October Newsletter

October Newsletter

Employers

BiG Challenge  The See it Be it Team in Sheffield are running their BiG Challenge enterprise competition for 2023/24 and are looking for people to act as volunteer Business Advisers. This is a great opportunity for any business owners/entrepreneurs/employers who want to share their experience with young people and support them in developing their businesses. You will be working with Y7-9 (11-14 years old), and will be matched to an individual school for the duration of the programme (September – February), meeting with the students for an hour every few weeks. The time commitment is flexible and can be arranged between the volunteer and the school lead. Contact us at seeitbeit@sheffield.gov.uk for more information.

Project in a box – Children’s University  Children’s University (CU) celebrates children’s participation in extra-curricular learning, through award certificates and badges. Schools subscribe to CU across the region, bringing benefits to their pupils and families, including increased attendance, achievement and progress at school, through to confidence, motivation, self-esteem, and essential ‘Skills Builder’ life skills.   ‘Project in a Box’ is exclusive to CU schools across South Yorkshire – providing sustainable resources, session plans and training for school staff to deliver at after-school clubs. This year’s project – Yes Chef! – focuses on eating healthily while on a budget. Sessions include meal planning, batch-cooking, food banks, food-saving apps, spotting the best value and calculating whether special offers really are special! There’ll be a practical cooking activity each week too and here’s where we need help!   Can you support the project by donating equipment for the 50 boxes? Could your organisation sponsor one or more items from the boxes? If you’re in the food industry, could one of your team feature in a mini-case study to inspire the next generation? They would love to hear from you by email Helen Oades, h.oades@shu.ac.uk

Memory Makers Need Volunteers Could you be a child’s Memory Maker?   Memory Makers links adult volunteers with a child who is struggling to fulfil their potential as result of lack of support outside school. The role is to help the child build a ‘positive memory bank’.   Their goal is to enable these children to develop resilience and confidence so they can successfully make the leap from primary to secondary school.   Having a Memory Maker, who takes them out to do interesting activities every fortnight for a year, gives these children a reliable, positive, and caring adult. The Memory Maker is a listener, a talent spotter, a role model and someone who says: “you can do it” a lot.   Former Memory Maker Lyndsey:   “I decided to volunteer as a Memory Maker when I read about the charity at work.  I really loved the idea of being able to help a child who needed a little bit of extra support and giving them some happy, fun childhood memories.       The experience so far has been amazing and I’ve been really surprised by how much I have got out of it, I really enjoy the time that I spend with my child and it has been great watching them grow in confidence.”   Lyndsey was recruited via her workplace (a major building society). They want to offer the children a wide range of Memory Makers with different life experiences and careers. Your help in sharing  – either via written word or giving a talk – would be invaluable in getting this project off to a great start in Sheffield.   How it works: Children are referred by their primary school teacher and then matched with a volunteer adult ‘Memory Maker’ who meets with the same child every week or fortnight.  The Memory Maker takes the child away from the home to do a sport, visit the library or museum, feed the ducks or run around the park.   Training and supervision: The training is two days and one evening.  The supervision is at least every 6 weeks (one per 3 visits). For more information contact lynhartman@btinternet.com.

Volunteering Opportunity: Mentoring a Career Ready Student Career Ready (www.careerready.org.uk )  is a national social mobility charity working with 16-18 year old students. They are currently recruiting local professionals to mentor Sheffield students from January. Becoming a Career Ready mentor is an inspiring, flexible way to help a young person unlock their true potential and discover the right career path for them. It’s also a fantastic way for employers to provide rewarding volunteering opportunities for their team. It involves a series of monthly meetings between a young person and a volunteer from the world of work. Each meeting lasts an hour and the mentor and mentee speak about different career options and pathways, as well as the skills needed for the world of work. To find out more click here:About Mentoring 23-24.pdf or you can contact karen.mccartney@careerready.org.uk to find out more.

Did you know the government is banning single use plastic in October 2023? Sheffield Action on Plastic is an organisation trying to help businesses to use less plastic. One scheme they run is reusable cup hires. In October 2023, the government are banning single-use plastic in venues, events etc. They are looking for businesses and organisations who would like to use their service. In addition to this, they are looking for businesses to wash their reusable plastic pint cups, wine goblets, and coffee cups after events. they will need to have industrial dishwashers.  When:  As and when events are using reusable cups.  Why: 7 million single-use paper cups a day get thrown away in the UK! 100+ million plastic cups are used every year at UK festivals and live events, and most of these are incinerated or sent to landfill. A great opportunity for a business to make a difference in reducing single-use plastic and waste at events in Sheffield. For more information, contact: info@sheffieldactionplastic.co.uk

Donate old goods through this AppA Good Thing matches wonderful UK charities with businesses that have things to donate: helping charities while providing businesses with an ethical means of disposing of unwanted goods.   All sorts of weird and wonderful items have been saved from landfill, from theatre props, T shirts and stationery to aluminium cans, laptops and candles.   Greetings cards have gone to a project for women in prison. Gorgeous organic blankets have gone to vulnerable new mums. Furniture and paint have gone to a community space. Babygro’s have gone to families of people affected by substance misuse. Bamboo poles have gone to a beautiful community garden.   It takes just 30 seconds to create a free account at www.agoodthing.org.uk.

Period Positive Places AwardSince 2017, Period Positive have been supporting schools, charities and business to help make Sheffield the first Period Positive City. Following an Early Day Motion put forward in Parliament in 2019 that achieved cross-party support and recognised Sheffield as the first Period Positive City. Young people and members of the community are working together to ask businesses to join in and contribute to this growing movement to invite everyone to have more open and inclusive conversations about menstruation and menopause.People are talking more about periods and the menopause, both publicly and in private. The Period Positive Places Award helps turn that talking into action, to better support your employees and clients.They are looking for businesses to take part in developing Period Positive pledges for their workplace in partnership with Sheffield school students. If you would like to find out more about becoming a Period Positive Place or taking part in a project with young people on these issues, contact Chella Quint at Period Positive at hello@periodpositive.com

St Vincents Sewing Bee Experience Fundraiser   The Sewing Bee is being held as a fundraiser for St Vincents Sheffield Furniture project, at the project they provide free furniture and household items for people who are experiencing furniture poverty, to find out more about us please check out our website:  https://svp.org.uk/sheffield-furniture-store.   Details about the day:The day will run from 10am to 4pm and is at the St Vincents Furniture project, 280 Queens Road, Sheffield S2 4DL.A light lunch will be provided and hot and cold refreshments will be available throughout the day.The day will involve a pattern challenge, a transformation, an opportunity to pattern swap and a fabric swap.  To participate in the swaps you will need to bring along patterns and fabric you are prepared to swap.St Vincents will provide:Lunch and refreshmentsPattern and materials for the pattern challenge.Materials for the transformationYou will provide:Your sewing machineYour favourite sewing toolsYour lovely selfIt is important to note that this is not a sewing class, but an opportunity to experience some elements of the ‘Sewing Bee’, our hope is that we will all enjoy sewing together and help each other if needed.  For more information

Team building activities to help widen participation in outdoor spaces in Sheffield  Open Gates Outdoors (Community) CIC works with corporate partners to widen participation in the outdoors in and around Sheffield.  They provide a range of professional outdoor activities to businesses and use the revenue to provide appropriate outdoor activities to vulnerable and disadvantaged groups for free. George, the owner of the social enterprise, is qualified to lead groups in the peak district and is enhancing this qualification to include more mountainous areas and is currently obtaining an ILM-recognised life coaching qualification. They help large institutions and companies facilitate team building and CPD activities to maximise impact. Open Gates is fully insured and all activities will be fully risk assessed. More information is available about our fees and services at www.opengatesoutdoors.co.uk. George@opengatesoutdoors.co.uk

Mentor a young person to develop employability skills  Endeavour is an alternative provision provider hat supports students who have been excluded or are at risk of being excluded.  They are looking for volunteers to join a 3-year employability and skills development programme: We train you up to become a 1:1 coach with a young person 10 half day sessions per year Mutually beneficial to students and staffGet involved: A Mutually beneficial development opportunity, we will train your staff to provide students with the guidance and role models they lack We train up your staff before pairing them with a young person Guided and varied programme to support young people in developing aspirations and building skills For more information speak to katie.leather@endeavour.org.uk

Grow your talent pipeline with Sheffield College T-Level Placement Students  T-Levels at The Sheffield College are cutting-edge qualifications that blend classroom learning with a 45-day industry placement. Designed closely with employers like you, T-Levels equip students with practical skills and knowledge. Sheffield College are currently looking to work with local employers who can offer a placement opportunity one day a week (45 days in total) in the following sectors:ConstructionDigitalEducation and ChildcareHealth and ScienceEngineering and ManufacturingBusiness and AdminIn some industries, placements can be undertaken in week-long blocks as opposed to one day a week. This can benefit your business in the following ways:Nurturing T-Level students can create a pipeline of potential future employees, simplifying your recruitment process.Mentoring T-Level students provides your employees with opportunities for personal growth and skill development.A great opportunity to enhance your CSR activity in the local area. Helping to benefit the local community/economy.To learn more or express your interest in taking on a Sheffield College T-Level placement student, please contact Michael Rhodes Michaelj.rhodes@sheffcol.ac.uk or 07554 222 479.

Corporate Volunteering at FoodCycleAt FoodCycle, their vision is to make food poverty, loneliness, and food waste a thing of the past for every community. Using a community dining model, week in, week out they feed the hungry and give company to the lonely in our communities; providing delicious meals and great conversation using food which would otherwise go to waste.   Their meals happen because of their wonderful volunteers who come and help them cook and host, and they are always looking for more people to help! Their volunteering commitment is entirely flexible, meaning you can join as regularly as suits you. FoodCycle have two venues in Sheffield. One in Parson Cross which takes place on a Tuesday evening at Mount Tabor Methodist Church (volunteering opportunities from 5.30pm) and one in Broomhall which takes place on a Wednesday lunchtime at the Broomhall Centre (volunteering opportunities from 11am). You can register to volunteer here. If you have any questions, or would like to hear more about volunteering opportunities with FoodCycle, please email laurenjackson@foodcycle.org.uk

Charities

Free Excel Consultancy for Charities In order to support our charities with progression and growth, we have a high-level skills expert in Excel who is offering free Excel constantly. With over 1500 Excel projects completed, our expert is passionate about using his skills and knowledge to support charities/not-for-profits to optimise their resources and free up time to concentrate on service delivery.  So why not take the opportunity to discuss your specific Excel challenges and learn how to use Excel in order to optimise efficiency within your charity? Areas of focus include:Get help with making a few formulas work without spending hours yourselfCreate a spreadsheet to quickly enter clients’ details to record and analyse interactionsCreate formulas and pivot tables to track and analyse income & expenditures per month/quarter/year/categoryCreate formulas to extract data from multiple sheets in the same fileAutomatically send emails to clients to remind them of appointments based on data in your file If you feel as though you could benefit from this offer, please email peter@excelconsultant.co.uk.

Free ChatGPT Training for Charities   If you don’t know what ChatGPT is then it’s the next level of computer usefulness that will increase your productivity and efficiency in daily work.   ChatGPT is like a digital genie that can grant unlimited text-based wishes. It works as your personal assistant and researcher that has read 11 billion pages to base their answers on. It generates answers, reports,  summaries, software code and documents on almost any question in whatever style and formats you wish for.Ask it to write a grant proposal, or sections of a grant proposal form.Ask it to write an advert for a fund-raising event.Ask it to give you ideas for fund-raising events that cost no or little money to run.Ask it to write a report or an email for you.Ask it to analyse and critique text or ideas for you.Ask it to write a summary for you of existing text or a web page.Ask it how to do something, then ask it to modify the bits you don’t like.Please get in touch for advice and training on (1) how you might benefit from ChatGPT and (2) how to write good prompts so you ask it to do what you want in the right way to get the right results. An introduction to ChatGPT might take up to 30 minutes and extra training on good prompt writing would take it to upto about an hour. Training can be done in person or virtually.   If you feel as though you could benefit from this offer, please email peter@chatgpttrainer.co.uk.

Farewell to our amazing Katie You may have heard the news that our amazing Katie is leaving Sheffield Business Together for pastures new.   Whilst we are gutted to lose her, it is a great opportunity, and she will be doing more of the same as a social value coordinator for a construction company in Manchester. She has worked hard to make Sheffield a better place for all and supported a wide range of charities, schools, and businesses. I am sure you will want to join us in wishing her well. Katie wanted to say:- “It has been both a pleasure and an honour to work alongside such a dynamic and exciting project for the past two years. Both the Businesses and Charities I have had the opportunity to work alongside have really made my time here and I would like to thank you for letting me be a part of this unique and inspiring partnership. I will continue to be a no.1 SBT supporter, just this time from the side-lines. Thank you and Best Wishes.”. Sheffield Business Together are recruiting a replacement but we are unlikely to have anyone in post until January 2024. In the meantime, we won’t be able to accept any new requests.  Please bear with Carolynn regarding current requests as due to other work commitments her capacity will be limited.