Young people and staff at Element, a leading Sheffield youth charity are celebrating after a pool table was donated for their new city centre hub by Westfield Health.
Element, who inspire some of the city’s most vulnerable and marginalized young people to make a difference in society is now headquartered on four floors of the vast property which overlooks the Town Hall and Peace Gardens which is rapidly becoming a hub for a host of young people’s charities. The building at the top of Fargate had stood empty for ten years before being handed over by Yorkshire Building Society to Element Society on a peppercorn rent, but was very outdated with no working lift and no facilities to attract young people.
Charity CEO Chris Hill, 34, surveyed the hundreds of disadvantaged young people to discover what would get them off the streets and into a positive, supportive environment and pulled together a ‘wish list’. Top of the list was a pool table and at a meeting of socially responsible network Sheffield Businesses Together, Chris was put in touch with Westfield Health who were so impressed with his vision, they immediately offered to donate their pool table to the charity.
Chairman at Westfield Health, Graham Moore, said: “We’re delighted to have been able to donate our pool table from our games room at Westfield Health’s HQ, Westfield House, to support Element Society’s projects. It’s so important to empower young people to make positive changes to their lives, and we hope that our donation supports the charity’s mission of creating an engaging environment where young people and vulnerable adults can socialise and build confidence.”
“We are so grateful to Westfield for backing the youth of Sheffield in this practical way. Their charity group came to have a close look at the work we do and meet some of our young people, so to have this brilliant donation means the world to us,” said the charity’s founder Chris.
Element Society has empowered over 2,400 young people to change their lives and their communities since it launched six years ago. Each year, Element works with at least 500 young people each year of all abilities, special needs, ethnicity, backgrounds and religions.
Over 160 projects have resulted, tackling issues including knife crime and child sexual exploitation.
Element’s young people have done over 140,000 hours of voluntary work through the National Citizen Service – worth nearly £1million to Sheffield.
