Community Archive - Meadowhall

Meadowhall Donates 400 Red Noses to Local Schools

To celebrate this Red Nose Day, Meadowhall has once again donated more than 400 red noses to children at two local schools – Wincobank Nursery and Infant Academy and Concord Junior Academy, helping them to join in and take part in aid of Comic Relief.

This is just one of the ways that the centre continues to support brilliant causes across Sheffield each year – including raising £30,000 for local charities and community groups over the festive period alone.

Here’s some of the many things Meadowhall has coming up in the community this year:

We recently announced Sheffield Hospitals Charity as the centre’s new charity partner for 2025, with Meadowhall set to host a series of fundraising events throughout the year.
We’re continuing to host our hugely popular Tea Dances, providing a vital space for older people across the local community to come together and socialise.
We’ve partnered with the National Literacy Trust’s Young Readers Programme for the last thirteen years, supporting more than 3,100 school children and seeing more than 9,300 books donated across Sheffield, and we look forward to welcoming them back again this summer.
Last year, we hosted a whole range of family-friendly charitable events, from Supercars with Bluebell Wood Children’ Hospital Charity to hosting a dedicated training day for guide dog puppies with the Support Dogs, and many more!

Meadowhall continues to be hugely proud of the work we do to continue to support our community, especially as we head into our 35th anniversary year, with even more exciting and fun events to come throughout the year.

A group of children wearing red noses. The middle child holds a clown painting.

Reverand and the Makers Pop-Up Shop

The much-loved Sheffield heroes, Reverand and the Makers, released their newest Christmas single “Late Night Phone Call” on 15th November, with aims of raising funds for the Samaritans. In support of this cause, Meadowhall supported the band with a special pop-up shop from 13th – 19th December.

Fans of the band, as well as other local artists, could visit the store, see the band and purchase limited-edition merch, alongside the mini album ‘Is This How Happiness Feels’.

Jon McClure, the bands front man, said, “Christmas can be a tough time for a lot of people, and that’s why the Samaritan’s work is so important.”

“Every year, I try to connect with people who might be struggling by doing one-to-one Zoom calls of Christmas Day, but this year, I wanted to go further.”

Rock n Roll Circus, which Reverand and the Makers will headline this summer, also involved in the collaboration, contributed £2 from every ticket sold in December directly to the Samaritans.

The Samaritans are dedicated to preventing crises and providing support to individuals in need, as well as offering listening services to help people cope with their difficulties. These services become crucial during the destive season, which can highlight feelings of loneliness and isolation for many people – an issue close to Jon McClure’s heart.

In total, the band and Rock n Roll Circus raised £6650 for The Samaritans.

If you ever feel lonely, distressed or like you need to talk to someone, please call the Samaritans for free any day or night on 116 123 or visit Samaritans.

Meadowhall Festive Fundraising 2024

The results are in! Over £34,000 was raised by our fantastic customers this Christmas period.

Fundraising efforts at the centre also included over £6595 from sales of the limited-edition Meadowhall gift card, designed by local artist Lauren Radley, was donated to support charity partner The Eden Dora Trust.

The Eden Dora Trust are a lifeline support for children, young people and families affected by Encephalitis and Acquired Brain Injury.

In another initiative to support local charities, Meadowhall teamed up with Sheffield Icons Reverand and the Makers on a pop-up shop to sell and promote their Christmas single, ‘Late Night Phone Call’. In total, £6650 was raised from sales of the single.

Band lead Jon McClure, said, “Sheffield s at the heart of everything we do and bringing people together for a good cause-whether it’s through music or a pop-up shop-means the world to us.”

Every Christmas, in the spirit of festivities, Meadowhall opens its mall to local bands and choirs to fundraise for local charities. This year, with your help, we raised over an incredible £21,000 to local charities and organisations, including, Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice, Betel UK, Salvation Army, Sheffield Children’s Hospitals Charity, Dragonfly Cancer Trust, and Rotherham Children’s Hospital Charity.

Christmas Tea Dance

Our longstanding and beloved Tea Dance hosts Christmas festivities with local school children

This Christmas, Meadowhall partnered with local schools and Age UK to spread festive cheer by distributing 200 handwritten Christmas Cards, designed by local artist Lauren Radley and written by local children, to elderly members of the community.

Messages written by the children, aim to help tackle loneliness in the elderly community, especially around Christmas time, where festivities can heighten feelings of isolation.

On December 9th, Meadowhall hosted a special Tea Dance event with children from Brightside Nursery Infant School sharing their cards, helping to foster community connections and address loneliness this festive season.

Age UK Sheffield are an independent charity who provide free information & advice, dementia services and community wellbeing activities to support older people to live well in Sheffield.

For information on their services, please visit Age UK Sheffield or contact 0114 250 2850.

Meadowhall | Mission Christmas 2024

Meadowhall joined hundreds of organizations across the UK to gather presents for Cash for Kids

We’ve joined forces with Cash for Kids to make sure every child enjoys Christmas. Sadly, the latest figures from the End Child Poverty Coalition show that poverty has increased once again, and in some of our local areas 1 in 3 children are living in poverty.

To help support this fantastic cause, we created an accessible donation point over Christmas, for all our customers and community to use should they wish to donate presents for Children.

In total, an astonishing 588 presents were donated by dozens of generous customers from the Meadowhall and surrounding communities.

Sheffield Hospitals Charity | Charity Partner 2025

Welcome to our new Charity Partner for 2025, Sheffield Hospitals Charity.

This year all of our efforts are centred around helping people across South Yorkshire to live better with dementia.

Everyone experiences dementia differently.

The way people think, feel, speak, behave and perceive things is affected. It’s not a normal part of ageing. But with the right help and support many people can live better with dementia.

Our support can help…

People living with dementia stay independent

Many hospital admissions for people living with dementia could be avoided. A huge amount of people living with dementia find admission to hospital frightening and confusing and their physical condition and cognitive function can decrease during their stay. By taking a holistic approach and funding support in the community, more people with dementia will be able to live independently for longer.

Provide specialist dementia training

Junior doctors to consultants, porters to occupational therapists and hospital volunteers to family carers, will receive specialist dementia training, enabling them to provide the most person-centred care.

Because when you are living with dementia, the whole environment matters.

Improve hospital spaces and activities

Activity co-ordinators will support people with dementia in hospital and specially designed activity boxes will help patients stay mentally and physically active.

By creating two beautiful garden spaces connected by a ‘reminiscence corridor’ at the Northern General Hospital, patients will have access to a calming outdoor space and a place to take part in co-ordinated activities.

Improving physical spaces and providing new activities for wards will help people living with dementia to feel safe and stimulated in hospital.

www.sheffieldhospitalscharity.org.uk

Five ways to make reading fun this summer

This year marks the thirteenth year of our partnership with the National Literacy Trust for our award-winning Young Readers Programme initiative [hyperlink to event page on website], which aims to encourage children to read outside of the classroom.

To help parents inspire a love of reading, we’ve worked with the National Literacy Trust to share five top tips on how to make reading fun and encourage more little ones to pick up a book during the holidays:

1. Bring stories to life

Whether you’re roaring like a lion or giggling like a goblin, reading aloud using different character voices and mannerisms is a great way to dial up the fun at story time and bring the characters to life. You can even get your little one to join in with some of the voices and sounds with you to really immerse them in the fictional world. Mixing it up with an audiobook from time to time is also a fantastic way to experience lively storytelling with your child.

2. Give the gift of choice

Giving your child a choice of what they want to read will help them to understand that reading is not only important in school, but can be for their enjoyment at home too! Spark reading excitement by treating your little one to a trip to WHSmith or Waterstones to pick out their next read for themselves.

3. Make time and create space

Part of the fun of reading for adults and children alike is getting lost in the pages and immersed in a new world. To ensure your child can enjoy their adventure to the fullest, find a relaxing spot to read together and do your best to limit distractions such as placing your mobile phone on silent and turning off the TV. You can even get creative and build a cosy reading nook together with soft rugs, cushions, and cosy lighting from Next.

4. Do it together

We know life can be busy – especially for parents and guardians! But making just 10 minutes in your day to read with your child can make an enormous difference to their motivation and attitude towards reading. Whether they’re just discovering picture books or reading independently, sharing stories will give you a chance to spend valuable time together, relax and bond over things you find interesting.

5. Read by example

Parents are their child’s first role models, so if you like reading, telling, or listening to stories, there is a likely chance your child will too. Let them take a leaf out of your book and show them how fun reading can be by getting the whole family involved and encouraging them to read with siblings, grandparents and friends.

To find out more about National Literacy Trust and its Young Readers Programme, visit: Young Readers Programme | National Literacy Trust

Find more helpful advice on how to get your child reading this summer:

Celebrating 13 years with the Young Readers Programme

We’re celebrating 13 years in partnership with the Young Readers Programme, which aims to encourage children to read outside of the classroom.

As part of this year’s celebrations, we welcomed 270 children from Concord Junior School, Meadow View Primary School and Hatfield Academy to take part in a storytelling session designed to inspire a love of reading.

Children had the chance to listen to poems from a professional poet and take part in a range of fun activities, including making their own emoji in the Apple Store and making their own Nando’s sauce. We also gave each child a book of their choice to take home for free.

The Young Readers Programme is especially designed to provide additional support and help with the development of children in under privileged areas by giving them better access to books.

We’ve taken part in the programme for the last 13 years and have helped to support more than 3,100 school children in Sheffield and seen more than 9,300 books donated across the region.

Research from the National Literacy Trust shows that reading for enjoyment among 8 – 18-year-olds in Sheffield is at its lowest since 2005 – for almost two decades.

Find out more about National Literacy Trust and its Young Readers Programme.

Litter Picking for Community Week at Meadowhall

Community Week at Meadowhall launched Monday 24th of June 2024 to give the centre’s staff a week to support local community organisations each day of the week, and the chance for employees to get together and connect with each other, as well as surrounding communities.

19 members of the Meadowhall and British land team set off from the Centre with bags and litter pickers in hand into the surrounding areas of Meadowhall to do their part in cleaning up the local streets.

The team successfully collected 40 bags-worth of litter, covering areas from Forge Master’s to Ikea, along Carbrook Street, Sheffield Road, Meadowhall Way, Tinsley Roundabout and the River Don.

The team said there seemed to be noticeably less litter than in previous years, possibly reflecting local organisations commitment in combatting littering, including the Meadowhall team and local councils.

Taking part in the Tea Dance for Community Week at Meadowhall

Community Week at Meadowhall launched Monday 24th of June to give the centre’s staff a week to support local community organisations each day of the week, and the chance for employees to get together and connect with each other, as well as surrounding communities.

8 members of the Meadowhall Team put on their dancing shoes and learned some moves in the Meadowhall Tea Dance! Taking place every Monday morning in the Oasis, the Tea Dance allows visitors of any age to enjoy a vibrant mixture of Sequence, Latin, and Ballroom dancing with live music from local musician Aubrey Robinson.

Providing sweet-treats and cakes, the Meadowhall team chatted with Tea Dance guests and danced out of their comfort zones by learning some new moves.

Aubrey Robinson, a well-known musician in the local community, said, “It was truly a wonderful experience to see the Meadowhall team get involved with the Tea Dance community. They made the day vibrant,” adding, “The Meadowhall Tea Dance provides older people with an opportunity for an occasion; getting dressed up, dancing, conversing. It makes a big difference.”

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