Sharrow Community Forum is a membership organisation, our main office is at the Old Junior School on South View Road in Sharrow. Our main areas of work are around supporting children, young people and families, community cohesion and community involvement, and providing accessible and affordable spaces for hire. We deliver a range of services and activities from the Old Junior School and Highfield Adventure Playground.
Membership is open to anyone who lives, works, or has an interest in Sharrow. We currently have around 100 members, most of whom are individuals who live in and around Sharrow . Our members elect officers to the board of trustees at our Annual General Meeting, held each year in the Autumn.
The following is from our 2023 Annual Report. To download the full version click here.
Since my last report, there have been some big changes and more latterly some game-changing funding that will provide some welcome and much-needed resources for local people and the area.
Sharrow Community Forum continues to develop projects, partnerships and general activity to achieve it’s goals and to remain focussed on its
core values. Hopefully the following pages will allow the reader a snapshot of some of this.
There are, as ever, familiar themes that shape much of the work. Front and centre has been our work with children, young people and families. The events and activities down at the Adventure Playground have drawn large numbers across the year and offers enriching activities, nutritious meals and support and advice. The HAF programme, family activity and expanding youth offer are continuously developing to meet what local people are asking for and getting involved in.
Our partnership work continues to be a key platform to ensure SCF can shape local project delivery; we work with a wide range of partners to realise our ambitions, maximize available resources and avoid duplication of work. In May ’23, SCF was also the proud recipient of a South Yorkshire Police Award for its partnership work.
SCF promotes and champions local festivals through fundraising and supporting the organisation of activities as part of them. A fantastic example of a collaborative process was the music stage in the Adventure Playground operated by young people from the ‘Tracks’ programme (Sheffield Music School). They provided a range of music and styles by young artists – it was great to see and hear, and it proved to be very popular. There were many young musicians to keep an eye on for the future.
SCF has supported local people back into work, training and/or volunteering and promotes local activity, groups and individuals through the ever-popular Sharrow Today and using social media to promote a plethora of local and city-wide events and opportunities. And finally, I am very proud to announce the Youth Investment Fund grant that SCF was awarded at the end of March this year. The £2.5million award will enable youth services to transform health, wellbeing, skills, and opportunities for young people. It is a ground-breaking opportunity to prioritise the needs of young people and deliver the life-changing services they need, creating a more equal society for future generations, and the area will have a brand new state-of-the-art building to be proud of!
It has been quite a year – with even more exciting activities to come!! I am looking forward to continuing to support all the great work and seeing further opportunities for all our community to get involved in and to shape.
-Paul McGrath.
Previous Annual Reports: