Finding yourself on the street can happen for many reasons. Getting away from the street is much more difficult than many realise.
In Sheffield there are many organisations that work together to offer food, housing, substance misuse services, training, medical care, a friendly face and place for both practical and compassionate advice.
Our aim is simple: we want those on the street to have better lives and everything we do is to achieve this aim.
Help us help partners
About
Finding yourself on the street can happen through a number of misfortunes and circumstances.
Help us Help is a campaign to support those who are begging on our streets. People find themselves on the street through a multitude of reasons and bad luck - this means that their needs are varied and complex. Help us Help wants to provide you with information so you can choose how you may want to help – by volunteering and becoming involved or by giving a donation to a service of your choice. Our website also has a list of support services you can contact if you are concerned about someone in particular.
Help us Help is a collaboration between all the services and charities in the city who are there to provide practical support and compassionate care and advice to the homeless community. Many people who are begging or homeless in Sheffield city centre are known to these services. They work with people on an individual basis to help them achieve a better future through providing personalised support, accommodation, food and medical care, and will link them to ongoing support to help them off the streets.
Sleeping rough?
Call: 0300 500 0914
We will be adding information on begging and how to help those who beg in the near future. This will be updated regularly and will be freely available for the public and businesses to download.
Please look at our short films, which we will be adding over the coming weeks, to hear from those who know first hand about what it feels like to be on the streets, from services and charities who have worked in this area for many years, and from community representatives.
The public is generous and it is hoped Help us Help will be able to give people who want to help a greater understanding of the situation in Sheffield.
Focus: Sunday Centre
“We feed about 75 to 85 people every week. Some Guests are regulars and we’ve seen them for years. Some come just once or twice during a period of crisis or while passing through Sheffield.”
By Steve Clark
The Sunday Centre opens every Sunday from 1.30 to about 4.00. We offer a safe, welcoming place for people to come. We are a “walk up project” which means we take in all who turn up on the day, subject to some limited rules. We feed about 75 to 85 people every week. Some Guests are regulars and we’ve seen them for years. Some come just once or twice during a period of crisis or while passing through Sheffield.
Only a few of our Guests are sleeping out, some Guests come to us because their benefits have been sanctioned and they have no money for food, others are recent arrivals in the UK from Eastern Europe or are asylum seekers.
Around a third of our Guests are among those who spend much of their time in the city centre. Since our project started 25 years ago young people end up in this group – so the Guests I see now can be 18 to 25 and would have been young children when I started working with the Sunday Centre 13 or so years ago.
We do see Guests who can recover from the circumstances and or crisis that they are in. We see them for a period of time but things improve from finding more suitable accommodation, their health issues have been addressed, any substance or alcohol misuse is under control, finances are stabilized and they are in work, or they are participating in some education and training. It’s also good to see positive relationships and family reconciliation.
What needs to change is the lack of positive change for those Guests who are stuck in the “city centre” lifestyle and its related harmful and chaotic behaviours. We would want to see more positive outcomes for all our Guests. This is likely to follow access to and engagement with the appropriate support agencies and the complexity of need of many of our Guests often requires more than one agency to work together.
We’re always looking for helpers so please get in touch
Sunday Centre: Sunday lunch project offering a safe, social space for homeless and other vulnerable people.
E: sundaycentre@hotmail.co.uk
T: 07976 740 009 and 07936 884 163
Get in Touch
If you would like to know more or even get involved, please fill in the form.