Recently, I’ve talked about the challenges for organisations of making an impact in Sheffield. Having been asked to produce a short film for the Cathedral Archer Project, a support scheme for homeless people in Sheffield, I discovered a project that has been doing just that, and in a way that’s sometimes a matter of life and death. While I was tasked with figuring out how to make an impact with the film to be shown to the great and the good at the Sheffield Chamber dinner, the project inspired one of my film crew, Marishka Van Steenbergen, to write this piece:
I’m not a morning person, so getting up at 5am on my day off is quite a struggle. I’d been invited to accompany a film crew in making a short film about the Cathedral Archer Project and I’ve always wanted to know more about the project, so I dragged myself out of bed and met the team at 7am at the Sheffield Cathedral.
On our arrival, the place was already buzzing with activity. People were setting tables for breakfast and the smell of coffee and toast was wafting from the kitchens. An hour later there was a stream of people coming for a hot drink and some breakfast, after a cold night sleeping on the streets. The food comes from supermarkets and churches that donate food that has reached its sell-by date. A volunteer explained that he helps out because, “anyone of us could be here, it’s so easy to just drop off the end.”
We spoke to some of the clients who had dropped off the end. Rachel had a ten-year drug habit, she was working the streets and stealing: “I did anything I could to get my next fix. I’d fallen out with my family, and I fell pregnant three times.” When Rachel started coming to the Project she was supported by a drugs worker. She kept lapsing back into her old habits until she made an unexpected u-turn: “I woke up one morning and decided I couldn’t take it anymore, so I went cold turkey for three weeks. Afterwards I was terrified of going back on the drugs due to boredom, so I asked if I could start volunteering.” Rachel now works in the kitchen and is hoping to start an NVQ in Catering; she’s a different person: “it sounds weird but I can’t wait to go to bed at night, to get up and come here in the morning.”
The Archer Project started twenty years ago, along with breakfast and lunch, they developed services to help people look at their life differently, to challenge them and give them aspirations. The Project now offers a health service, crisis provision, classes and activities whatever clients’ race or religion. Tim Renshaw the CEO, told me the project turns people’s lives around, with a history of addiction and criminality. They learn disciplines like punctuality and attendance, volunteering helps them realise they have much more to offer.
Talking to the clients and hearing their stories was a humbling experience. I was inspired by their resilience and generosity, they’ve been through some really tough times, often treated unfairly or quite simply ignored. Yet they were the ones offering me cups of coffee and treating me like a good friend, it’s strange how it’s often those with nothing who are the most ready to give.