Sheffield Home of Football
The Sheffield Town Trust awarded a £1,000 grant to the Sheffield's Home of Football charity in 2024 for the blue plaques project. This financial support facilitated the establishment of the blue plaques programme, which now includes plaques throughout the city and has generated considerable public interest. With additional support exceeding £3,000, three more plaques are planned. Following the installation of the first plaque, building owners have begun funding their own.
The charity’s trustees commented on receipt of the grant that without our initial backing, the widespread success of the project would not have been possible.
Further details about Sheffield Home of Football can be found by following this link
Chance to Dance 2024
The Sheffield Town Trust supported a grant application of £1,500 to support the Chance To Dance Festival 2024 which took place on Saturday 6th July in Sheffield City Centre. 30 groups filled the Peace Gardens, Winter Garden and Barker’s Pool with performance and audience participation sessions. The day brought over 500 community dancers from varying dance styles, ages, backgrounds and abilities into the city centre performing for an audience over 1000 throughout the day.
Photograph by Tim Dennell
Afterwards the group reported that “We welcomed back several of our established regular groups as well as including three new groups to the programme. It was wonderful to see young adults joining us for the opening ceremony with the local Techno Spartans K-Pop group, the amazing inclusive Under The Stars delivering performances in Makaton and newly established InSpire Dance delivering Latin & Ballroom.”
Photograph by Tim Dennell
The Brain Trust
Thanks to your grant, more people in Sheffield have been able to receive our support. The number of people with a brain tumour that we are helping each year is increasing; in the year to August 2024, we supported 48 people in Sheffield (33 patients and 11 caregivers). Since 1st January 2024, we have sent out 13 brain boxes to people in Sheffield. You can find out more on the Brain Trust by following this link.
These words, from a Sheffield caregiver, illustrate the difference The Brain Trust are making to people’s lives:
‘As a carer, Braintrust has been instrumental in helping us accept and come to terms with the diagnosis of a brain tumour and the treatment. We have accessed the webinar meet ups which has helped us hear people's experience of going through it and what to expect and hearing positive stories as well as the harsh reality. Having a peer supporter has also been so helpful in being able to ask those awkward questions. We have met some brilliant inspirational people through it who we chat to regularly. My partner has really benefited from speaking to others going through it and I am so grateful for this. Without Braintrust we would be a lot less positive and probably a lot more fearful than we are! I can't thank them enough for the work they do and the difference they make. They are truly life savers.’
Sheffield Women’s Aid
The Sheffield Town Trust awarded £5,000 funding for re decorating some of the flats in the Sheffield Women’s Aid refuge and improving communal areas. For the flats, women were given the choice of colours, and all chose neutral colours as they felt this was more peaceful. One woman said, “I like the light of the colour as it makes me feel more at peace which is what I need”.
Sheffield Women’s Aid reported: We know for the women and families coming to our services, gaining a sense of peace and creating a safe space is incredibly important and is in-keeping with the trauma informed way of working – within this model the environment is as equally as important as the ways we deliver support. We have since also undertaken the service user survey since receiving this funding; in our 2023 survey there was feedback regarding some of the décor in the building and it is appearing a little depressing. However, we can see on the 2024 survey there is overwhelmingly positive feedback about the flats and building, which evidences the difference your funding has provided and something that is tangible to measure.
Some of the feedback includes:
“I was surprised when I came how lovely and welcoming the flat was, I didn’t expect that”
“I love my flat, it makes me feel safe”
“I am happier my flat was re decorated and I had new carpet, it wasn’t very nice before!”
You can find more about Sheffield Women’s Aid by following this link
Stannington Brass Band
The Sheffield Town Trust supported Stannington Brass Band with a grant of £2,000 towards the cost of fitting acoustic panels in the church hall where they practice. On completion of the work, and after a few rehearsals, they reported that the difference was amazing. “It’s like having a new rehearsal space. We can hear a lot more of the detail of the music – our conductor is delighted, and our players are having to work harder! It is a much nicer environment to play in, and our ears are no longer ringing at the end of rehearsals with fatigue and stress levels noticeably improved”.
The church, where they rehearse is also pleased with the work that has been done – the benefits are there for other users of the space. You can follow the Stannington Brass Band by following this link.
Greenhill Community Library
The Sheffield Town Trust awarded a grant of £1,000 to Greenhill Community Library which allowed them to provide a fourth very successful Music Day. They received the grant in May 2024, and the project took place in October 2024. The project was to engage children and young people in listening and partaking in music and to try playing a violin and cello. It is also hoped that youngsters will be encouraged to visit the library on a regular basis.
Whirlow Brook Park
The Sheffield Town Trust supported a grant application of £4,900 towards a new Family Trail through lesser-known parts of Whirlow Brook Park. Park volunteers raised some of the necessary funding themselves, but the Town Trust grant made the whole thing possible.
Clearance work started in autumn 2023, and new paths were laid by volunteers from Aviva. Council rangers helped to make a boardwalk to access the Cascades on the Limb Brook and wooden bridges were constructed over the drain by the side of the drive. The Metal Bird Company donated 10 birds for the woodland. Sculptures of a frog, a newt and a toad were commissioned and installed, together with a willow moth sculpture funded by Sheffield City Council Southwest Area Committee.
A story chair was built and a picnic table assembled and volunteers made fairy doors and constructed way markers using sawn roundels from fallen timber and an illustrated trail map was produced. The remainder of the grant enabled the rotten wooden maze to be removed and replaced with more durable posts made from recycled plastic bottles. A small ceremony to mark the completion of the project was held on 28 October when Town Trustee Jane Ferretti, cut the ribbon on the new maze. The trail and the maze are now much-loved features of the park. They will be maintained by the Friends’ of Whirlow Park Group. “This project would not have been possible without the grant awarded by the Town Trust - thank you!”
