At-risk charity petition calls for council funding

Sheffield's Vida charity said they urgently need funding to stay open

A charity in need of an urgent cash injection to avoid closure has submitted a petition signed by more than 27,400 people calling for council help.

Vida has spent almost 30 years providing support to victims of domestic abuse in Sheffield and helping them recover from trauma.

On Wednesday, Vida CEO Karen Hague told Sheffield City Council that without financial support it would have to cease its work at the end of November.

Responding to the petition Angela Argenzio, chair of the council's adult health and social care policy committee, said the authority could not directly fund the charity but would do "all we can" to support it to find other funding options.

The charity provides support to up to 200 people annually and needs £240,000 each year to fund its work, Ms Hague said, adding that without an urgent cash injection of £54,000 it was likely to close within a matter of months.

She said the charity had been overlooked for several recent funding bids.

“It’s hard to find funding which will sustain our services as everything is short term," she told councillors.

“We have applied for major tender processes nationally, through the Home Office and through the Suicide Prevention Fund, but we have failed simply because they are oversubscribed and all other funders are just highly competitive now.

“We are just one of many trying to access the same pot of funds and we are just finding it difficult to continue with what we are doing.

“We think we are extremely good value, we save the NHS about £50,000 a month with our complex mental health service to women who have post-traumatic stress following domestic or sexual abuse.”

Ms Argenzio said that if Vida were to close she believed it would lead to an increased burden on other mental health and therapy services in the city.

She added: "If we are not able to directly provide funding in circumstances like this we can nevertheless do all we can to support Vida in developing a clear business plan and continue to talk to our colleagues in the NHS and to advocate for statutory NHS funding for the work that Vida does."

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