News

News PAPYRUS works with volunteers from across the UK – here’s an insider’s insight into what’s been happening in each of our PAPYRUS regions and nations, over the past few months...

NORTHERN IRELAND

Over the past few months, our Northern Ireland office has introduced two new staff members – Michael and Michelle. Michael will be the main point of contact for our volunteers, so I’m sure you’ll be hearing a lot more from him over the coming months, regarding volunteering in Northern Ireland. We’re also really excited to announce that our first ever volunteer meeting in the North has taken place – some brilliant ideas were shared and we’re looking forward to what’s to come. Thank you to our wonderful volunteers who attended on the day.

WALES

We have been looking forward to the end of lockdown and that is a slow process. However, as places open up, volunteers across Wales have been out promoting PAPYRUS – our PAPYRUS posters were spotted in libraries and leisure centres across north-east Wales recently and volunteers have been getting out and about. One of our volunteers recently returned to her old school to talk about mental health issues and we have some exciting work under way with our university volunteers looking at how better to support student mental health. Of course, everyone wants things to open up again fully so that they can complete the ASIST training and start delivering the PAPYRUS presentations again, visit events and so on. In the meantime, we are also organising an all-Wales HOPEWALK for October which should be big news. Hopefully by the next newsletter, things will seem a bit more normal again. Fingers are crossed!

Due to the overwhelming interest in volunteering in the northwest, our exciting update is that we have been able to hire a new Volunteer Coordinator; we are extremely excited to welome Lydia to the team. Opportunities have been slightly limited whilst we have been in the process of hiring, but these should start to open up again in the next few months. We really appreciate everyone’s patience during this time and look forward to working with everyone who recently expressed an interest. In the meantime, we have seen some really great work with lots of awareness raising and amazing posts on social media. The launch of HOPEWALK has also been an exciting way for north-west volunteers to get involved, we are hoping to see lots of walks this October.

WEST MIDLANDS

The highlight of the spring was delivering many SP-ARK talks across the West Midlands. We spoke to such a variety of people from all walks of life, including those from Shropshire sports clubs and Job Centre coaches and counsellors. We also enjoyed connecting through social media with volunteers using LinkedIn to spread the word about PAPYRUS. Sadly, so many events that we would usually be at this summer have been cancelled, so we are making videos to promote PAPYRUS virtually. We continued to stay connected to one another through Zoom meetings, and hosted HOPELINEUK adviser Rebecca at our May meeting. Rebecca showed us how a safety plan works using the new HOPELINK platform – it was fantastic to hear how this new technology works.

LONDON

The London team has been growing and changing, with a new Regional Manager, Ioana, and plenty of new passionate volunteers recruited. The team have also been wrapping up projects, including the Innholders Project in which training was delivered to different faith groups; and Thrive LDN, in which training was delivered across different London Boroughs. London has been busy training volunteers alongside the West Midlands and it’s been great being able to work across the regions and meet volunteers from different areas. The London volunteers have also been busy raising awareness, sharing their stories on social media and continuing to help shatter the stigma surrounding suicide.