Burngreave Messenger

Issue two

HOME SAVED An old peoples home in Burngreave that it was feared faced the axe is not going to close, Sheffield City Council confirmed this week. Ellesmere residential home in Dichingham Street is being handed over its future and the special service it provides for elders from the Afro Caribbean community, Social Services have said. Spokesman Richard Parrott said Ellesmere was one of eight old people's home run by the Council that would pass into private hands as part of Sheffield's attempt to improve facilities for old people in the city. Eight others are to be given different roles within Social Services. He said the Council could not raise the funds needed to maitain and improve standards at these homes, but the private or voluntary sector would be able to invest money in them, including Ellesmere. The news comes as many families feared the closure of the home and its special service for the elderly members of the Afro Caribbean community.The nearest residential home with a similar facility is thought to be in Birmingham. Mr Parrott said: "The Coucil is commited to keeping open all its homes, including Ellesmere. This home is not just for black people. There are whites there as well. These are a generation that have grown up side by side and it is quite fitting that in later years they can still be together in a residential home. All would be lost if Ellesmere closed and that is why it will remain open". The wide ranging review of social services for older people in Sheffield had been forced on the Council , said Mr Parrott. Under new Government guidelines, Council run homes for the elderly in Sheffield and throughout the country would be forced to upgrade standards. Sheffield, like other authorities, could not raise the finance to meet this demand and the only option to secure the future for these homes was to bring in either the voluntary or private sector. "We just don't have the money to ensure the best standards possible," he said. "Most of our homes are already in the private sector. The Council has 16, which only accounts for 30 per cent of the sector. By taking this course of action they will stay open." He said the Council would be paying the private company for the caring of each elderly person and because it was in charge of the purse strings it would still remain overall control of Ellesmere and other homes. Of the other eight homes that are to be given roles to play within Social Services, four will be remodelled to combine intensive rehabilitation beds, respite care and specialised services. The other four providing dementia care should be converted into respite care and day care units, together with community resources centers for older people with mental health problems. It is understood the center at Norbury will behome a resource center for elderly people with dentia problems. Mr Parrott said that anyone still concerned over the future of the Ellesmere home should contact him at Social Services, Floor 2, Redvers House, Sheffield S12 2JQ. Tel: 0114 273 4731.
People Power in practice Road Safty Campain on Brunswick Street On the 8th September 1999, there was once again a serious accident resulting in the tragic death of a six year old boy, who was coming home from school. This death outraged residents already concerned about the issues and prompted them into blocking off the road and demanding instant action from the local authority. Because of road traffic problems the people of Burngreave have to cross many roads daily, in fear of their lives. Since the 1980's residents have protested and petitioned regularly about road safety in the area. The last campaign in 1996, after a six year old girl was seriously injured in a "Hit and run" accident in Brunswick road. After meetings involving local residents, community workers, police, councillors and city council executives, it was agreed to put in temporary road safety measures until building of permanent speed humps could commence. On the 13th September 1999 local representatives SPECIAL K, LEVI FERGUSON and JENNY BROWN and local councillors STEVE JONES and JOHN WATSON, met with the North Planning and Highways Area Board where it was agreed that the work on road safety improvements for Brunswick Road, should start immediately and that funding was available. The installation of 'children crossing' road signs and 4 speed bumps began on 20th September and all road markings were renewed. A variety of organisations from within the area met to produce a road safety proposal for the whole Burngreave ward area. At a recent area panel meeting for road safety, it was announced that £100,000 is to be spent within the area by the end of this financial year ( April 2000), with a further £200,000 allocated for the following year. Brilliant news!
Council Axes Front-Line Service: Burngreave Projects Hit In a move which will hit some of the most disadvantaged areas of Sheffield. At it's October meeting, Liberal councilors voted to disband the community work service of the education department, leaving 31 workers facing the threat of redundancy. The Liberal election manifesto for this May promised to "truly consult and listen to the people of Sheffield", yet the decision to disband the commnuity work service was taken behind closed doors. No-one in the voluntary or community sector, and hardly anyone who works for the council, was consulted about the decision. A number of Burngreave organisations, including Burngreave Community Action Forum, the Black Women's Resource Centre, the Vestry Hall project and "Burngreave Messenger" itself, have been supported by community workers in the past, and there is no doubt that many of those who give up their free to take part voluntarily in the regeneration of the area will free betrayed by this decision. The Liberals are also pushing through a number of other tremendously unpopular decisions, such as; The privatisation of the refuse collection collection service The Sell-off of Council houses, transport services, old people's homes, leisure centres and municipal golf cources. More redundancies in the Highways and Lighting sections. This is despite promises made before May's election to defend public services! Community workers struck for two days and organised three seperate, well-attended and angry lobbies of Council meetings to defend a service that we believe in and value. But we have unable to exert enough pressure to force a change of mind. However, we would sincerely like to thank all those in Burngreave, and there have many, who have lobbied the Council or wrote in letters of protest on our behalf. We feel that the actions of thr Liberals, in breaking so many of their election promises in their forst few months of power, mean that there will be a real need to keep up the protest and campaigns in the future. By and on behalf of Sheffield Council community workers. Doing the job and Making a Difference On the face of it losing Community workers is not a big thing, the Council have told us that we have got funding from the lottery, central Government and Europe so we don't need their support anymore! We have been given that extra money because we are in great need, and it was given to us on the condition that it was extra to what little we had. The extra community development workers we have been able to fund are neither equipped nor well placed in the power structures of local government to be as effective as those we have lost. Many believe that the matter is being pursued but meanwhile Burngreave as a recognised "Social Exclusion Zone" is left more excluded. Applying for funding has become a major time consumer for the Community volunteers and professionals, what used to be assumed as the responsibilty of the Council is now being dumped on local goodwill. Voluntary time is an essential ingredient in most of these funding bids as is the expectation that we will work towards self sufficiency at the end of funding - up to three years usually. The reason we are an "Action Zone" is because we are not economically able to function withiout investment. What little money Brungreave Community Action Forum (BCAF) was given extra and shuold not replace what our Council Tax should be buying. Funders are advising Burngreave projects to budget for a worker to apply for funding. So most projects that are now running must each spend a large part of their "working" time filling in very complicated forms with a wish and prayer. If they are unlucky and fail all their time has been wasted and the project may close. Many projects complete so some must fail. These days this process is not for the icing on the cake, but for the cake itself. The Forum BCAF is run entirely by volunteers and yet it is having to seek funding for what were essential services. We have been shown on Brunswick road how direct action brings results. Do we have to wasit for a child to die for us to wake up to what's going on, or can we learn that we need to stand together and shout loudly if want to have promises kept. Many Burngreave projects are run byvolunteers, who freely give up their own precious time, while believing that they are amking a difference. This work os positive and building for the future.
Methodist Church...First Ever Asian Leader A Burngreave church leader who is a Sikh and a Christian has become the leader of the Methodist Church. Next year, Inderjit Bhogal, Director of the Urban Theology Unit on Abbeyfield road, will be appointed President of the Methodist Conference in a landmark ceremony. For 12 months he will travel throughout the UK talking about his experiences of living in a multicultural community, a wide-range experience that started in East Africa where he brought up. "I think everyone should live like that," He said. "I want my children to experience such a life." Inderjit said he and his family could have afforded to have lived in one of Sheffield's more prosperous areas than Burngreave, but decided to stay here for the benefit of the children. "With an English mother and an Asian father, they have double heritage. We want them to have a positive image of who they are." He looks down on people eho claim children from mixed marriages are half-cast. "I say no-one is haf-cast and are, therefore, richer people. I look at children form families like ours in a positive way. In Burngreave there is a significant section of the population where households comprise people form different cultures. That's the future." Inderjit holds up July's Multicultural Festival in Abbeyfield Park as a goos example. He said he was standing by a stall with a poster about Martin Luther Knig's dream about people with different coloured skins baing valued. "I turned round and saw the park in his dream reality." He said the cross section of cultures is brought home to him when he takes his children to school and they cross Barnsley road. "We have to wait at the pelican crossing for a matter of a half a minute and all around we can see the different cultures in the area, in the children and their parents. I feel the heart of God must rejoice at the sight of all God's people together." He appreciated that people ahve moved out of Burngreave because they have felt threatened by the multicultural neighbourhood and said people in the community needed to be realistic and recognise the tensions. Burngreave had a bad image because it was a multicultural area, but for him, its cross-section of cultures was one of the most positive aspects of the area.
Scoop Aid And how they can help Burngreave one-paent families... In 1975 a group of lone parents had the idea to set up a venue to offer support to lone parents in Sheffield. The following year Urban Programme funding was granted and the group were able to pay for some staff hours and to set up a 'drop in' centre where advice could be given. In 1988 a funding crisis forced SCOOP to rethink its future. What emerged was an Advice Centre with new premises on Rutland road provided by the Council and Grant Aid to pay an Advice and development worker to run the office, take on case work and support groups around the city. These days Jean Smith's role is unrecognisable: SCOOP Aid has earned a national reputation for it's pioneering work regarding Chils Support and the advice office, still staffed by Jean and a team of volunteers, deals with 2,000 lone parents per year seeking advice and information about a wide variety of issues. There is still the annual toy appeal to run, distributing free toys at Chridtmas to 500 lone parent families and a small stock of children's clothes to sort and store. Over the past 4 years SCOOP Aid has mushroomed. In addition to the advice work, there are training courses in Personal Developement and Basic Counselling Skills, each supported with free childcare and travel costs. Development Workers offer a home visiting service to lone parents wanting to move on into education, training and employment. The Centre holds information about all the childcare provision in the city, details of training and education and has basic careers information. This year has seen further developments with SCOOP winning a contract with the Employment Service to deliver one of only 10 Innovative Pilot Projects around the country working with the New Deal for Lone Parents. Although SCOOP now has a staff team of seven it remains a grass roots organisation still committes to its original belief that the best way to help lone parents is to listen to what they want and try to help them get it. The management committee isstill made up entirely of local lone parents from the support groups and they make sure that the organisation remains well rooted in the real world!

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