A look back at our year

We have just published our annual review at the branch and it has given us a chance to reflect on everything that has happened in the past year at Ware, to celebrate our successes, to reflect on and look at ways to improve our service, and to look ahead to exciting developments that are to come.

A new leadership team has been in place since April 1st and later in this report there is an acknowledgement with grateful thanks for the work done by my predecessor Jenny and her outgoing team.

No introduction written at this time would be complete without a reference to Covid-19, its impact upon everyone in the country, on our organisation and our branch and volunteers. With pride and admiration, I can report that our branch has continued to open for ‘business as usual’ on our phone lines and email. Sadly, we have had to close our centre to visitors to protect both our callers and our volunteers, and we look forward to the time that we can open our doors to visitors once again.

At Ware we are one of the pilot branches for the rollout of online chat, which became operational in September after a delay caused by Covid-19. We strongly believe that this service will help us to connect with callers who we haven’t previously been able to reach, and initial feedback from the trial sessions confirms this.

This is an exciting development for Samaritans nationally, but particularly for Ware branch which has supported the online chat project from the outset, and we’re proud to now be one of the pioneering branches as it rolls out.

Night or day, our incredible volunteers are supporting our callers on the phone and by email. Our volunteers are also busy supporting local schools, colleges and universities, as well as developing our important partnerships both nationally with Network Rail and locally with POhWER, Hertfordshire Constabulary and Essex Partnership University Trust. We are also represented in the Hertfordshire County Council Suicide Prevention Strategy and Hertfordshire Resilience Team. It’s also important to mention the huge amount of time and effort our volunteers spend in recruiting, training and leading other volunteers.

It is staggering to reflect on how much time is given up by our volunteers. Through supporting and developing the selection and training teams at the branch, we were able to recruit and train 20% more volunteers in 2019/20 than in the previous year, which has helped to give us the strength in numbers to continue to operate successfully through the difficult months of lockdown.

In the current challenging environment for fundraising, we are grateful to each and every one of our donors and supporters. It is because of their generosity that we are able to stay open. In the financial year to March 31st 2020, overall income went from strength to strength: fundraising, donations and grant income went up by over 11%, demonstrating the value that those outside our organisation put on our service.

During the year ahead, we wish to engage with wider audiences outside the branch and to continue to develop our work with targeted vulnerable groups in our local community. Having had to suspend our training programme because of Covid, we will also look at ways of continuing to encourage growth within the branch to keep us strong.

There will undoubtedly be challenges ahead as we deal with the fallout and long-lasting effects of Covid-19, and I know that every single one of our volunteers will do all that they can to mitigate the impact.

At a time when our critical service is more in demand than ever before, we are aware that we face many challenges. However, 52 years on from our launch in Ware, we are proud that we continue the legacy of providing emotional support to anyone struggling to cope, and thereby help fulfil the Samaritans’ vision that fewer people die by suicide.