500 together

We are pleased to be able to send £250 to Darnall Wellbeing - a local community organisation in Sheffield with a 20 year history of building social cohesion, working with local people to address health inequalities. Needless to say COVID-19 has put an increased pressure on the services they are providing - in a deprived area without a working food bank. The organisation decided to match our donation with £250 of their own money to allow them to send Tesco vouchers out to a number of individuals and families identified by their well-being co-ordinator as being in urgent need of support.   Huge thanks to the member who identified this organisation. Having spoken to them myself this morning to arrange the money transfer they have told me about the many vulnerable families, young and old they are trying to help and are very grateful for our support. https://www.facebook.com/ darnallwb/

This week, thank you to our member who nominated the Cathedral Archer Project in Sheffield. We are pleased to be able to send them £250. Our member told us that like many charities, Cathedral Archer Project has had to cancel important fundraising events during the Covid-19 crisis. So more so than ever they are looking for some financial support, to enable them to continue the incredible work they do for the homeless in Sheffield. The Cathedral Archer Project (CAP) helps homeless and vulnerable adults from sleeping bag to employment and fulfilling and enjoyable lives. They believe that every person who comes through their doors is an individual with talents, the ability to live a healthy, sustainable life, and who, in time and with support, will have aspirations they want to achieve. In normal times they would be running an ‘engagement, stabilisation and fulfilment’ programme to support the homeless but because of the multitude of restrictions caused by Covid-19 CAP have been operating ...

This weekend we are pleased to be able to send £250 to Family Voice Sheffield. Family Voice is a fantastic organisation that works with vulnerable families in Sheffield from Totley to Sharrow to the Manor and Pitsmoor. They help with whatever families need - parenting support; increasing confidence/social isolation; learning English; help at home; improving health; family activities or educational support for parents or children. Responding as best they  can to need. Needless to say the Coronavirus pandemic is hitting their families hard and the support Family Voice needs to offer has changed to real emergency support. They already have families who do not have money to top up their electricity, or for food shopping, or to pay the rent. They are using local newly unemployed volunteers to do shopping for people who have lost money from suddenly losing wages and those who are ALSO having to self isolate because someone in their household is ill or at high risk. As we all know, there ...

We are pleased to have given £250 to Baby Basics Sheffield, which we hope you agree is an excellent project for us to support. Baby Basics is a volunteer-led project aiming to support new mothers and families who are struggling to meet the financial and practical burden of looking after a new baby. The centre supports families across Sheffield working with a wide range of frontline health and social care professionals. Baby Basics provides much needed essentials and equipment to mothers and families who are unable to provide these items for themselves; including but not limited to teenage mums, people seeking asylum and women fleeing domestic abuse and trafficking. Right now they are a critical service and under enormous pressure trying to meet the surge in demand. In a normal month they might complete 70 referrals - but are currently facing double that number and just don't have the supplies to cope and meet the need. Our £250 will help them purchase additional essential baby supp...

This week's donation goes to Gleadless Valley Foodbank and we are pleased to have sent them £250 to allow them to source additional supplies. Quite a few people asked that we give some support to a Foodbank. One member identified Gleadless Valley Foodbank as being one they had heard was particularly short of supplies and in a very deprived area of Sheffield so we were happy to be able to send a donation to them with our thanks for the tremendous work they are doing.

This week we have been pleased to have been able to offer some support to a lady (who we will call J)  who has been in a dreadful situation and is looking to find some escape for herself and her children.  We are giving £500 to J & her children in the hope that it makes the journey she is embarking on just a little bit easier. Her nominator has told us that for many years J has been abused like a modern day domestic slave and been denied any chance of a normal life and the normal things that make us happy. She has decided to take the huge decision to leave, with her three young children. It's going to be immensely hard to be a single parent and cope with the backlash from leaving. The children will be uprooted, there will be a long time in temporary, insecure, changing accommodation with unfamiliar, minimal furniture and bare minimum benefits to survive on. J will have to learn how to do everything for herself, having never previously been allowed any independence or auton...

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 t...