500 together

One of our members who is involved with the Citadel project in Sheffield - supporting individuals who have faced homelessness with sustaining tenancies through 1:1 volunteer led support - contacted us to see if we could help one of their clients.   This person had encountered anti-social behaviour in his council property and had the opportunity to move to a new community in a greener area of Sheffield.  He was very much looking forward to this, but because of some serious health difficulties, he was struggling with the practicalities of making the move.  His old house had become severely over cluttered and he has recognised that the best way to handle this is to be careful of what items he took to the new property to prevent the issue worsening in his new home.   Citadel were keen to help him implement this advice and support him to move home without further delay.     We were asked if we could help pay costs for removals for him, so the team at Citadel cou...

  We were asked by a member, who works at Manor & Castle Development Trust, if we could support a young girl her team had met. The girl lost her mum to cancer at the beginning of the year. It has been an understandably traumatic time for her. In the Easter Holidays, she had taken part in a sports activity day which included some introductory coaching with a karate instructor.  This had been made available to her as part of the government funded Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme .  HAF provides free holiday club sessions, including meals and activities, to eligible children who receive benefits-related free school meals. It's designed to support families and ensure children have access to healthy food and engaging activities during school holidays. The karate coaching session had helped her get rid of some of her anger and she would have loved to have been able to continue with sessions beyond the holiday taster but unfortunately this was not someth...

  We were asked by our member Tracey, who is Chair of Sheffield Recovery Community if we might be able to make a small contribution towards a project to help distribute a new book ‘Women in Recovery: Capital Pathways’ to women who would really benefit from its inspiring content.    The book brings together stories of 14 women, 5 from Sheffield, sharing powerful personal and collective experiences of women who have navigated the challenging pathways of drug addiction recovery.   Tracey was looking for a contribution towards being able to provide free copies of the book to women in need—whether in recovery services, community groups, or facing personal struggles— to allow them access to a resource that offers hope, connection, and practical pathways to recovery.   We sent £100 towards the project and were delighted to read that the book launch was such a success.    You can read more about it in Tracey’s blog post here   https://haveawordwithyoursel...

  Donation 207 of £500 goes to Nomad, a local Sheffield charity that aims to break the cycle of homelessness by supporting and empowering people to thrive in safe homes.  https://nomadsheffield. co.uk Many of Nomad’s tenants experience social isolation, anxiety and depression, and having the opportunity to get out and engage in positive experiences could make a real difference in their journey to rebuild their lives. Our donation is being used to help support tenants with their wellbeing and to take them out for occasional activities that will help boost their social confidence and overall mental health. They have already started to use the donation and have shared a couple of experiences with us: D* was taken out to the park by one of our housing officers, Keasha, where they grabbed an ice cream and chatted about his hope to make new friends in the area. While they were there, Keasha encouraged D to approach a group of lads and ask if he could join their game of football...

We are pleased to be back with news of donation  206 This latest donation of £500 has gone to help a young woman who has just received her refugee status. This always sounds like a really exciting time but actually it is really hard - being evicted from your accommodation, having to fill in zillions of forms, starting to go to the job centre, applying for universal credit - there's a lot of stressful things to do!  She is particularly young and arrived on her own following traumatic events in her home country. Her mental health has been suffering but she is now doing quite well and wants to attend English classes. She has signed up at Sheffield College and started attending  - but they have run out of money for bus fares that they usually provide for students. So she has stopped going and says she is getting ill again as she is staying home so much.  She's being temporarily housed in a hostel - which isn't always a nice or safe place to be - so no...

  One of our members told us about B, a little girl who was diagnosed two years ago with Leukaemia, aged just 1. She has undergone intensive treatment for the leukaemia including chemotherapy.  During the course of this treatment, she also had to have an emergency tracheostomy which meant that she lost the ability to speak.   Her parents have had to spend weeks in hospital to be fully trained in caring for her and her tracheostomy. She has spent the majority of her life in and out of hospital. Her mum has had to leave work to become a full time carer and relies heavily on family support.  It is so tough for them all. Our member told us that their friends, who have been supporting them throughout, were secretly raising money to try to send the family to Lapland UK for a uniquely special experience.  They needed some help to reach their target so we sent them £500 and they were recently able to surprise the family with the tickets.  It was...

With this latest donation we have helped buy beds for a family, who had to flee their home in Afghanistan, with their children aged 9, 7 & 1,  and come to the UK, having worked with the British armed forces. They have been granted  permission to live and work in England and were recently given a permanent place in a rented, unfurnished housing association house.  They have been supported by Tracy, who operated  'The garage free stall for refugees and people in need ' - an extraordinary initiative set up by Tracy when a local hotel in her area of Sheffield was housing refugees.  Tracy asked for donations of clothing, toys and other useful items and opened her garage every week to the refugees - and others in her community who might be in need.  We supported them 2 years ago, when we bought some shoes and underwear for the refugees.  The hotel is now no longer used for refugees, so the garage stall no longer operates on a regular...