Our History

‘Beginnings’

Ben’s Centre has grown out of a desire within the city for day provision for street drinkers and a desire from these street drinkers to have a place they can call their own. This need for a space was very apparent to new recruit PC Ian Sherman (“Ben”) when he became the Town Hall bobby with responsibility for policing the Peace Gardens. This area, at the time, was a regular haunt of the city’s street drinkers. Ben recognising the futility of locking the street drinkers up on a regular basis; it being a constant cycle of locking drinkers up, releasing them and them returning to the street without help or support. Ben’s approach was more tactful and he built  positive working relationships based on trust and empathy, which is still the approach of the centre today.  Their desire to have their own space, out of the way, where they could support each other was communicated to Ben and the idea for Ben’s Centre began.

With the need for a space for street drinkers in mind, Ben and colleagues looked at opening premises on Norfolk Row. With the support of the city council and the TSB, support and donations from a range of organisations, and an army of volunteers Ben’s Place was opened by Lord Mayor Peter Price and David Berry in early 1996 providing food, warmth and shelter to the city’s street drinkers during the day. The street drinkers named the project 'Ben's Place' which developed into its official title of Ben's Centre for Vulnerable People (Sheffield.) Ben is still very much involved with Ben’s Centre and maintains the same values of trust, non-judgement and empathy today.

“The cycle needed to change…So i askED STREET DRINKERS EXACTLY WHAT THEY WANTED… tHEY SAID, ‘A PLACE OF STABLILITY AND SOMEWHERE TO CALL HOME’ aND SO BEN’S PLACE WAS BORN”

“orange street was made for us…We had many happy years there and built a thriving community and support network from our home there”

Ben's Centre has had a challenging history trying to secure long term funding and accommodation for the project. Jumping forward, in 2005 we secured a three-year grant from the Big Lottery enabling the organisation to develop its services. This with funding from Henry Smith Charitable Trust, J. Paul Getty Jr Charitable Trust, The Tudor Trust and a Revenue Grant from Sheffield City Council enabled a more settled period. However, grants are usually for a fixed term and quickly come to an end and so funding Ben’s is always on our mind.

In 2006 we had to relocate the centre once more, EMCO of Leeds enabled us to move to Orange Street in Sheffield. At last, we had managed to secure premises within the city centre, that could have been purpose built for us. Our previous premises had been up two flights of stairs and here we were introduced to the luxury of ground floor accommodation. However did we ever manage the previous place, with all those stairs and clients who were intoxicated? Never mind how many trips staff and volunteers took to carry in all the groceries for the week. Orange Street allowed us to provide more for the individuals that visited us with healthy eating clubs, crafts and health care being provided. We also began our Outreach service in 2012 to allow us to reach more people that needed assistance but couldn’t get to us.

‘THE WILD’

In 2015, we moved again due to the developer wanting to use the premises for a different purpose, a conversion to flats. We thought we had acquired new premises at the bottom of The Moor only to be told, at a very late stage, that the leaseholder would not approve of our occupying the premises. This began a period of difficulty at Ben’s Centre, where we were premises-less and somewhat nomadic. We then provided a limited service to our clients by providing a meal and shelter twice a week at The Duchess Road Community Centre and again we are grateful for the support they have given us. The University of Sheffield gave us two rooms on Brown Street allowing us to store Outreach supplies and continue with this work on the street. These times were also especially difficult for the staff of Ben’s who worked under the most difficult and stressful situations and it cannot be overstated what lengths Sue, Daryl and Danny went to in order to keep Bens service going. Their commitment to the project has far exceeded what is expected…

“DUCHESS ROAD WAS A DIFFICULT TIME…FUNDING WAS TIGHT AND HAVING NO HOME MEANT CARRYING OUR SUPPLIES AROUND SHEFFIELD TO OPEN THE SERVICE”

‘TIME TO LAY SOME ROOTS’

In 2016/17 after eighteen months in ‘the wild’, we found a premises in North Church Street. Staff were relieved to have a home despite it having enormous amounts of stairs once again. From North Church Street we were able to once again provide a homely space for clients with a lounge, laundry and washing facilities and a kitchen for home cooked meals. Despite it being a great space, it was limited in size for us to offer extra activities and training to our clients as we had once done in Orange Street. Moving to a bigger premises was always on our minds, but when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, it was clear that we could not sustain the service from the premises in a socially distanced manner.

A brief interlude of a phone call only service began while the hunt for a larger premises began…