No call for help goes unanswered

Since our last report lives for everyone all over the world have changed in a way previously never imagined. In London we went into lockdown on 23^rd March and at Central London Samaritans it meant that we had to adapt very quickly to ensure that we were able to keep our service going safely and in compliance with the various guidelines that were being issued almost daily by the government.

 We are proud to say that despite initially losing a third of our 400 volunteers to shielding and self-isolation, we managed to keep our phone lines open 24 hours a day thereby maintaining  our 67 year old record of having never closed. At the outset, in order to keep safe, our duty room with its 16 phone stations had to be restricted to 4 to enable social distancing but we quickly adapted to this. It was a very challenging time for our Listening volunteers as the nature of the calls reflected our own worries and anxieties about the coronavirus and the more general impacts of lockdown. We needed to support each other more than ever

We were lucky enough to receive an emergency Covid-19 grant from Shaftesbury PLC to further re-configure our duty room and make other adjustments to the building’s internal layout. We completely altered the phone room layout to accommodate 8 phone stations, socially distanced around the perimeter of the room, instead of the original 16 facing each other. This entailed an extensive re-wiring exercise, taking down a wall and making new doorways to enable a one-way flow system within the branch. The phone room is now fully operational, and, although we are still around 100 volunteers down, they are all returning at their own pace. 

 Our next challenge is to ensure that we are able to safely return to welcoming our callers who prefer face to face contact. In 2018/19 we had 4,104 visits to the branch so you can see the importance of this service to CLS. This will require yet more building work to reconfigure our existing rooms into safe environments for our callers and volunteers. 

 As you can imagine, our Outreach Program and Community Fundraising activities have had to stop for the time being. However, as in all times of crisis, comes innovation! We are looking at new ways of virtually raising money. For example, our “Sing for Samaritans” programme which involved choirs singing in public places, mainly railway stations, to raise funds for us has historically  been very successful raising  around £18,000 annually. We are now looking at how to do this virtually. Although we know it won’t raise as much as a physical performance, it will once again perform the essential role of raising awareness of our service and enable our choir supporters to remain engaged. 

 We entered our new financial year with a high degree of uncertainty, particularly around fundraising as it was clear that many of our usual fundraising activities would not be available to us. Our community fundraising events which include Sing for Samaritans and which are only possible through the additional time given by our volunteers, usually contributes around £50,000 annually.  Ordinarily we would also hire out meeting space in our building and give various talks to corporates which combined would be expected to generate around £30,000 annually. 

The year ahead is challenging but we are hugely grateful to all of you who have donated to us in the past and to all of you who are thinking of donating to us in the future, with your help we will still be there answering calls 24/7, 365 days a year, leaving no call for help going unanswered.

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