School talk in Dominican College in Wicklow town

Dominican college founded in 1870, is a girls secondary school located in Wicklow Town, whose stated values are Truth, Inclusion, Justice, kindness and Respect. The tutors believe that these values will always remain valid within the context of education environment.

The school offers a wide variety of subjects for its students to explore and respond to, fulfilling the school's motto of finding truth by the education of the whole person.

Volunteers from East Coast Samaritans Outreach Team were delighted to attend recently, in order to talk about what Samaritans do. We were greeted by a very pleasant tutor from the college and brought to the classroom where we set up our area with a pull-up banner showing the freephone number 116 123, and the email address offering emotional support: [email protected]

After the students arrived and we had been introduced to them by the tutor, we spoke about what Samaritans do, and explained that we were there in order to raise awareness of that, no matter how big or small a problem may seem, its important to reach out for support. We stressed the importance of accessing the help available in order to cope with any situation they may be going through.

The awareness talk which we used provides a template for the East Coast Samaritans School Programme, and we continue to deploy it as part of our school outreach talks between September and November. The structure of the programme is flexible and can be adapted to suit the needs of the students and tutors of any school, as necessary.

We offered pens and wristbands to every student and provided 'listening wheel' mouse mats for the computer room. We also left Samaritan branded teabags for the tea room!

After speaking about how important it is to reach out and feel listened to, we went on to raise awareness of the Samaritans Self Help App, and talked about some of its contents. Please click the link below to learn more about this useful app.

Self-Help Samaritans App