Festival raises record amount for Sheffield charity

Date: 16/08/2012. Story submitted by: Brendan McFadden

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Year after year Peace in the Park festival provides thousands of Sheffield folk with a charming selection of music, entertainment and food; for many it is the jewel in the summer calendar.

And this year two of the cities charities have been left smiling by the June event – after both were awarded £1,500 by organisers.

Each year two nominated causes receive donations, which are collected from the public at the festival.

Chosen for this year’s event, were CRESST, who help teach young people conflict resolution skills, and Names Not Numbers, who work with individuals worldwide on small community projects.

The amount raised for both charities is the most raised in the 9-year history of the festival.

CRESST, who are based at Scotia Works on Leadmill Road, have found it tough to get funding since school budgets were slashed in spending cuts by the government.

The cash is helping CRESST's two latest projects at Greenlands Junior, Darnall and King Edward VII in Broomhill, where they are teaching conflict resolution skills to children age seven to 17.

In each school 20 young people have been trained as “peer mediators” and in September they will be offering to help their fellow pupils sort out conflicts and stop them escalating.

Cheryl Smart, co-ordinator of CRESST, said: "Primary school playgrounds become happier places and these projects teach youngsters conflict resolution skills – important life skills that can be used in all walks of life.

"Peace in the Park was wonderful, the raising of the money was marvellous – I can't thank people enough for giving us the money.

"It is fantastic to be able to give to a small local charity like us and we really appreciate it as we need the money to keep going."

CRESST will not just be using the cash to help directly in schools, it will also fund meetings with other peace education charities, plus promote healing practices, conflict resolution and peace education.

And this is something that Cheryl says the charity needs to do to ensure they carry on and is firmly committed in continuing to network with other charities.

“We are a charity and need people to help with fund raising so we can tell people and schools about our work, carry on with the work we are doing and also to develop and expand,” she explained.

Next year’s Peace in the Park festival will take place on Saturday 8th June 2013 at the Ponderosa Park, Netherthorpe.

For information on how you can get involved click on the link below.

Additional info

Address: Glossop Rd S10 2PW

Tags: King Edward V11 School, CRESST, Peace in the Park festival 2012, Sheffield, Names Not Numbers

Web link: http://www.web.peaceinthepark.org.uk