Ben's Centre, Sheffield: How new Ben's Bazaar shop on The Moor will help charity continue vital work

Ben’s Centre has opened Ben’s Bazaar, located just off The Moor in Sheffield city centre, along with a new information hub designed to bring people together.

As well as bringing in crucial funds, it hopes the new site – open from Thursday to Sunday – will raise awareness about what it does, while providing work experience for those it supports and helping them get their lives back on track.

Ben’s Centre CEO Daryl Bishop said: “We’re just hoping this will increase the publicity. Having a place on The Moor should do this.

“We’ve been a charity for 25 years and as a small charity, it’s been hard to get a charity shop running because of all the other things we do, but the purpose of this is to raise awareness and help as many people as we can.”

Ben’s Centre helps on average around 20 to 30 people a day who have suffered with substance abuse, providing them with a safe space and the support they need.

Project worker Danny McDonald, who has been with the charity for eight years, oversees the new information hub located inside the charity shop.

He said: “The idea is to tell people about what’s in the area regarding health and wellbeing. If someone comes in that’s suffering or doesn’t know what to do themselves, we can find out what’s suitable for them and keep them occupied.”

The charity has been in to contact with other charities and organisations, so they can be promoted in an attempt to help bring people together.

Mr Bishop said: “As time goes by it’s a chance to give some work experience for the clients that we are dealing with, once they get into a bit more of a stable place. It’s somewhere else they can volunteer and learn some work ethic and get into maybe a full-time job after that.”

Ben’s Bazaar manager Nicky Clarke said: “We’ve only just started so stock-wise we’ve not got as much as we want, but ideally we would like to carry on growing bigger and raise more funds to help people out.”