Suicide charity to open new call centre thanks to Lottery grant

Suicide prevention charity the Bearded Fishermen will be opening the doors to its new community space and call centre in Gainsborough next Monday (July 20), thanks to an £8,000 grant from The National Lottery Community Fund.
Pictured are (L-R): Rick Roberts and Mick Leyland, founders of suicide prevention charity, The Bearded Fishermen. On Monday (20th July) the charity will be opening the doors to its new community space and call centre in Gainsborough, thanks to an £8,000 grant from The National Lottery Community Fund.Pictured are (L-R): Rick Roberts and Mick Leyland, founders of suicide prevention charity, The Bearded Fishermen. On Monday (20th July) the charity will be opening the doors to its new community space and call centre in Gainsborough, thanks to an £8,000 grant from The National Lottery Community Fund.
Pictured are (L-R): Rick Roberts and Mick Leyland, founders of suicide prevention charity, The Bearded Fishermen. On Monday (20th July) the charity will be opening the doors to its new community space and call centre in Gainsborough, thanks to an £8,000 grant from The National Lottery Community Fund.

Before the pandemic, the Gainsborough-based charity ran regular support groups offering a confidential space where people could talk about their problems and access help and advice at Connexions Community Hub in the town.

During lockdown, the Bearded Fishermen was forced to transition and started running their services online for those who still needed access to vital mental health support.

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Now the charity, set up by friends Rick Roberts and Mick Leyland, has occupied an office space at Mercury House in Gainsborough which will be home to its new community hub and call centre.

The call centre will be open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm and will be operated entirely by volunteers.The call centre will be open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm and will be operated entirely by volunteers.
The call centre will be open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm and will be operated entirely by volunteers.

The new space will provide a dedicated suicide prevention helpline, as well as a community hub for those needing to access mental health services.

The call centre will be open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm and will be operated entirely by volunteers.

In addition to running support group sessions from the new space, the charity will still be running its regular Tuesday evening support groups at Connexions Community Hub in Gainsborough from 7pm to 9pm.

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Rick Roberts, co-founder of the Bearded Fishermen, said: “We’re extremely grateful to have received £8,000 from The National Lottery Community Fund which has contributed to all of our set up costs and has helped to fund everything from furniture to computers for our new call centre.

“This money will also contribute to our running costs over the next year – and we’re looking at using it to fund additional mental health training support for our phone operators.

“For a small charity like ours, this funding is absolutely vital as it means that we can keep providing a lifeline for people in need of our support.”

While the charity has a small team of dedicated volunteers ready to operate the phones ahead of the official opening next week, it is still appealing for volunteers to work as phone operators to befriend people as well as speaking to them about mental health issues.

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The charity is also looking for volunteer counsellors willing to offer one-to-one and group counselling sessions.

Those who are able to offer their services should email [email protected].

The opening week of the new call centre comes at a busy time for the charity: on Saturday July 25 Lincoln Strongman Dave Johnson will be pulling a 27-tonne lorry 25 metres in aid of the Bearded Fishermen.

The feat will mark a decade of challenges that Dave has completed in aid of different charities.

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To find out more about the challenge or to donate, visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/dave-johnson34#..

To find out more about the Bearded Fishermen, visit www.beardedfishermen.co.uk/ the website or follow the charity on Twitter and Facebook.