the financial pressure paying for this would have on J and we were pleased to be able to step in to help with £500 towards the costs involved. J has sent this lovely message: ‘I would like to thank you very much for the grant you’ve so kindly provided for me for my heart monitor, it means so much to me and is very much appreciated that you would do this for me as it will help with my ongoing heart problems and hopefully help me get the correct treatment from my doctor.’ As always thank you for your continued support of 500 together.  We do feel we are seeing a rise in nominatio

One of our members, Tracey,     is chair of Sheffield Recovery Community and told us about some of the remarkable women within the group who taken part in some international research and  joined the Global Gender Committee   Global Gender Committee (former Gender Working Group) - World Federation Against Drugs (wfad.se)  which in turn  inspired them to launch  Sheffield Women's Individual Personal Experience Recovery Network ( SWIPE)  -  a group founded BY women with lived experience of being in recovery FOR women who are thinking about or who are in recovery. As part of the launch and to help promote their new network   they wanted to produce a short film to raise awareness about some of the challenges women face in recovery and to reduce the stigma and encourage more women to seek support.  They also hoped to submit the film into this year’s annual  Recovery Street Film Festival (rsff.co.uk)  - which has the theme ‘ Belonging ’.   When she came to us, Tracey had been unsuccessful