Kerryanne Evans has lived in Wybourn her whole life, moving between just three different streets. She’s seen how Wybourn has changed in that time and knows the community like the back of her hand. So, when our community-based programme, Wybourn Works started to gain speed, it wasn’t long before Kerryanne got involved herself as one of our customers, starting her own business through our ‘Boss It’ programme (which runs alongside this in Wybourn) and eventually becoming our colleague as a Community Champion Officer.
We sat down with Kerryanne and talked about her journey…
How has Wybourn changed over the years?
When I was growing up, we used to be able to play outside, but things are different now – the problem is that there often isn’t things to do for young people, which is why Wybourn Works is so important.
How did you get onto the Boss It programme?
I’ve always loved being creative and making things – it’s so important for my mental health. I started making hair accessories for my daughter a few years ago, as I enjoy doing this and I discovered it’s much cheaper than buying one expensive bow! Then she went to school and other parents would ask where she got them from – I started making more for family and friends, but only ever for free.
Then the ‘Wybourn Works’ programme started and they brought in the Chatty Café to the Pat Midgley Community Centre. One of my friends, Mandy, had already become involved, and encouraged me to come along to this in early 2025. There, I met Joanne Miller [our Employability Coach] and she told me about the ‘Boss It’ programme. I then decided maybe I could make a business out of this and signed up.
How did the Boss It programme help you to transform your creative outlet into a business?
I’d done my research on starting your own business, but there were gaps in my knowledge – and so the ‘Boss It’ training session was really useful for fulling these gaps, and I was able to take it from there myself (and I knew I could always go back for further sessions if I needed). Some really good advice I took away was to stick it out even if there’s local, cheaper competition – and I’m so glad that I did this when this became a potential issue, rather than giving up, because now my business is doing really well! It’s currently based on Facebook, and I sell my items at local markets around Sheffield. The next step is to build my own website.
Now with a self-sufficient business, as of December 2025 you also now work for Great Places as a Community Champion for Wybourn Works – what inspired you to go for this?
Again, it was through going to Chatty Café, thanks to Mandy. This started as a way of getting out and about more, which was really good for me – but then when the position became available the team really encouraged me to go for it, so I did!
Do you enjoy it?
It’s great so far! Because of my past mental health struggles, it had been really difficult to leave the house. But since becoming more involved in Wybourn Works and ‘Boss It’ over the past year and officially joining the team in December, I’ve gotten so much more confident – and my family and friends have noticed this too.
How do you feel about Wybourn Works?
I love it. I really want to see the community come together again, and this programme definitely supports this. Children are the future and it’s great to see them doing more things through the programme – especially the Youth Bus that runs every Monday. And for the adults we support and reach out to, as Community Champions it’s about showing them that we know what it’s like to not want to leave the house and struggle to find work. We’ve got that connection and that’s why this programme is so valuable.
