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‘Army of volunteers’ restart ‘loneliness-busting’ visits
One of Sheffield’s leading older people’s charities has restarted ‘loneliness-busting’ face-to-face visits, after the pandemic forced their suspension.
Sheffield Churches Council for Community Care (SCCCC)’s 66-strong army of volunteers are back chatting in-person to isolated older people, many of whom count television as their only friend.
Precautions like face coverings, enhanced hygiene and social distancing remain, but charity bosses say the long-awaited return of physical get-togethers represents a ‘major milestone’ in their pandemic recovery.
SCCCC Good Neighbour Scheme team leader Tammy Wilson, said: “Many of our volunteers have provided weekly telephone chats and some will continue with these even after our core services resume. But for those who feel comfortable delivering and receiving them, face-to-face visits will re-start with precautions in place.
“We’ve all been through some tough times, but we never gave up hope that we could get one of our flagship services back up and running, so this represents a really important milestone for the charity.”
The scheme aims to help older members of the community by enhancing their quality of life and is provided free of charge.
“We’ve currently got a backlog of staff visits to people who were referred to us during the pandemic,” said Tammy. “Where appropriate, we will be matching these people with volunteers so we’re always open to more people giving up their time to lend support.”
SCCCC is recruiting new volunteers. A full induction and DBS checks will be carried out to ensure all volunteers are suitable to support service users.
To find out more or to volunteer, email volunteers@scccc.co.uk or call 0114 250 5292.
Social enterprise to host British Disability Snooker event
The Stephen Harrison Snooker Academy (SHA) is staging the British Disability Snooker Championship Under 25s event in Sheffield on October 30 and 31.
Sheffield-based social enterprise SHA was founded by Stephen Harrison in memory of his father Ray Harrison who was the Paraplegic World Snooker Champion, winning a gold medal in 1985.
Ray was in a wheelchair at 16 years old. He was a victim of polio, but became highly successful at playing the sport and promoting the game to many disabled people.
Former professional snooker player Stephen said: “Dad was such an inspiration. He taught me the game from an early age and never lost his enthusiasm and joy in taking part in a competition.
“I want to follow his example, growing the interest at grass roots level and giving everyone who wants to learn the opportunity to play this wonderful sport.
“The Academy has been providing snooker coaching, competitions and training sessions for people with physical and learning disabilities since 2007 and we intend to continue to offer sporting facilities and tuition to all future newcomers.
“Since 2008 we have also run a Saturday Club and a Holiday Snooker Club for children with special needs where they don’t just learn how to play snooker, but also gain the chance to meet new friends and socialise.”
Stephen has also designed The UK Snooker Awards programme, a 60-hour learning module. To date, 66 children have completed the exercises to reach award-level.
There are more than 30 confirmed entries for the British Disability Snooker Championship Under 25s event, with participants travelling from around the UK to enter.
Flexible funding in a changing world?
I wanted to talk about how grant, trust and foundation funding has changed since COVID-19.
Funders are not being as strict on how funds have to be spent, even sometimes on how quickly the funds are spent or even on what the money is spent on – as long as general intentions are good and beneficiaries are left better off.
Does this help the not-for-profits, charities and community interest companies with service delivery or keeping the lights on? It probably does for the time being, as so many have been completely turned upside down during the last 18 months.
At some stage though, will these funders revert to restricting funds and water-tight monitoring standards of distributed funds? Let’s hope that we will all give one another a bit more freedom to help one another more flexibly, forgive those who react to situations overnight and consider the consequences later.
We need to spend grant funding responsibly and always for good, but let’s be kind to those who are trying to help those who can’t help themselves – and then watch the impact and outcomes take care of themselves.
To hear more about my take of the not-for-profit, charitable sector and climate, visit my blog at www.letssave.biz/blog. See you next month!
Sore legs but unLTD support for Cavendish Cancer Care!
unLTD’s Dan Laver was among the thousands of people hitting the streets for The Sheffield Half Marathon and The Sheffield 10k.
Running to raise money for Cavendish Cancer Care, Dan had trained for just five weeks after signing up to the half marathon following a challenge from Cavendish’s Kirsty White in a pub!
“At the start of August, I was struggling to run 5k,” said Dan. “A little extra motivation never hurts, and a dare from Kirsty gave me the chance to focus on improving my stamina, strength and distance – everything, really!”
Dan lost his dad to cancer when he was just three years old and has seen how important services like Cavendish are to people at some of the toughest times in their lives.
“Cavendish do amazing work supporting everyone who turn to them on a free of charge basis but can only do this because of the generosity of the local community,” said Dan. “They receive very little government funding – just enough to keep their doors open for two weeks each year – and I want to do my bit to help them provide their vital services.
“With many thousands of pounds raised for local charities, the sore legs were worth it!”
Dan was among many familiar faces from South Yorkshire businesses that took part in one of the races, including Mark Farnsworth of the Showroom Workstation, Kate Beswick from City Taxis and James Hodson from Evoluted.
