Blackpool, Fylde & Wyre Samaritans welcomes their youngest director

Olivia was nominated by her fellow listening and support volunteers to lead the team, which is based on Edward Street in Blackpool. Run solely by volunteers, the listening service provides emotional help and signposting to other organisations for anyone in distress and to help prevent suicide. Olivia is honoured and excited to be leading the Blackpool Branch as the Director. She is passionate about the service Samaritans offer, not just in branch but as a whole organisation. Our branch has a strong team of dedicated volunteers who commit their time to the charity and support the the Director. Every day our branch answers around 80 contacts, either by phone, or email or online chat. We have around 65 listening volunteers who always work in pairs, 3 hours per shift, up to 8 shifts per day.

Olivia will be in post for three years as Director and has volunteered at the Blackpool Branch for 10 years. She has also held a number of other roles in the branch during her time, but first and foremost always been a listening volunteer. Her aim as Director is to expand capacity by taking on more volunteers, allowing the charity to increase availability of the listening service that is in constant demand. Blackpool currently run three intakes per year, and we would encourage anyone on the Fylde Coast who may be interested in becoming a Samaritan to contact us through our website.

The team also aims to reach out to the local community, focusing on the Outreach with local businesses across Blackpool, Fylde & Wyre. This work had been scaled back during the pandemic, but this work is vital to ensure people in the local area know about the service. We can offer talks, support events and offer tips on supporting someone who may be struggling.

The branch is a self-funding Charity and, as such, we are always looking for ways to secure income. We will set up and host events where possible to raise money, or perhaps the community would like to invite us to have a presence at one of their events. And of course, we never say ‘No’ to donations or sponsorship to help us keep our premises open. It costs just £147 a day to run our branch and we cover a part of our daily running costs with the proceeds from our charity shop on Topping Street. In challenging time, this becomes increasingly difficult. We run a campaign called 'Pay for a Day'. It costs £147 to run and maintain our branch and shop each day, this includes initial and ongoing training for all our volunteers and paying for our Freecall service - 116 123. When businesses do sign up to sponsor us for a day (or more), they can choose a day that is significant to them (subject to availability). We acknowledge their contribution with a certificate and promote it on our social media channels - Twitter & LinkedIn. So far, we receive regular donations from local businesses such as S&S Timbers, Victrex, Blackpool Coastal Housing, Happy Creative, Inenco, Octego, BES and Glasdons to name a few.

Another way that local businesses can support is, is by doing a 'donation drive'. Our recently refurbished charity shop on Topping Street, Blackpool, is in need of good quality womenswear and menswear, including shoes, bags and accessories. In addition to bric-a-brac such as small trinket/ornament items.

We are proud to be part of a network of 201 branches with over 22,000 volunteers, spending more than 1 million hours a year responding to calls for help. We are supported by our Central Office team and our wider family of wonderful supporters. In 2022, there wasn’t a single second where there wasn’t a Samaritan volunteer on the phone.

In 2022, the Charity launched its 5-year strategy which will continue to help us deliver our vision of ‘Fewer people die by suicide’.

Our Mission is always to be there 24 hours a day for anyone that is struggling to cope. We make sure everyone has someone to turn to when they need it most. We will continue to work with local communities to let people know we are here for them and campaign to make suicide prevention a priority.

I would be happy to discuss any of this with anyone, at any time, and we also have brochures we can share with you if you want to get in touch.

Samaritans is available round the clock, every single day of the year. We provide a safe place for anyone struggling to cope, whoever they are, however they feel, whatever life has done to them. Please call 116 123 (free to call) (UK), email [email protected], or visit www.samaritans.org to find further details.