Sheffield community centre celebrates £370,000 funding for work with vulnerable people

Andalus Community Centre, based in the Mudfords Building on Exchange Street near the old markets, has been awarded £372,000 funding for staff wages for the next three years.

The centre, set up by Taoufik Marah, assists refugees and asylum seekers, giving them advice and support in setting up their lives in the city. The charity works with the Refugee Council to help support more than 700 asylum seekers housed in South Yorkshire hotels.

It also offers debt, housing, welfare rights and other advice to anyone who needs it as well as running translation services and life skills courses. The funding from the National Lottery gives the service more stability by paying salaries for five staff.

The centre experienced worrying times at the end of last year when it emerged that city council plans to regenerate the Castlegate area using money from the government Levelling Up Fund could possibly expand to involve the building, which Taoufik leases from the city council. The other occupant of the building is an Eritrean restaurant, Frehiwet Habesha.

Taoufik said that discussions are still taking place with the council on the future of the building.

Difficult journeys

“It’s good news we’ve got funding we were waiting for just over a year for,” said Taoufik. “It’s mainly to cover the salaries of five full-time advisors and some overhead costs.”

He said the funders were so impressed with how such a small team work with so many people that they agreed to help for the next three years. It could lead to a longer-term relationship if all goes well.

The Home Office has also funded work to make the building more safe and secure, including fitting security cameras and new fire exit doors.

Advice centre manager Colin Salt said that members of his team have been through the same difficult journeys as people that they help. “They have the experience. We promote people to be positive, offering positivity and support.

“You’d be amazed at some of our clients. They’re our friends now – they come in as a stranger and they leave as friends.”

Taoufik added: “We have got open hearts, open hands, open minds. We want to work with you, not against you. We’re bringing money into the place, securing jobs, helping to put a smile on the most vulnerable people’s faces.

“The city are talking about levelling up. That’s what we’re doing.”

Snowball effect

They are now looking to expand their work.

Colin said: “We advocate for people throughout their journey because when people are fleeing war-torn countries and poverty, it’s nice to make people feel welcome and support them to contribute to local communities and the country.

“Personally I wouldn’t like to be in their position because we can’t comprehend what it’s like to leave their families. It’s awful, they’re really good people.

“What we do as well is help them claim what they’re entitled to. We help people create CVs and get job interviews so people can go into employment and we run English courses.”

Colin said he was delighted by the funding news: “When Taoufik told me about it I couldn’t believe it. Here we help people in many directions.

“I have been in this profession a long time. I can honestly say that with this new holistic approach we have, where it’s people who come first, everything is face to face, we explain everything, we care, it’s like a snowball effect.”

Practical skills

He said their work enables their clients to go on to make a contribution to their new home city: “We make sure people are stable financially, have a place to live and then we build them up and give them the tools to be successful. I’m personally extremely proud of what we do.”

One of the advice workers, Dr Ibtisam Alfarah, said she works with women to help them to help themselves while she is dealing with their problems.

Her aim is to give them the confidence and the practical skills so that eventually they can go on to deal with bureaucracy themselves, such as interacting with the schools that their children attend.

One of the centre volunteers, Dr Hassan Elselhab, met the team at one of the hotels where they work. He is from Egypt but also worked in Saudi Arabia for 15 years before coming to Britain in 2020.

He has now been able to settle here and brought his family over to join him.

Hassan organises a team of 40 volunteers to help asylum seekers housed in hotels, raising money to buy what they need and distributing it.

Supporting people

He is a director of the Sheffield Grand Mosque on Grimesthorpe Road and has also been raising money to support Muslims living in the hotels to celebrate Ramadan, such as supplying them with dates and snacks in order that they can break their daily fast at sunset.

Taoufik said: “He is the same person who went through the journey and is now supporting people coming through because he lived in the situation.”

The former leadership and management lecturer said that Taoufik has been a great support to him. “I am very happy when I come here and every time I come and work with Mr Taoufik.

“I didn’t speak English when I arrived but now I’m pretty good.”

To find out more about the work of the Andalus Community Centre, go to their website at http://www.andalus.org.uk/#home

Read this: Park campaigners say council treated them same as tree protesters

Read this: Suburb named worst for fly tipping as council act to catch culprits