The Spirit Of Sheffield

Children’s Trust

helping children and young adults

Aims & activities

To provide services to children who are in need, hardship or distress, sick, convalescent, handicapped or infirm within the boundaries of the City of Sheffield.

What the charity does

General charitable purposes

Who the charity helps

Children / young people

How the charity works

Makes grants to individuals
Makes grants to organisations

Charitable objects
(1) THE RELIEF OF CHILDREN RESIDENT IN THE AREA OF BENEFIT WHO ARE IN NEED, HARDSHIP OR DISTRESS OR WHO ARE SICK, CONVALESCENT, HANDICAPPED OR INFIRM. (2) THE TRUSTEES MAY RELIEVE PERSONS IN NEED BY: (A) MAKING GRANTS OF MONEY TO THEM; OR (B) PROVIDING OR PAYING FOR GOODS, SERVICES OR FACILITIES FOR THEM; OR (C) MAKING GRANTS OF MONEY TO OTHER PERSONS OF BODIES WHO PROVIDE GOODS, SERVICES OR FACILITIES TO THOSE IN NEED. (3) IN EXCEPTIONAL CASES THE TRUSTEES MAY DECIDE TO ASSIST SOMEONE (WHO IS OTHERWISE QUALIFIED) WHO IS: (A) RESIDENT OUTSIDE THE AREA OF BENEFIT (B) ONLY TEMPORARILY RESIDENT IN THE AREA OF BENEFIT

Meet the team

Trustees

Meet The Team

Paul Grogan

Chair & Co-Founder

Paul is the Chair of the charity and also one of the two founding trustees.

A native Sheffielder, Paul worked for Sheffield City Council for 26 years before changing direction to teach English as a foreign language in Sheffield and abroad. He worked for Sheffield Business Improvement District, helping to keep the city centre busier, safer and cleaner before retiring in 2020.

‘When we had the idea to set the charity up back in 2000 I never expected us to be still helping the less fortunate Sheffield children almost 20 years later. With our small resources we are limited in what we can do, but I believe we’re making a difference and I’ll keep doing this while ever we can.’

Jonathan Robinson

Co-Founder

Jonathan is one of two founding trustees and the charity’s Treasurer.

Born in Sheffield he’s lived in the city all his life.

His career spans nearly 40 years in the Public Sector.

“I consider it a real privilege being a trustee of SOS and helping children and young adults in the city I feel so passionate about. I’m lucky to work with great trustees who I know feel the same”.

Matt Burdett

Trustee

Matt joined the Board of Trustees early in 2019.

After spending 13 years as a baker Matt joined South Yorkshire Police in 2004 and was promoted to Sergeant in 2009. He continued in this role, working as the Sergeant for Sheffield BID from 2015, until leaving the force in 2022.

Matt is now employed by Avada Solutions as Business Development Manager. The company uses technology and IT to help companies work smarter with tailor-made solutions.

Ian Attwood

Trustee

Ian is the latest member of the Board of Trustees, joining in early 2023. He is married with three children and a young grandson.

“I was born and raised in Sheffield and as a result I am passionate regarding the city and its people. Following a long and varied career in the Technology sector, my recent retirement has now enabled me to focus on helping and supporting the children of Sheffield via this unique charitable organisation”.

Our history

Since 2000

Our History

“The charity was formed in 2000 by three likeminded colleagues, myself, Jonathan Robinson and Kath Hardwick. We had been raising money for other Sheffield charities and decided we ought to have a go at forming and managing one ourselves. The charity was born out of a dormant legacy made by J G Graves, a well-known Sheffield benefactor. I doubt there are any Sheffielder’s who are unaware of Graves Park and the Graves Art Gallery and Central Library. After persuading the Council to allow us to manage the fund we applied to the Charity Commission to become a registered charity.
Since 2001 we have made regular donations to help individuals, small groups and larger organisations, depending on the nature of the request and our available resources at any given time.

Please see our achievements page for examples of the children we’ve helped out to date. “

– Paul Grogan

Chair

The Spirit Of Sheffield

Case Studies

Slide2

£7,000 to Cyclists Fighting Cancer

Cyclists Fighting Cancer would like to say a huge thank you to The Spirit of Sheffield Children’s Trust for funding our new project of providing child sized exercise equipment to Sheffield Children’s Hospital. This is an innovative concept and one which we are rolling out to paediatric oncology units throughout the country with Sheffield leading the way.

Exercise and activity are now known to be the single most effective way of improving both physical and mental wellness for people surviving cancer and these machines will have a huge impact on childhood cancer patient’s lives positively affecting their future outcomes.

Debbi Rowley, Advanced Physiotherapist at Sheffield Children’s Hospital says, “The equipment gets used every day in physiotherapy and physical activity sessions and it is an absolute joy to walk into our clinic waiting room and see children independently using the static bike out of choice rather than being sat still. The fact that the equipment can be used by children of all different ages and abilities has enabled us to incorporate the equipment into exercise sessions for many children when they are attending as outpatients as well as those that are inpatients on the ward. Children will now actively seek us out to ask whether they can use the equipment, supporting the health behaviour change that we have been hoping for. It is such a game changer. The kids absolutely love it! Thank you!”

December 2024

Slide2

Ruskin Charity

Dear the Spirit of Sheffield Children’s Trust,

I am writing to report on the benefits of the £2,000 grant that you kindly donated to us at the end of 2020, this was to support the bike shelter project at Brantwood Specialist School in Nether Edge. As well as installing smaller bike racks at the satellite site, Tintagel House. I am pleased to say that since then, both items have been installed as planned.

This grant has been instrumental in kickstarting bike interest among our students. So much so, that one of our class teachers, Sam, has been able to take some of them through OCN qualifications, teaching them aspects of bike maintenance and safety.

Tasks involved range from repairing punctures and setting up brakes, to adjusting gears and replacing worn parts. It is necessary for students to learn skills, work together and share tools to complete a set task. This has resulted in the development of friendships and improved their team work. The completed bike has then been tested and ridden by themselves.

This kind of practical activity is a really important life skill for our students, as many people acknowledge today that they may not have the confidence to maintain their own bikes. Yet if we can teach our students this knowledge at an early stage, then it will pay dividends if they want to continue to own their own bikes in the future. Having ownership and respect around their own property and belongings is also an important lesson, along with the confidence around learning tools and language around bikes and maintenance.

Another great positive from this project has been the external partnership enabled as a result of this grant. We actually approached the South Yorkshire Police to see if they had any old bikes they could donate from their property store for our students to repair and ride.

We are pleased to say this resulted in a successful collection of 11 bikes (and we will be going back for more!) for which some of the parts will be dismantled and used, while other bikes were in good enough condition to be used in full after a bit of maintenance.

This has been a fantastic project that our students have been really enthusiastic about, and we are pleased to say there has been some great positive PR around it, including some social media posts and an article in our Trust wide magazine, in which we have mentioned and thanked the Spirit of Sheffield Children’s Trust for their contribution to the bike racks. Our Trust wide magazine has is circulated in all of our 12 provisions around the UK for internal and external people to read.

Warm wishes,

Bethan Davies (Fundraiser)

July 2021

Slide2

Work Ltd

'Here at Work, we have wanted to introduce our young adults to digital media and this year, our tutor Callum has developed a series of photography projects to make this happen. The projects have been designed to both teach our students photography basics and how to develop products with them. This year our young adults have decided to produce a calendar for 2023.

Students have visited Whirlow Hall Farm, the National History Museum and the surrounding area, taking pictures of nature. They have looked at their pictures and selected their favourites that accurately represent the months of the year.
The calendar is now available to purchase in our shop, located inside the Hidden Gem Café.

Next year our students have decided that they want to make a series of cards. Starting with Valentine’s day, we will be developing new interesting ideas for picture we can take to represent the other events that take place throughout the year.
This is just the beginning! Our Young adults are really enjoying these projects and want to make much, much more. We can’t wait to share these with you in the new year.

We would like to offer our sincerest thanks to the Spirit of Sheffield Children’s Trust whom without, we would not have been able to run these projects. They generously provided us with all the funding we needed to purchase the equipment.'

November 2022

Slide2

Ruskin Mill - Brantwood Specialist School

In late 2022 The Spirit Of Sheffield made a further to grant of £2,000 to kickstart the building of a new Woodworking Shepherd’s Hut at the Outdoor Learning Centre in Eyam. This is for 55 students aged between 7 and 19 who attend Brantwood Specialist School and all have varying degrees of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

So far the hut has been a fantastic success. It has surpassed its original intention for woodcarving and has become a space for counselling, speech and language theory, pigment making, herbal remedy and tea making! So it also serves as a useful break out space.

‘Whilst this is not the primary aim of the hut, it has been a wonderfully calm space to undertake standardised language assessment with our students. With its view of Eyam Edge, students are calm and regulated – it offers a warm, quiet space away from the hubbub of the farm.’ Pippa – BSS SALT Therapist.

‘The space is lovely and has multiple usage from being a green woodwork space where folks carved and whittled, to a recreational space where students might just hang out in there to take a break and complete jigsaws.’ Winnie – Land and Outdoor Skills tutor.

December 2022

Slide 1

Ruskin Mill Trust - Brantwood Specialist School

In the summer of 2019 The Spirit of Sheffield made three grants which directly supported the 37 students of Brantwood Specialist School by supplying outdoor clothing and equipment for all ages. Firstly, boots, waterproofs and gloves in a range of sizes are now being used at their Outdoor Learning Centre in Eyam. Using this clothing makes it much easier for the students to overcome environmental and sensory barriers. And it’s gear that they don’t mind getting mucky in!

The second grant enabled Brantwood’s movement tutor to purchase basic but vital equipment to help develop their students’ balance and coordination. This frees up their imagination to develop their physical education in a safe, accepting and creative environment. Tennis balls, hoops, quoits, badminton and archery equipment help the students to leave behind negative PE experiences in mainstream schools. And finally they can enjoy being in their own bodies again.

Finally we granted funding which is being used in the newly developing horticulture area behind the Merlin Theatre, which is accessible by Brantwood students. This Spring into Summer, the dead green space will be transformed into a mini dye garden, sensory garden, orchard and greenwood work craft area. This creates a vital breakout space for the younger students who struggle in the classroom setting and need a change of scenery in order to access learning, which the charity embeds in its outdoor subjects.

July 2019

Slide2

Work Ltd

Work Ltd provide life skills and occupational training for people with learning disabilities

In 2015 The Spirit of Sheffield donated £12,000 to enable them to build a log cabin. This is was Glynis Philliskirk had to say:

‘Work Ltd are really grateful to The Spirit of Sheffield Children’s Trust for their £12,000 donation. This donation was granted to help us build a log cabin for our younger students with varying disabilities.
We thought this would be a simple project and did not envisage the hoops that we would have to jump through - and that it would take us 5 years to complete. Planning applications, green belt issues and of course gaining the use of prime sports land that had to be given the ‘Go-ahead’ by Sport England. However here we are today ...

The Spirit of Sheffield Children’s Trust charitable objectives are to help provide facilities and service that will benefit children who are residents of Sheffield with disabilities. These are mirrored in our own ethos.

Work Ltd excels on providing a daily service to young people with a range of disabilities. We work closely with our local schools higher needs departments.
Their students age range is 14 year to 16 years. The cabin is ideal for delivering our classes to them:

• It has enabled us to create an amazing work base for our young students to enjoy
• It allows activities in a peaceful and relaxing environment
• A place of calm when emotions run high
• A private place where our young people enjoy therapeutic back massage. This is run every month for up to 10 students
• A place to catch up for chatting with friends and watching a film
• … the list is endless for this wonderful space

We cannot thank the trust enough for their kind and generous donation. This will provide a very special place for many years which hopefully will fulfil dreams and perhaps ambitions.’

June 2015

Slide2

Sheffield Young Carers

Sheffield Young Carers is a registered charity which provides practical and emotional support to young carers throughout Sheffield. We support children and young people, aged between eight and 25, who provide a substantial amount of unpaid care to a member (or members) of their family, due to long term illness, disability, mental health problems or substance misuse issues. We offer young carers one-to-one support, group activities and respite breaks, to help them take some time away from their caring; to meet and make friends with other young carers; and to develop the confidence and resilience they need to cope more effectively with their caring.

Over the past two years, the Spirit of Sheffield Children’s Trust has made an incredible difference to the lives of young carers from all over Sheffield.
In summer 2019, the Trust generously funded two of our holiday activities for young carers: our annual trip to Hathersage, where 30 young carers enjoyed a fantastic walk from Grindleford to Hathersage followed by lots of fun in the outdoor pool, a picnic and a play in the park; and our residential for 8-12 year-old young carers at Whirlow Hall Farm Trust, which saw 12 young carers spend an action-packed couple of days away from home, ‘down on the farm’.

In December 2019, the Trust part-funded our Christmas cinema trip too, treating more than 50 young carers and their families to a private screening of Jumanji at Cineworld Sheffield, complete with drinks and popcorn!

The Trust’s support for our work didn’t end there however. After an extremely difficult year last year, living under the shadow of Covid-19, we were able to send 195 young carers an Amazon gift voucher last Christmas, so that they could buy themselves a much-needed pre-Christmas treat. Support from the Trust also allowed us to deliver a special Christmas gift and a box of crackers to every young carer who attended our online Christmas party, and to provide one young person with a laptop and five others with new headphones, to enable them to access our online support services.

We can’t thank the Trust enough for their generous support for our work, which has put some very big smiles on a lot of young carers’ faces!

April 2021

Gallery

The Spirit Of Sheffield

Funding Application

BENEFICIARY DETAILS

Your name and details of the organisation you represent (if applicable)(Required)

Contact address

Telephone

APPLICANT DETAILS

Name of individual/organisation you are raising money for (and charity number if applicable)(Required)

Details of your funding requirements, including the total cost of the project. (use additional sheets if necessary). NB Please ensure you meet the requirements of the objects of our charity before making this application.

Total amount needed

Amount requested from The Spirit of Sheffield

Objects of Charity

(1) THE RELIEF OF CHILDREN RESIDENT IN THE AREA OF BENEFIT WHO ARE IN NEED, HARDSHIP OR DISTRESS OR WHO ARE SICK, CONVALESCENT, HANDICAPPED OR INFIRM. (2) THE TRUSTEES MAY RELIEVE PERSONS IN NEED BY: (A) MAKING GRANTS OF MONEY TO THEM; OR (B) PROVIDING OR PAYING FOR GOODS, SERVICES OR FACILITIES FOR THEM; OR (C) MAKING GRANTS OF MONEY TO OTHER PERSONS OF BODIES WHO PROVIDE GOODS, SERVICES OR FACILITIES TO THOSE IN NEED. (3) IN EXCEPTIONAL CASES THE TRUSTEES MAY DECIDE TO ASSIST SOMEONE (WHO IS OTHERWISE QUALIFIED) WHO IS: (A) RESIDENT OUTSIDE THE AREA OF BENEFIT (B) ONLY TEMPORARILY RESIDENT IN THE AREA OF BENEFIT.

The Spirit Of Sheffield

helping children and young adults

Aims & activities

What the charity does

Who the charity helps

How the charity works

Trustees

Meet The Team

Paul Grogan

Jonathan Robinson

Matt Burdett

Ian Attwood

Since 2000

Our History

The Spirit Of Sheffield

Case Studies

Gallery

The Spirit Of Sheffield

Funding Application

How can we help?
Contact us…

enquiries@thespiritofsheffield.co.uk