Sheffield Aspergers Parents Action Group
Your grant has enabled us to maintain a full programme during the past 6 months, running a total of 75 varied activities, a weekly newsletter, ongoing Facebook group and one to one support. About 150 members have been to at least one activity so far this year. We have been able to visit Liverpool, the new Natural History Museum in Sheffield, Conisborough Castle, Castleton - a cave and Peveril Castle and Hathersage Open Air swimming pool.
In some cases, members themselves have led an activity, and it has been encouraging that this year a few more members have offered – including workshops about autism, cookery, drawing, origami, board games and walks. We try to provide a range of activity from the serious to the more ‘just for fun’ type, but also to enable members to leave the familiarity of Sheffield and explore.
new places.
The Sheffield General Cemetery Trust
Your grant has supported the work of two part time staff and almost 100 passionate volunteers to develop our fundraising activities based in the historic buildings and grounds of the closed Grade II listed Victorian cemetery. Our funding has to be self-generated, so your grant has enabled us to support our Events Team to significantly increase our fundraising activities and we expect to achieve a record surplus for the current year.
Hanover Tenants Association
Hanover Tenants Association provide residents help and support finding long term work by employing a part time coordinator who works with them on a one-to-one basis 3 days per week. The service has been running for over 10 years, thanks to the generosity of people like yourselves. The HTA realised that the best way to help people in our community was to help them find long term work.
Working is important for all kinds of reasons, self-esteem, self-confidence, financial independence, improved mental health are but some. Over the 12-month period you helped fund our project for, we successfully helped 21 people into long term work. 6 females and 15 males, 11 were Somali, 3 Black British, 3 British Caribbean, 2 African, 1 Eritrean and 1 Arabic. Our service is open to all, but we do have a good track record finding work for BME people and as a result word of mouth brings them to us.
Sheffield Music Academy Harmony Works
Since our grant from Sheffield Town Trust, the project has gone from strength to strength. In March 2023 we were awarded development funding from National Lottery Heritage Fund (of which the business Plan supported by Sheffield Town Trust played a large part). We have just been approved to make our second-round bid for £4,467,305 to NLHF in 2024.
Support from Sheffield Town Trust to update our business plan has allowed us to leverage further funding, including a £200,000 grant from The Wolfson Foundation. In addition, four key funders have allocated funding to our project totalling £6,787,305, including £4,467,305 from National Lottery Heritage Fund and £2m Gainshare Funding from SYMCA. We are progressing with our fundraising plan, developed with specialist external fundraising expertise, and supported by Sheffield City Council, and applications are in progress.
SAYiT
With your grant we have achieved our goals of creating an inclusive and dynamic group room, young people have picked paint colours and helped with decorating the space. The room is based on the young people’s mood board ideas which have made them feel listened too and more invested in the space. Young people have ownership of where they spend their time, and we can accommodate the growing number of young people attending SAYiT.
The space is fully accessible for wheelchair users.
We now have space and created a LGBTQ+ book nook which young people can just come and sit and read. Thanks to new furniture we can be more adaptable to accommodate the different sessions we deliver. such as changing the layout from a group activity space to a smaller informal space for the parents and carers group to use with ease due to our new modular furniture.
Quotes from the kids
-
I never thought we would ever have somewhere like this
-
The room is Sic!
-
I love coming to group it feels like a safe space, I can sit and read get involved in the group activity or just go and sit in the snug if I feel anxious
Sheffield Civic Trust (Sheffield Heritage Open Days)
Thanks to the grant our Heritage Open Days in 2023 were a great success with over 130 events taking place across the Sheffield area. Coordinating the events and publishing the free brochure – thanks to funding from the Town Trust – meant that we could distribute these to venues across the city and ensure that people without access to the internet can access and enjoy the festival. The brochure launch took place at Sheffield Town Hall in the presence of the Lord Mayor. We also took a stall at the Moor market giving out brochures on a busy Saturday to widen our potential audience and had a stall at the Sheffield Fayre in Norfolk Park on August bank holiday Monday where we gave out brochures to attendees.
Registered Charity Number 223760