500 together

We have just made donation 75 after a member got in touch to tell us about a man she is supporting.  We cannot share all the details of his situation, but this was a donation we had no doubt we wanted to make. K is a father of 4.  He continues to suffer with some mental health difficulties after the death of his mother and one of his daughters who  died in the most tragic of circumstances.   We cannot share the details, but the stress involved has left him unable to work , cope independently and navigate the system to apply for appropriate support.  Thankfully now he does have a support worker to help him to apply for benefits (although the wait is still a long one) and he is receiving weekly provision from the local food bank.  He has outstanding bills to pay and his situation has become really overwhelming for him and so he can never catch up or get in front. ...

Recent events mean we are looking further afield with donation 74 and sending our support and solidarity to the people in Ukraine via a donation to the Disasters Emergency Committee.    We hope you will agree that this unprecedented situation merits a slight change to our normal policy and that 500 together should add our contribution to the massive efforts taking place to aid those facing such unimaginable terror and hardship. The DEC brings together 15 leading UK aid charities working on the ground to provide food and water, warm clothes and blankets, medicine and medical equipment for the sick and injured.  https://www.dec.org.uk/appeal/ukraine-humanitarian-appeal It is hard to watch and listen to news reports just now, seeing the brutal attacks on the people of Ukraine.    The need is unimaginable and whilst we appreciate our £500 is a drop in the ocean, it will help people in this humanitarian disaster. We stand ready to support families who might be nomina...

Donation 73 Our member told us about a family she works with who needed our help: 'This lovely lady is originally from the Czech Republic and has been living in Darnall for over 10 years. She has a partner and 4 children and another baby on the way.   All  EU citizens settled in the UK before the year 2020 were required to apply for settled status before June 2021. This family has applied before the deadline, however their passports and birth certificates got lost in the post on the way to the Home Office and were never found. For this reason they have their Settlement application still pending.   Because of this situation and with the new rules following Brexit, they have now had their Universal Credit stopped and the whole family only have the child benefit to live on. They are behind on paying rent and can’t afford to buy food or a formula for their child. On some days the children cannot even attend school as the family has no money for bus fare.   Not ...

For our 72nd donation, we are sending £500 to the Parson Cross Initiative to fund improvements to their allotment project including some much needed tree surgery work on their small apple orchard and some new raised planting beds to use with their youth group. The youth group has met in different forms since the first lockdown, and has already been involved in painting the shed and building an outdoor kitchen and pizza oven. Now they're ready for their next step and the new raised beds and other work will set them up for a spring and summer of activities. We spoke to Nick Waterfield at Parson Cross Initiative about the allotments and Nick explained how important the allotments have been over the pandemic and how much the local community has benefitted from them. We wish them all the best and look forward to seeing some great photos of the upgrades. Thank you to our member who spotted this great initiative and sent us the nomination. This article gives some more information on some...

We loved this nomination from a member who saw someone who might need our help and took the time and trouble to find out more about this family so that we could offer a little support. ‘A’ is a mum to 3 children under the age of 10. In October her middle child was diagnosed with the very rare condition of aplastic anaemia and they have been in hospital for much of the time ever since. Aplastic anaemia is a serious condition affecting the blood, where the bone marrow and stem cells do not produce enough blood cells. In mid December mum and son went into isolation in hospital as he was due to have a bone marrow transplant on 22nd December. However, the donor got Covid, so the procedure was cancelled. Her son had had the required chemo for the operation but then caught an infection. After further chemo, he was finally able to have his transplant at the end of December from a back up donor. They are still in hospital, having spent Christmas, and his 9th birthday there. They were due to co...

  We have donated £500 to Darnall Education and Sports Academy (DESA) - a new organisation set up by local volunteers who recognised the need to offer sport, fitness and learning opportunities to young people in Darnall. The need to give young people access to fitness, social activities and learning feels even more important than ever after the last two years with Covid.     Our money is being used to buy an air hockey table for their youth club, some club T shirts for the kids, and they also used a bit of the funding for a pizza night! We met Abdul Malik who leads the programme and we were really impressed with his commitment and energy to make a difference.    “ From all of us at DESA, we are extremely thankful. The donation will go towards much needed equipment for our sporting activities and youth club sessions. These sessions are key in providing young people from a heavily deprived background a platform to thrive, make friends, lead a more active lifestyle...

With donation 69, we helped a family with four children (baby to 16 years old) who unfortunately had a serious flood which went through all three floors of their house resulting in the carpets, the sofa and some Christmas presents being ruined. With no insurance and absolutely no means to fix the damage, we liaised with the family's local community worker to donate £500, which has been put towards making essential repairs, new carpets and replacing some of the Christmas presents. The family were 'very, very grateful' for the help 500 Together gave them. We wish the family all the best, thank you to the local community worker who does such great work in the area and thanks to the member that nominated the family. This is an excellent example of the way 500 together can work to step in urgently. Luckily, we just had £500 left in the bank and so we were able to send our help immediately, in time for Christmas.