I see that the Lottery has refused to give the Sheffield branch of The Samaritans funding on the grounds that it doesn't appeal to "the young, elderly and carers, ethnic minorities or asylum seekers" Excuse me but don't the Samaritans take calls from anyone regardless of who or what they are, how much wider than anyone can they get. Well done to Isabel Blincow and the team at The Samaritans in Sheffield.

The Lottery is becoming more of a joke day by day.

Can anyone offer help to keep this service that is serving the most needy people in Sheffield and district alive?

What sort of set up makes obscene grants like these;

...£399m for the Millennium Dome, plus top-ups of £60m and £29m
...£78.5m towards the extension of the Royal Opera House
...£12.5m for the state to buy Winston Churchill's papers

...and nearer to home £11m for the local white elephant - National Centre for Popular Music

AND then refuses £300.000 for a worthy cause like the Samaritans?

Take a look at the following link for grants allocation to Sheffield constituency by constituency http://www.lottery.culture.gov.uk/PreSearch.asp?id=const_OS

Sheffielld Samaitans have given a very valued service 24 hrs, 7days a wk, for prob 40 yrs,

The votunteer works all night, unpaid and the phone never stops ringing.

The samaritans take all calls from children to 80yr olds. The sick, the lonely, the dispairing, the desparate, the suicidal. all religions and all disbelievers. The sinners, the innocents.

There is always a voice at the end of the phone for someone who needs it.
Who are these people who make these descisions, based on what experience., ----- have they ever rung them ----have they ever answered the phone.
There is always money to prop up the opera house. What percentage of people go there.

hazel

I saw this on the news Owdlad & it's worrying that the Sheffield branch may well be forced to close without this funding to help the renovations to the place they've moved to.

I know someone whose wife set up a charity that had lottery funding I know they have very strict criteria that have to be followed before you qualify for help but that stuff about it not appealling to "the young, elderly and carers, ethnic minorities or asylum seekers" reported on the news didn't ring quite true to me.

They then went on to say that the committee had a large number of applications & only around 8 or 9 grants to hand out but that the Sheffield branch of the Samaritans had been given leave to reapply. Which sounds to me like they maybe need someone who understands how the criteria of how lottery funding works in order to make a successful application.

Let's hope someone can help them with this quickly or the funds come from elsewhere.

Did you know the lottery also donates large sums of money abroad.

As a volunteer with Sheffield Samaritans can I thank those of you who expressed concern for our future.

It is a big worry for us - especially as we are likely to be given notice from our premisses in the near future, to be replaced by yet another bar, shop and flat complex on West Street.

I guess we are hoping that the publicity will allow people to realise our financial predicament and may help us to get people to donate money and/or resources.

We have been overwhelmed by the interested generated by the article in the Sheffield Star today - it was from that that the BBC/ITV and national media became interested.

http://www.sheffieldtoday.net/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=58&ArticleID=940900

I witnessed the most flagrant abuse of the social security system regarding the lottery, when I saw a woman handing over welfare milk vouchers for scratch cards. The shop keeper took them willingly without question, which led me to assume that this was a regular thing. :rant:

I feel this story is an absolute disgrace. :rant:

I have supported the samaritans financially on several occasions since a close friend lost a brother to suicide. It was one of those 'what else can I do' moments.

I'm glad they've been encouraged to re-apply though. Katya - do you know if they will be altering the format of the application?

K x

Could I appeal to anyone who either has a business or contact with anyone in business circles, that might be able to help the Samaritans in Sheffield to survive just try ringing them and offer to help, every £20 is £20 closer to their survival.

How about one of the larger building companies financing the refurbishing of their new centre, or doing the work for free.

Come on guys this is one for the forum to show how much it cares.

Originally posted by owdlad
Could I appeal to anyone who either has a business or contact with anyone in business circles, that might be able to help the Samaritans in Sheffield to survive just try ringing them and offer to help, every £20 is £20 closer to their survival.


I like the idea of their 300 Club (as advertised on their web site) - where 300 local business each donate £1000 each to help fund the renovation of the new centre.

£1000 is diddly squat for businesses to donate these days - esp. considering the tax benefits that businesses can claim from charity donations. We just need to find 300 of them to donate.

I have thought of at least five whilst typing this message who I'll contact tomorrow. Can anyone else help find the remaining 295?

Cheers, Carrie

Originally posted by carriewarr
I like the idea of their 300 Club (as advertised on their web site) - where 300 local business each donate £1000 each to help fund the renovation of the new centre.

£1000 is diddly squat for businesses to donate these days - esp. considering the tax benefits that businesses can claim from charity donations. We just need to find 300 of them to donate.

I have thought of at least five whilst typing this message who I'll contact tomorrow. Can anyone else help find the remaining 295?

Cheers, Carrie

Hi Carrie
Can I have a link to the web site, I like the sound of that idea.

OK....

Katya, could the Forum offer to get together a fund raiser?

We have clubbing contacts, we have media contacts, we have ourselves. We have quite a few musicians for live music - it just has to be a runner!

I'd be game to get involved.

Joe

Originally posted by owdlad
Hi Carrie
Can I have a link to the web site, I like the sound of that idea.

Hi Owldad.

Here's the page on their web site which outlines the "300 Club" idea:

http://www.sheffieldsamaritans.org.uk/the%20300%20club.htm

Cheers, Carrie

Thanks Carrie
That looks promising, and with Joe offering the forums help let's hope the funding can be found :thumbsup:

Ain't the Forum a grand place to be - I wander off for a few hours and come back to find so much support.... fair warms the cockles of this old 'un's heart.

We will be putting in a revised bid for lottery funds but, AFAIK, it won't help in the immediate crisis.

It's a great idea if we can use the Forum to find as many businesses/people to sign up to the 300 club so that would be a good start.

As far as a fund-raising event is concerned, that would be wonderful. I'm not sure I'm the best person to liaise with about this but I'll try and get a contact name and PM JoeP with it.

Thanks again for all your support......

Originally posted by Katya
It's a great idea if we can use the Forum to find as many businesses/people to sign up to the 300 club so that would be a good start.


Out of interest, Katya, how many of the target 300 companies have you signed up to date?

Cheers, Carrie

Carrie - I'm sorry I don't know the answer to that..... will try and find out.

Originally posted by Katya
Carrie - I'm sorry I don't know the answer to that..... will try and find out.

No urgency, Katya. Just curious!

Cheers, Carrie

Has anyone brought this to the attention of the City Council yet ? and if Jan Wilson is looking, how about a statement from you on this.

The Funding body has changed its tune, now it says its just run out of money and the Samaritans are guilty of some unfortunate misunderstanding!
Not surprising given Blairs Folly (Dome) and why the hell has lottery money been pumped into Wembley stadium? The FA and Premier League is rolling in money, the stadium is£100Ms over budget (Nothing to do with Ken Bates), promises have been broken regarding athletics provisions (Nothing to do with Ken Bates), it's in London when there were better regional sites at Bradford Coventry and Birmingham.......yet the Lottery has still put in a huge grant. The London mafia strikes again!

I think now that Sheffield Samaritans has made the National newspapers they will get their money.
And it will be well deserved too.

Hazel

Could anyone who works for the people in this thread offer any help, or bring it to the attention of whoever is in charge.

http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=28895

I wish I shared your optimism Hazel ! So far no huge cheques have crashed through our letter box but it is early days yet.

The publicity we have received far exceeds our expectations and has reached far more people than we could have managed on our own without it. Let's hope that there's some entrepeneur out there who views us sympathetically enough to fund our move.

Loads of offices in Sheffield have a casual dress day for charity. What about people reading this thread suggesting it to their employers?

Everyone gets to wear their jeans and trainers to work, and everyone pays a pound! :clap:

It's not going to raise £300,000, but in a few big offices / call centres it will help!

K x

Great idea Kristian
I'm sure Sheffield Sams will be grateful for all donation large or small. It is entirely run by charity, no volunteer is paid so all money goes into the running of the place- on a shoe string very often.
By the way while samaritans is in the news, they are in need of volunteers, a very worthwhile job. working wwith a great bunch of people

Hazel

Originally posted by hazel
Great idea Kristian
I'm sure Sheffield Sams will be grateful for all donation large or small. It is entirely run by charity, no volunteer is paid so all money goes into the running of the place- on a shoe string very often.
By the way while samaritans is in the news, they are in need of volunteers, a very worthwhile job. working with a great bunch of people

Hazel

Hazel, for anyone who missed it here is a link to the Sheffield Samaritans web site.
http://www.sheffieldsamaritans.org.uk/index.html

Any news yet Katya ?

I've just been into the Centre and we've had a lot of support from all sorts of people which is great. Still no news of actual dosh.

One difficulty we have is that, whilst we have a number of people willing to help with our fund-raising effort, there is noone to organise these people and effectively manage the fund-raising team. Don't forget all our volunteers are already committed to 3 hours a week on the phones plus one overnight duty a month.

Is there anyone out there, with some relevant experience, willing to give up part of their time to help us run the fund-raising team? If so, do please PM me.

Katya, JoeP did offer to help, perhaps if he reads this it might be a good challenge for one of the Forum's good guys.

Joe, over to you, are you up for a challenge, and all the free beer that would of course go with getting the funding in place for the Samaritans in Sheffield.

anyone looking for cash for projects would benefit from checking out SYFAB (south yorkshire funding advice) they have a list detailing who is giving out money and the criteria.
google search it under SYFAB

:thumbsup:

middlewood online (http://www.geocities.com/middlewooduk)

Good idea Fox, perhaps you could send a PM to Katya and pass on the information to her, I am sure she would appreciate it.:thumbsup:

Always one for a challenge, owdlad!

I've PMd Katya and, as Sherlock Holmes was wont to say to Dr Watson, 'The game's afoot!'

Time to get calling in a few favours and learning some new blagging skills!

This is going to be great fun!

Joe :)

Originally posted by JoePritchard
Always one for a challenge, owdlad!

I've PMd Katya and, as Sherlock Holmes was wont to say to Dr Watson, 'The game's afoot!'

Time to get calling in a few favours and learning some new blagging skills!

This is going to be great fun!

Joe :)

I always said you were one of the good guys Joe, you see even Warsop has produced one. :thumbsup:

Owdlad,

I'll be banned from Warsop forever now.... :)

Taken me 43 years to manage it! :D

Seriously, thank for the vote of confidence - I'll now do what I can to get things kicked off.

What's that old saying? If you want anything doing, ask a busy man? ;) (And if you want it criticising afterwards, ask a woman.... ;) ;) )

Joe

Even the mighty have reported on it. (no not Geoff our leader)

this was how it is being reported on AOL

A £300,000 National Lottery bid by the Samaritans was rejected because the charity did not specifically target "disadvantaged" groups, according to reports.

The grant would have enabled the Sheffield branch of the organisation - which supports the depressed and suicidal - to refurbish new premises in the city.

But its request for the money was allegedly turned down because it did not favour particular groups, such as the young, or ethnic minorities or asylum seekers.

Isabel Blincow, from the charity, said: "We can't understand why other groups succeeded where we failed. Our callers come from all parts of society, we don't discriminate. We talk to everyone regardless of faith, race, colour, sex or class."

The application to the Big Lottery Fund, which hands out half the money for good causes from the National Lottery, was rejected at the Yorkshire committee's November meeting.

But later the BLF said the claims were "a genuine misunderstanding" and the bid failed because of a budget problem.

BLF's Gerald Oppenheim said: "There appears to have been, I think, a genuine misunderstanding. It is very clear to me that they didn't fail because they didn't meet the disadvantage criterion.

"What happened was they were among 30 applications recommended to the Yorkshire committee by staff assessing them, but the Yorkshire committee had £5m worth of applications before it and only £1.3m to allocate."

According to last night's Star there has been a U-turn and now the Lottery has decided to give the Samaritans some much needed financial assistance.

www.sheffieldtoday.co.uk for news probably.

I haven't seen last night's Star but, AFAIK, the Lottery have not done a U-turn.

The position is that the Lottery have said we can put in another, revised bid for consideration. This would, however, be for a specific part of the property renovation and would not provide any of the initial funds which are required to enable to make the property fit enough for us to move in to and operate a skeleton service.

How long would the revised appeal take Katya
Would Sheff Samaritans be homeless before it wenr thro.

Hazel

I am the person who wrote the application for Sheffield Samaritans, with a lot of input from the team, of course. I have much experience of this, and have been successful on three previous occasions. I do know what I'm doing, but I'm sure someone has moved the goalposts over the years. I don't know whether there is any political influence brought to bear on the BLF.
The fact is that we will re-apply, (for a smaller amount than the £300,000 needed) and this will be submitted before 31st March. We don't expect to have a result until September or October, and we just can't wait that long until we do something about the new premises. We have to do something NOW. Which means that we'll have to do half a job, move in, and operate in very cramped conditions until funding can be found to do the rest of the work. When that is possible we seem likely to have to close down for the durations of the work (we can't operate a telephone service whilst builders are knocking the place about). Whatever happens, we need funds NOW, and we MUST do something. We expect to receive six months notice to quit our present premises anytime, and building work takes time. We have no time to waste.

Hi Graham and welcome.
I along with a lot of others are hoping that you get some funding from who ever has surplus cash available.
Can I ask if you would be willing to offer any building company who does the work for you anything in return for their help with the renovations, even if it's a case of naming the new premises after the company it would at least give them some free publicity.

Something along the lines of Kier House perhaps would entice them to loosen the purse strings.

Here's a link to their chief executive http://www.kier.co.uk/about/default.asp

owdlad,

That's a VERY good suggestion!

Joe :)

Good suggestion owdlad.
I don't doubt that out there are more of you clever forum members with equally good ideas to keep the samaritan phonelines in Sheffield open. There may even be amongst you members who have needed them and actually picked up the phone. I know I have been very near at times.

Hazel

For those of you who may be unsure about Sheffield Samaritans' claims about their lottery bid (and who could blame you!), there has been a letter from someone with similar experiences in today's Times

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,59-1480167,00.html

I saw that letter in The Times - it's absolutely crazy!

And the statistic that out of 2.7 billion pounds allocated from the Lottery to good causes since the start of the Lottery, the RNLI has received not a penny, and the RSPCA only 4,000?

Bizarre, huh?

Never trust a quango to do anything right.

Joe

Thanks for the suggestions and offers of help from you guys out there. We have just posted 550 letters to Sheffield businesses, and are now awaiting the response. Not many will reply, of course, but we may get some response - and if the Keirs of this world are up to it we might even get an offer of free building work. We'll try and keep you posted.

The ironic thing about all this is that if you were to put on a minority entertainment such as opera or ballet, the lottery money would come flooding in.:rant:

We've read the suggestions about a concert on the forum, and think it's a brilliant idea. However, we're good at listening and rubbish at organising (too busy listening). Could someone out there do it for us???

Hi Graham,

Just came off the phone earlier today with Jo, and I'm happy to try and get a few things underway.

Jo's going to see about getting a meeting sorted out for me with Bob and anyone else involved so we can talk about how to progress.

I'd hope that we can get something started within a week or so - then I'll start calling in my markers with my contacts... :)

Joe

Another thought has crossed my mind, seeing as BT (I presume) are making plenty of profit from Sheffield Samaritans, would they not be another company worthy of a letter or phone call to see if they would offer any assistance.

owdlad.

Do any Forum members work at Morrisons.
Morrisons have a designated charity once a year.
I think membbers of staff put forward suggestions as to whiich charity.
Perhaps this year it could be Sheff Samaritans.
Just a thought
Hazel

Has there been any progress with the funding yet ?

No news as yet owdlad - I suspect it will be a slow process. Various contacts have been made and are being followed up.

Promise if there is any significant news, it will be posted here.

Originally posted by hazel
Do any Forum members work at Morrisons.
Morrisons have a designated charity once a year.
I think members of staff put forward suggestions as to whiich charity.
Perhaps this year it could be Sheff Samaritans.
Just a thought
Hazel
It would be nice in an ideal world.

Is this choice decided with a staff vote? I'm very sceptical about how these so called charity of the year decisions are generally made by large companies.

Morrisons.

As I heard this from a second party I'm not sure how true it is but I had the impression that suggestions were put into a box by members of the staff. How they are finally chosen I don't know.
On merit or the most votes ??? Pehaps some-one will tell us

Hazel

Originally posted by hazel
Morrisons.

As I heard this from a second party I'm not sure how true it is but I had the impression that suggestions were put into a box by members of the staff. How they are finally chosen I don't know.
On merit or the most votes ??? Pehaps some-one will tell us

Hazel

I used to work there years ago, and from what I remember, there was a voting scheme.

K x

Thanks Kristian,
Lets hope if the forum members have anyone working at Morrisons they could give them a reminder about Sheff Samaritans. THey certainly seem to be in a fix.
Any News yet>
Hazel

No news yet although there have been a number of small private donations from all around the country which is wonderful.

Things are unlikely to happen overnight. What the publicity has done is raise people's awareness and more work is needed in getting the awareness translated into resources for us.

The support from the Forum has been very encouraging and we do appreciate it.

Katya, have you thought about asking Geoff who owns this forum if he would be able to put an advert asking for help on the front page, so everyone who logs on can see you need some help

Not a bad idea owdlad - I'll run it past t'others at the Centre and see what they think.

Thanks for your support

Another thought has come to mind, how about some pub/bar organising a fund raising day/night with all the proceeds going to the Sheffield Samaritans.

Come on Landlords/Managers of bars here's a chance to fill your bar one quiet night and get some free publicity for yourself whilst helping a very needy charity.

Just to keep folks posted....

I'm meeting with the Samaritans today to start assembling a few fund raising evenings / events / ideas.

Watch this space. Will probably be starting to look for willing hands in the not too distant future, depending upon what we agree can be done.

Joe

Joe,

I'd be happy to help if you need volunteers! Have you got any update for us?

K x

Originally posted by Kristian
Joe,

I'd be happy to help if you need volunteers! Have you got any update for us?

K x

Send a PM to Katya, she is involved with the Samaritans in Sheffield, I am sure she would appreciate any help :thumbsup:

Katya,

I'm a journalism student and am interested in filming a piece about the Sheffield Samaritans. I was wondering if you could tell me who I'd need to contact as I would like to interview someone about the lottery funding issue, as well as generally filming the work of the Samartians. The only contact numbers I can find for the Samaritans are numbers you'd phone if you want help/support and I wouldn't want to clog up the phone line stopping someone with a genuine problem getting through.

If you have any information could you possibly e-mail me on joa03hcp@sheffield.ac.uk

Thanks,

Hannah

Hannah -

Just to let you know that I've forwarded a copy of your message to the relevant person at Samaritans and hopefully you should hear something in the next few days.

Katya

Hi Kristian,

Had a meet last week and am currently getting a few plans together.

Watch this space!

Joe :)

Well Well Well! those wonderful people at the Lottery have scored another own goal.

The head of a charity which received £350,000 of lottery cash to help asylum seekers has been involved in supplying fake passports, read the link below for the full story.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4300993.stm

Has any news about the Sheffield Samaritans filtered through yet, good or bad can one of you keep us informed :smile:

Sorry for delay in reply - things have been a tad busy.

No huge news about the situation. We have had some response to our appeals but there is still a long way to go. It looks as if we will now have enough money to set up a skeleton service to keep the phones going when we have to move, but we are going to be applying for lottery funding again for the second phase of the project and also are fund raising for various other requirements.

There are events being organised and we'll try and keep you posted about these.

We are very encouraged by the amount of support we are getting from everyone and everywhere and that is almost as important to us as hard cash.

Thanks for your interest

I read in our free newspaper that Irwin Mitchell have given £5,800 to the Shefield Samaritans. Apparently the staff raised £2,900 and the company doubled it.
Good for Irwin Mitchell.
I feel some of my money going to a good cause. :clap:
hazel

Has there been any action on the fund raising front yet JOE? it all seems to have gone quiet and I didn't want you to get away without a struggle ;)

Sheffield Samaritans are organising a Hot Ice Show at the Merlin Theatre on Thursday 28 April - details here:

http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=34822

We have now submitted a revised lottery bid but will not hear the results until October. Meanwhile we continue to try and raise funds in all sorts of ways and people are being supportive but we are still nowhere near our targets.

Between the day job, writing, film making, entrepreneur forum, moderating and such....

I have chased a few things and am awaiting some comeback. A couple of my clients were less than useful, but there you go. ;)

I am progressing a couple of things but nothing 'definite' yet. I'm hoping to get something in terms of a couple of fund raisers lined up for late May / early June.

Joe

Katya, have you thought about setting up a PayPal account so people on the net can donate?

For example if everyone here gave just £10 you'd have £100,000.

Also, why not get in touch with Carcrash, he's pretty good at getting bands to play fundraisers.

Martin

Just thought everyone might be interested to know that the Hot Ice Show was a huge success and raised around £1,000.

There may be a follow-up event at some point in the future and I'll keep you posted.

Otherwise, we have quiz nights, bridge drives and other sundry events organised. If anyone is interested in being kept updated of such things, please PM me.

Katya, open Just Giving, the way of giving over the net. I work in the charitable sector, an organisation called IMBY that promotes people with disabilities.

But I am a little disturbed over the lack of funding for local advocacies and the strict ruling that some funders place on their monies.

There are many smaller local groups that depend on funding to exist, see 'Sheffield Smooth Guide' to get an idea of the local agencies, and, as I understand it, some of these are now struggling. I was with a person yesterday that feels that their position maybe in jeapody due to lack of funding and this is a agency that has been well established in Sheffield.

I wish The Samaritans well for the future but please remember those local groups that also fulfil a local requirement