Sharrow Community Forum

The Sharrow Community Forum is a charity working in one of the most deprived wards in Sheffield. Established in 1997 it has been working ever since to create community cohesion and to drive social change.

Funding from the Ken and Janet Cooke Charitable Fund and the Liz & Terry Bramall Foundation Philanthropy Catalyst Endowment Fund has enabled Sharrow Community Forum to launch a new project to engage with vulnerable young people, 14 to 25 years old.

The micro manufacturing project ‘Made in Sharrow’ will teach participants to use CNC Router design and production techniques whilst learning from professional technicians and craft people.

The project will run over 10 weeks and will have 12 young people in each of the two groups. This course will include designing your own product, gaining accreditation, volunteering experience and much more.

This project began because we realised we had a gap in our provision. We have a duty of care to fulfil, and we have services like our youth club and the Highfield Adventure Playground for people in the community but we realised we needed to do more for older age groups.

This design and build project means we can engage this age group in a unique way whilst also improving their employability and life skills. Getting them engaged and active in something positive is especially important as we know they are at a vulnerable age.

We want them to feel comfortable here, they can use our IT suite and access the complement of our other services too. We find that there is a lot of activity surrounding sport and foot ball in this area but if you aren’t into that then you are missing out so this will bring a new, different and more creative project for people to try their hand at.

We have been planning this for a long time and we are excited to launch and get underway

Jonathan Roberts, Partnership Manager

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