On 26 June, the long pandemic restrictions finally lifted in time for our volunteers to respond to an invitation to attend a Wellbeing & Fundraising event at The Pavilion in Victory Park, Cainscross
As with any circumstance where a community is in distress following a sad or troubling event, we had been ensuring that there had been a Samaritans presence around the area in recent days. Being able to then attend this community event offered a timely opportunity to chat with folk, to provide our leaflets and contact details and to make new friends and contacts to follow up in the days to come. Thank you, Cainscross, for your friendly hospitality.
During the long months of restrictions, our Outreach activities had to reshape and came to rely on community visits by our Samaritans van, distributing our leaflets and pocket cards as widely and imaginatively as possible; on zoom meetings with, for example, NHS staff and other key workers; on delivery of virtual talks to our college students and, most recently during May, on delivering a series of key message webinars to reach out to a wide range of people and organisations. We thank everyone – in Gloucester, Stroud and Forest of Dean districts - for your patience and willingness to engage with us in these different ways.
We hope that we will soon be more visible again at community events, at Gloucester and Stroud railway stations, at the Autumn college Freshers Fairs, at the Gloucester Day Parade and the Pride in Gloucestershire event … if you see a Samaritans stall somewhere that you are attending, please do come over and say hello :-)
If you would like to invite us to an event you are holding, just email [email protected] and we will see whether we can join you.