Dear All,

I hope that this finds you well and that you have enjoyed the summer, despite the unpredictable weather! As we enter the autumn season it’s a good time to reflect on the personal season that we find ourselves in and on finding peace, health and balance in our own lives.

With regards to the life of the Parish Nursing project the past 6 months have seen lots of exciting new developments taking shape and increased momentum.

Of course, none of this would be possible without your tireless support through prayer, funding and encouragement so we cannot thank you enough!!

The stall within The Moor Market

Our market stall continues to be a rich place of encounter with the people of Sheffield including the hardworking stall holders and staff who continue to offer a warm and supportive welcome including us as part of their community.

Since the beginning of April we have seen 359 clients including 98 new clients, both men and women, customers and stall holders and those on the streets. The vast majority of those under our care do not attend church and come from a variety of faith backgrounds reinforcing the value of our presence in the market as it enables us to extend our outreach to the wider population.

In addition to providing health checks, advice, a listening ear and signposting, we can provide health and wellbeing education. This work is often carried out in collaboration with other local health organisations such as Macmillan, Diabetes UK and Healthwatch Sheffield.

Over the Summer we had fun running children’s events during the holidays sharing engaging activities to encourage healthy bodies, healthy minds and vibrant spirits!

Outreach Service

Some lovely feedback from one of our outreach clients, this really shows the impact your support can have:

“I just want to say thanks, for the friendly smiles from you and your team who used to bring me food and drinks, and all your help with getting a doctor and lots of things, and the lasagnas you bought me on Division street when I moved into b n b. I have moved into a lovely flat …if your passing and fancy a cuppa, big hugs and lots of thanks”

Our volunteers continue to hit the streets week in and week out serving a mainly male client base. The people we meet have complex needs so we work in close collaboration with our partners from drug and alcohol outreach organisations. Several of our volunteers have real lived experience of some of the issues facing the guys on the streets and bring unique insight, empathy and compassion to the role. We are so grateful to all our volunteers for the selfless dedication, commitment and good humour they bring to the team.

Multi agency work is key to addressing the fullness of our clients needs and we have established good links with both charitable and statutory agencies and health care providers.

Your funding enables us to provide those on the streets with a hot drink, food, warm clothing, sun cream, cold water, sleeping bags, taxi fares to appointments, bus tickets to accommodation and mobile phones. Our partnership working means we can also support more individual requests such as a television for a client placed in protective accommodation and a new pair of trainers.

Sanctuary space within the church

We are lucky enough to enjoy daily mass at St Matthews and are blessed that this beautiful church building is open every day. It is a welcoming and peaceful space open to all. We almost always share a cup of tea and a chat after mass whatever day of the week, and our clients will often drop in for a chat, to share news, be it wonderful, heartbreaking or “every day” in nature. Our central location also means we have easy reach to many services and professionals who can pop in to meet with those who need their assistance or advice within the building.

Marjorie has given much time to this special ministry and will be sorely missed as she leaves the project to pursue her future plans, we know she will bring encouragement and dedication in all her future endeavours.

Walking group

The walking group, led so ably and enthusiastically by Marjorie, has allowed those attending to enjoy the benefits of exercise, to explore the fascinating historical landscape of our city and the company and conversation that a good walk facilitates. A great example of whole person health support!

Many thanks to Marjorie for devising and running this project which has brought so much joy to all who took part, you have left an indelible impact on all our lives.

Training

We constantly seek to renew and develop our skills and invest in the team, our greatest resource!

We currently undertook first aid training delivered by South Yorkshire Ambulance Service, this training was also attended by our partners Rite Trax and the Unity Outreach team, it was lovely to spend time with our partners.

Many of our team are also currently taking part in the “The Effective Parish Nursing Assistants” course run by Parish Nursing Ministries UK. This course seeks to broaden our knowledge base and help us to fulfil our role safely and effectively and facilitate networking and shared learning with others in the PNA role.

Michaela has attended training on the subjects of hoarding and domestic abuse via Sheffield Council.

Michaela and Marjorie have both continued with their clinical supervision and have regularly met up with other Parish Nurses in the wider region. Regular safeguarding training is undertaken.

Interventions

Interventions continue to increase. Below is a summary

APR-JUN JUL-SEP TOTAL
TOTAL INTERVENTIONS 196 163 359
HEALTH EDUCATION 19 43 62
HEALTH SCREENING/ASSESSMENT 126 87 213
SHORT TERM HEALTH SUPPORT 24 19 43
LONG TERM HEALTH SUPPORT 27 14 41
END OF LIFE HEALTH SUPPORT 0 0 0

These figures are ongoing and the final total will increase as the numbers for September have not yet been added.

Our service users and their needs continue to be diverse and varied but the impact of the social contact we provide really can’t be underestimated. Those who feel marginalised often need time to readjust to feeling part of the community once again, the sanctuary space is ideal for helping with this, work that we hope will grow thanks to the new Anderson-Green project in conjunction with The Art House, more details to come later on.

Income and expenditure

2023 Apr- Sept
Employment costs

Including pension and payroll costs

£11659 This includes salary and payroll for employed staff as well as expenses, personal equipment, accreditation, training and so on.
Volunteer hours saved salary costs £4644 Volunteering hours have increased compared to this time last year, with significant savings for the project
Outreach costs £1523 Outreach costs cover a wide range of items that make our clients’ lives more comfortable and functional including hot drinks, food, sleeping bags, mobile phones, transportation costs for appointments, dog food, clothing, water, toiletries and much more.
Rent and resources for the Market Stall 3944 This includes rent and rates for the stall as well as resources like stationery, medical equipment, children’s resources, literature, educational resources etc.
Volunteer Costs and Expenses 671 Volunteer expenses such as travel costs, mobile phone top ups, professional accreditation, training etc.

Please do get in touch if you would like full details of costs.



Looking to the future

We have several pieces of very exciting news to share! Following our recruitment event for an additional paid Parish Nurse we have happily received applications from two very strong candidates, both of which bring completely different skills and experience with them. Interviews will take place on September the 20th and the successful applicant will attend the Preparation for Practice course run by Parish Nursing Ministries UK in November – watch this space!

The recruitment of a second paid Parish Nurse will enable us to increase our offer to the city in terms of increasing the stall’s opening hours, giving us extra time to plan events, and to enhance and broaden our links with other agencies.

This leads nicely into news about the launch of the Anderson Green project led by volunteers Scott Anderson and Ted Green in collaboration with our neighbour charity The Art House Sheffield. This project will use the combined life experience, gifts and talents of Ted and Scott to provide art workshops and a wellbeing cafe to help participants flourish and build new skills and hope for the future.

All prayers for this venture will be most welcome and Scott and Ted are an absolute inspiration to so many! Our new nurse will also be involved in providing health support to the Anderson Green project’s participants.

We have been blessed to have several new recruits this year.

We welcome:

  • Talented artist Ted Green (mentioned above as part of the Anderson Green project) and who also takes part in outreach.
  • The ever insightful and entertaining James Marples brings a wealth of experience and is a great asset to our outreach team.
  • Dr Richard Dawidek brings his expertise in making grant applications as he joins our team in the role of Fundraising Coordinator.
  • Liam Westlake has over a decade’s experience working with various organisations helping those suffering from homelessness and addiction and we are so thankful for him.
  • Holly Featherstone has also been recruited to take over some of the administration tasks that were tying up the nurses’ valuable time.

You can find out a little more about our recruits in the Parish Nursing Booklet also available in church.

Unfortunately, it’s not all happy news and it is with a heavy heart that we report that Parish Nurse Marjorie Skidmore will be leaving the project and moving on to pastures new, as will our lovely volunteer Maria Elilot-Hill.

You leave very big shoes to fill, but we look forward to supporting you in all your future endeavours and we know that you will be just as wonderful in whatever adventures come your way as you have been with us.