During the Sheffield Faiths Forum Annual Review, held at Sheffield Town Hall on 4 March 2008, delegates were asked to prioritise potential issues that the Faiths Forum could address in the coming year.

Notes for completing the exercise [1] and the list of potential issues [2] are available through these links.

Alongside the group exercise during the event, 29 consultation sheets were completed and submitted – these covered 7 different faiths and a number of denominations within them.

Four clear potential priorities for the Faiths Forum were identified through the exercise:

• Community Cohesion

• Faith group visits / Sheffield Open Door week

• Neighbourhood based work

• Young Peoples project

 This information will be used by the Faiths Forum over the coming year to help:

• direct resources to the most important issues if resources are secured

• make difficult choices over which projects can be supported if resources are limited

• target and, hopefully, secure future resources.

Through last year’s consultation faith communities in Sheffield told the Faiths Forum that our key priorities should be:

• Support for asylum seekers and refugees

• Multi-faith initiatives at a neighbourhood level

• Improving awareness of different faiths in the city

As a result of these comments we:

• worked with the City of Sanctuary campaign to hold an event on Sanctuary, Hospitality and refuge

• directly supported faith groups in Darnall to work together and address local issues

• provided free faith awareness training for members of faith communities and started to build up a library of images of different faith communities in the city