The See it Be it campaign raises the aspirations of young people in Sheffield, improving their life chances and opening them up to the world of work.

The campaign links educational organisations with local employers to provide young people with meaningful encounters and experiences in the workplace. Young people get a chance to “learn from employers about what the world of work is like, how to access it, and how to thrive in it”.

See it Be it also work with employers and businesses to develop careers education activities. Get involved if you want to engage in careers education in schools and colleges, promoting your sector and raising awareness of opportunities and pathways.

The campaign is jointly funded by the South Yorkshire Careers Hub and Sheffield City Council to provide strategic support to schools and colleges, helping them meet the Gatsby Benchmarks. Sheffield Business Together have also joined up to provide extra support for those in areas of disadvantage.

The projects are fully funded so there is no cost for employers or educators. See the links below for how to get involved!

See it Be it in Sheffield - Info for Employers

See it Be it in Sheffield - Info for Educators

Events

We are working with organisations and freelancers to book in activation events for the second half of February and March. Activation events are going to led by the sector, and will take place in the form of workshops, networking events, and celebrations of cultural achievement.

We have many in the pipeline, and a confirmed conference for 27^th February with Ignite Imaginations. More details and tickets for this can be found here.

As we settle into the New Year, we’ll have more information on these and some concrete dates in the calendar, so keep an eye on the Culture Bulletin for updates. Speaking of…

The Sheffield Culture Bulletin

We understand that there has been a lack of communication in the culture sector, and this bulletin will hopefully facilitate some connectivity.

The first few months of the bulletin will be a bit of an experiment, but as a starting point, we thought it would be useful to platform job vacancies, grants, crowdfunding, networking events and relevant news in the culture sector.

To find out more information, make submissions and offer feedback, follow this link.

If you or someone you know might be interested, please sign up and pass on this link. The more people we get on board, the better!

LinkedIn

We have also created a Culture Sheffield LinkedIn page where we will post about job vacancies, paid opportunities and volunteering in the culture sector.

Hopefully between our bulletin and the LinkedIn these openings will be much more visible, benefiting hiring organisations and individuals in search of cultural opportunities.

Please follow and share so we can start building a LinkedIn community.

If you’d like to submit an opportunity, please fill out this form.

Cultural Asset Survey

As part of our activation work, we are looking to build an asset pipeline detailing all key cultural and heritage assets in Sheffield.

This will be an important tool in understanding the current condition and ownership status of buildings, their investment needs and requirements, and opportunities for the future.

Find out more and take part in the survey here.

We have created a Culture Sheffield LinkedIn page where we will post about job vacancies, paid opportunities and volunteering in the culture sector.

Please follow and share the page so we can start building a LinkedIn community!

So, why are we doing a bulletin?

We understand that there has been a lack of communication in the culture sector, and this bulletin will hopefully facilitate increased connectivity.

Clearer communication is one of the initiatives of the Culture Strategy, and this bulletin will centralise information so that it is more readily accessible, platforming news, opportunities and events that you may not have heard about.

What will the bulletin contain?

The first few months of the bulletin will be experimental, and we’re open to suggestions about what it should include.

As a starting point, we thought it would be useful to platform job vacancies, grants, crowdfunding, networking events and relevant news in the culture sector.

Your ideas and contributions are important, so follow this link to make your own suggestions about what the bulletin should include.

Who produces the bulletin?

Culture Sheffield - we are responsible for supporting the culture sector, working with organisations, freelancers and the public to empower businesses and facilitate the creative journeys of people in the region.

Part of this is centred around communication, ensuring that people in the sector are kept abreast of what stage we are at with activation, and informed of any news and opportunities within the sector.

Who should sign up?

This bulletin is for anyone working in the culture sector who wants to stay up to date with cultural opportunities in the city and the broader South Yorkshire region.

If you are interested, sign up here, and feel free to pass on the link to anyone else who might benefit from these updates. The more people we get on board, the better, so spread the word!

At the moment we’re hoping to get a bulletin out every two weeks, but this is flexible based on what people want to see from us.

If you’d like to make a submission, use this link.

Thank you to everyone who came to our event in the Town Hall, and a big thanks to all our guest speakers as well.

There’s a real positive energy around the Culture Strategy which is great to see. Sheffield is becoming more and more ambitious, and we are all part of this process.

Of course, there are further discussions to have, and we know that there’s lots of feedback and questions that we didn’t get round to addressing on the day. We hope that through continued communication within the sector we’ll be able to address some prevalent issues.

For those who weren’t able to attend, please find the PowerPoint slides here.

For current activation updates, follow this link.

Creative Health Sheffield are committed to reaching people who experience the highest levels of health inequality. They are seeking three new members to increase global majority representation from small community groups, the healthcare sector, and freelancers.

For more information, click this link.

Deadline: Monday 20^th January 2025, 9am

If you have any questions, please contact Karen Harrison, Chair, Creative Health Sheffield: Karen.Harrison@sheffield.gov.uk

Please see here for a video recording of a presentation of the draft culture strategy and a Q&A session with the wider sector.

We’ve now concluded the first stage of our conversation around the Cultural Strategy, through a range of vision workshops and working groups that brought together more than 200 creatives and community workers from across the city. The energy, passion, and desire for change in the rooms was strong, and we would like to thank everyone who got involved and offered their views.

The second stage of this conversation will involve additional workshops and discussions with smaller groups and individuals and will include a second digital survey. This survey was originally planned to run in April, but we have taken the decision to delay it until May. There are two main reasons for this. Firstly, the additional time will allow us to maximise its reach and make sure we involve as many people as possible. Secondly, this will allow us to avoid overlapping with the pre-election period before local elections in early May, meaning the survey can be fully publicised and shared by Sheffield City Council as well as our project team and partners.

We look forward to hearing your views when the survey launches on Monday 6^th of May.

We are extremely lucky to have been able to bring together an incredibly talented Steering Group and Project Team to deliver this work. Alongside Fourth Street and Opus Independents, our project team includes experienced and skilled creative practitioners based in Sheffield:

• Kate Brindley, appointed by SCC to lead the delivery of the Cultural Strategy as part of her role as a Cultural Development Consultant. Until July last year Kate worked for over 2 years with SYMCA as Project Director for Arts, Culture and Heritage where she led the work to position culture at the heart of the region’s investment priorities
• Ruth Nutter is a creative producer and community engagement practitioner, with expertise in creative health and community engagement.
• Ola Fagbohun is a health and wellness coach/facilitator and behavioural insight researcher, who runs an organisation called Zest OF: You.
• Rachael Walton is a director, writer, actor, and creative educator who founded and led Third Angel, an internationally renowned performance company, for 28 years.

The commission has been funded by Sheffield City Council, the University of Sheffield, and Arts Council England, and is being supported by the Culture Collective and Culture Consortium.

As part of our initial stage of work, we have established a Task and Finish Group composed of representatives of the cultural sector in Sheffield. This group includes a range of individuals from small and large cultural, community, and educational organisations, as well as creative freelancers and practitioners. This group will support the project team, hold them to account, and help to distil findings and priorities from our research and engagement.

The Task and Finish Group is composed of the following people:

• Roger Bateman, Sheffield Hallam University

• Tom Bird, Sheffield Theatres

• Linda Bloomfield, RivelinCo

• Laura Clarke, Site Gallery, Sheffield Culture Consortium

• Karen Durham, Arts Council England

• Surriya Falconer, Sheffield Culture Collective

• Sonia Gayle, African Heritage Culture Forum, Sheffield Race Equality Commission

• James Green, artist and printmaker

• Amina Haruna, DJ Myna, Mondo Radio, The Beatriarchy, Calabash!

• Clare Mappin, Burton Street Foundation

• John O’Shea, The National Videogame Museum & BGI Charity

• Liam O’Shea, Hope Works and No Bounds Festival

• Cat Powell, The National Videogame Museum & BGI Charity

• Desiree Reynolds, curator, writer in residence at Sheffield Archives

• Terezia Rostas, Care for Young People’s Future CIC

• Debbie Squire, Sheffield Hallam University

• Kim Streets, Sheffield Museums

• Professor Vanessa Toulmin, University of Sheffield

• Sara Unwin, University of Sheffield

We are so grateful to all of them for their time, energy, and brilliant ideas!