Thanks to the Foundation’s partnership with Wesleyan Assurance a charity in Sheffield has been awarded £2,000 to help continue their fine work.
Sheffield Street Pastors patrol the city’s streets on Friday and Saturday nights in a bid to keep members of the community safe. Originally set up in 2009 they now have 45 street pastors from 21 churches across the region.
The grant will go towards employing a Co-ordinator and helping the charity provide consumables to the public.
Trisha Watts, Co-ordinator at Sheffield Street Pastors, said: “We’re there to care, listen and help. We help people get home safely. We do basic first aid, often calling ambulances for more serious cases.
“We’ve given out 579 pairs of flip-flops, 478 bottles of water and 198 space blankets. Even picking up over 3000 glass bottles, each one is a potential weapon.”
The brilliant work relies heavily on funding:
“Grants like this are very important to our organisation. We receive some support from individuals and churches, but our main income is from grants.
“The work we do is exceptionally rewarding, we’ve built great relationships with the night-time community as well as others across the team.
“We hear stories every week about people, from every walk of life, that we’ve helped.”
The Street Pastors are looking at developing their service, extending into local schools:
“We’re looking at the possibility of School Pastors going into the local schools to care, listen and help.”
Tina Costello, Heart of England Community Foundation CEO, said:
“We’ve all seen people in dangerous situations at the weekend. It’s great to see organisations caring for people in vulnerable positions.
“We hope this grant relieves some of the burden of fundraising and Sheffield Street Pastors can continue to care for those in their community.”
The Wesleyan Foundation was launched in June 2017 by specialist financial services mutual Wesleyan and has already provided more than £1 million in funding to over 200 charities, community groups and social enterprises around the country.
For more information about the Wesleyan Foundation and to apply for funding click here.
If you’re interested in doing more locally click here.