Over the past year, we have supported over 1800 young people through our services and over 2000 students through Peer Education in schools. Fortified by the Lord Mayor- Andrew Sangar, Roundabout has had the honour of being chosen as Charity of the Year.

“It’s a real honour for us to be chosen. It was a bit of a surprise.”

At the Sheffield City Council annual meeting on 21 May, the Lord Mayor had announced his support for Roundabout and our aim for nobody under the age of 25 in South Yorkshire to experience homelessness. With our dedicated team, we can proudly announce that no young person in Sheffield under 25 has had to sleep rough.

Our Chief Executive- Ben Keegan noted “It’s a real honour for us to be chosen. It was a bit of a surprise. When they met us, we weren’t sure that we were going to be chosen, I thought it was an interview, but quite quickly they said. I was very, very pleased. It was lovely.”

“We are hopeful that with the Lord Mayor’s backing, more people will be aware of our hard work and impact. We have lots of services that try and prevent homelessness before it happens, but a lot of young people and parents don’t know that we exist.” Said Ben Keegan.

Charlie’s story

“Roundabout can help people as much as they can, but that can only happen if people know about them.”

Charlie is a young person whose life has been turned around by Roundabout.

Charlie had experienced homelessness a number times before being referred to the Roundabout rapid rehousing team who moved him into a self-contained flat in February 2023.

With support from Roundabout, Charlie has now turned his ice skating hobby into extraordinary success.

Charlie is hopeful that Roundabout being the Lord Mayor’s charity will help people in similar positions believe it is possible for their lives to change. “Overall Roundabout has been a very supportive environment for me. I always feel comfortable coming to sit in the office and I feel like I am always supported. Roundabout can help people as much as they can, but that can only happen if people know about them.”

Read Charlie’s story

Three of our Peer Educators, Charlie, Lydia and Amber outside our HPS.

Increasing demand for our services

“We were supporting just over 2000 people in a year…”

Ben has noted that our mission to make sure that nobody under the age of 25 sleeps rough in South Yorkshire has become “increasingly difficult year on year”.

“Last year was our busiest year. We were supporting just over 2000 young people in a year, which is the biggest we’ve ever had to try and help. If we can do more work helping people stay with family, that’s what we want to do.”

We are grateful to our dedicated team and volunteers who have helped us manage this increase in demand for our services particularly within our accommodation services as over 300 young people have been supported with tenancies across Sheffield and Rotherham in the past year alone. None of this would have been achieved without the help of our team, our partnerships and funders.

Roundabout team photo before our Kilimanjaro walk.

Charlie says “I don’t think being homeless should affect your future.” Together we can break the cycle of homelessness to ensure that no young person experiences homelessness in South Yorkshire.