## TRUSTEE ANNUAL REPORT 2024 CHARITY NAME SURVIVORS OF SUICIDE SUPPORT GROUP OTHER NAMES BY WHICH EAST BELFAST SURVIVORS OF SUICDE/ SOS KNOW BY REGISTERED CHARITY NIC103483 NUMBER PRINCIPLE ADDRESS CONNSWATER COMMUNITY CENTRE BALLYMACARRETT WALKWAY CONNSWATER STREET BELFAST BT4 1SX TRUSTEES CHARITY TRUSTEES / MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE GENERAL CONTROL AND MANAGEMENT OF THE CHARITY. NAMES OF TRUSTEES JACKIE DRUMMOND CHAIRPERSON KATE TANNER VICECHAIR MICHELLE KELLY TREASURER DIANE KEENAN ELAINE SMYTH NAMES OF STAFF CLAIRE CURRAN HEAD OF SERVICES IRENE BLANCHARD ADMIN AND FINANCE TYPE 0F GOVERNING CONSTITUTION ADOPTED ON THE 6[TH] DAY OF AUGUST 2009 AMENDED ON THE 5[TH] DAY OF MARCH 2015 AMENDED ON THE 7[TH] DAY OF FEBRUARY 2019 ## DOCUMENT AMENDED ON THE 16[TH] DAY OF NOVEMBER 2023 HOW THE CHERITY IS CONSTITUTED ## CHARITABLE UNINCORPORATED ASSOCIATION CHARITY TRUSTEE SELECTION METHOD INFORMAL INTERVIEW PROCESS AFTER ADVERTISING, CAN BE APPOINTED BY OTHER TRUSTEES, SELECTED FROM MEMBERSHIP SUMMARY OF OBJECTS ALLEVIATE A. THE ORGANISATION IS ESTABLISHED TO HELP OF THE CHARITY SET OUT PEOPLE WHO HAVE DISTRESS AND OFFER ASSISTANCE TO IN GOVERNING DOCUMENT SUFFERED LOSS THROUGH SUICIDE OR ANGUISH THROUGH SELF-HARM BY LOVED ONES, IN PARTICULAR BY THE DEVELOPMENT OF SUPPORT SYSTEMS WITHIN THE COMMUNITY. B. ADVANCE THE EDUCATION OF THE PUBLIC INTO, AND RAISE AWARENESS OF, THE CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF SUICIDE AND SELF-HARM AND INTO MATTERS RELATING TO THE NATURE OF GRIEVING, BEREAVEMENT AND THE TREATMENT AND REHABILITATION OF INDIVIDUALS THAT SELF-HARM. C. TO OFFER SUPPORT FOR FAMILY AND FRIENDS BEREAVED AND/OR AFFECTED BY SUICIDE. D. TO CONNECT FAMILIES AND FRIENDS BEREAVED THROUGH SUICIDE IN SOUTHEAST BELFAST/CASTLEREAGH AND THE SOUTHEASTERN TRUST AREA AND GIVE RELEVANT ADVICE ON HELP AND SUPPORT AVAILABLE. - E. TO CREATE A GROUP FOR FAMILIES TO EXPRESS THEIR NEEDS AND CONCERNS AND FACILITATE ACTION TO ADDRESS THEM. - F. TO PROVIDE AN ACCESSIBLE SERVICE WHICH SUPPORTS THOSE WHO ARE IN CRISIS AS A RESULT OF ACTUAL OR ATTEMPTED SUICIDE AND SELF HARM. SUMMARY OF THE MAIN ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT IN RELATION OF THE OBJECTS PROVIDING 1-1 SUPPORT, LISTENING EAR BEFRIENDING, LIFE COACHING, TRAINING COUNSELLING, COMPLIMENTARY THERAPIES, INFORMATION, ADVICE ADVOCACY, AWARENESS SESSIONS & EVENTS AND FAMILY SUPPORT GROUP SUPPORTING FAMILIES BEREAVED BY SUICIDE AND THOSE AFFECTED BY SUICIDE ADDITIONAL MATTERS ON ACTIVITIES ALL WORK CONDUCTED BY FULLY TRAINED VOLUNTEERS – TRAINING PROVIDED BY THE CHARITY. 5000 HOURS COMPLETED BY VOLUNTEERS SUMMARY OF THE MAIN ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BEEN IN THE LAST 12 MONTHS WE HAVE SUPPORTED 147 PEOPLE, SOME OF THOSE WHO HAVE CHARITY IN THE LAST YEAR WHO HAVE BEREAVED BY SUICIDE AND THOSE ## SUICIDAL IDEATION/ATTEMPTED SUICIDE. We have continued to support families bereaved by suicide through our 1-1 support, our complimentary therapies and our family support group. We have also continued supporting individuals. We have continued working in partnership with Belfast HSCT and Southeastern HSCT. We have continued our partnership work with Families voices forum attending multiple meetings in person and online. We have attended 16 families’ voices meetings, 4 communication meetings and an event to share who Families voices forum are and promote COMKIT. We attended 4 BPLIG meetings and 2 comms meeting We also attended 4 SE PLIG and task and finish groups. We attended the Regional SD1/CRP meeting on several occasions. We also attended the 6 COI meetings in Belfast and the training and support subgroup and 4 SE COI which we co-chair’ We attended meetings for the take 5 working group in Belfast and are looking at how we reinvigorate Take 5 in our communities. We attended a community connector meeting in East Belfast and shared information. The idea behind the community connectors is to inform them of what work is taking place and what supports are in place to help people. We attended 5 APG on suicide prevention and 4 Belfast community response plan steering group. We attended 3 workshops on bereaved support for staff in Dunsilly and attended the MH champions event in the Guild Hall Derry on Crisis services and suicide prevention in NI. We attended several Engage PL2 action plan review workshops and the NDACT&NPLIG workshop on drugs and alcohol and suicide prevention. We attended the official launch of the BR-UK Leadership Hub which included an opening address from the UK Government's Chief Scientific Officer, Dame Angela McLean. The launch provided an overview of the ambitions of both the Economic and Social Research Council who fund BR-UK through their National Capability in Behavioural Research initiative and the Hub as a whole. We also attended 4 **Regional** Mental Health Crisis Service Workshop. We were very involved in the planning for the roll out of the Share NI document in the SE Trust and worked in partnership with SE TZS to plan the workshops. We also delivered presentations at all four workshops in Ards, Lisburn, Downpatrick and online. We also presented at the Northern trust Share NI launch. We also presented to the All-Ireland GAA and partners on ComKIT in Omagh at their yearly event. We also attended a dyslexia workshop and a St Patricks day event with the Irish Consulate at their office in Belfast. We attended health events in Short Strand, Avoniel and East Belfast network centre and we attended a health and wellbeing workshop with Lisburn Castlereagh council on how to incorporate take 5. We attended meetings with Fresh Minds education as we deliver their Connections link life training and also met with Belfast PCSP to look at work in relation to suicide prevention and community safety. We also met with Ken Roulston a local businessman and 2 other charities to look at how we can work smarter to deliver our objectives. We worked on the PHA standards and how we meet them. We also held our annual AGM and had a meet and greet & planning meeting for our management committee new and old. We completed an introduction to Makaton training and also an OCN in Adhd. We attended the Action trauma summit over 2 days. We attended the EBCDA membership seminar and met several times with PCSP to look at training support for our local PSNI officers. We also attended several of the Peace plus meeting with Belfast city council. We held a meeting with local politicians to inform of ongoing work in suicide prevention, issues that are arising and gave them lots of information to take away to help their constituents. We also held a meeting for local businesses to inform them of support available for staff, ongoing work in suicide prevention, issues that are arising and gave them lots of information to take away to help. We also attended 3 awareness events in the local community, 2 health events 1 in a local primary school and a men’s health event at Avoniel, a sponsored walk, a volunteer fair, a football awards night, a bowling event and we delivered 4 training sessions to a youth group in East Belfast. We completed Top Tips training and the Top Tips t4t, Manifest men’s mental wellbeing training t4t, Food health essentials training, understanding emotional intelligence training with Nicva and Sharping your leadership skills with Nicva. We have been continuing to work on our community garden beside our centre with Chatty benches, positive quotes and helpline numbers alongside sensory planters and a ribbon path. Our management committee met 12 times. Our events committee met 8 times, and our support group met 12 times. Our volunteers are receiving monthly supervision sessions to help support them. We had to reluctantly say goodbye to our community support worker as she developed serious health issues and needed surgery and recuperating time. A major piece of work for us was partnering with EE this year as their charity. We went into EE for 6 sessions over three days with all of their 200 staff to deliver awareness sessions and each person was given an information pack with lots of useful leaflets for support. There will be further work in the coming months and EE staff will be volunteering with us this year also. We are hopeful that we will also be delivering suicide prevention training to staff. We also delivered a presentation to The Samaritans Ballymena at their 50[th] anniversary on suicide prevention and pieces of work ongoing in NI. Again, we gave lots of resources electronically for the Northern trust area as well as regionally to the100 people who attended. We also attended a health event in Ballybeen in partnership with Lisburn Castlereagh Council and chatted with the participants about help and support around suicide prevention. We also gave information bags out at this event with around 80 people in attendance. We attended the Confederation cup festival at Ulidia playing fields hosted by Ethnic minority sports, Radius housing, Apex housing and Decathlon. While it was a long event, the weather was beautiful and lots of delicious food. We engaged with over 200 people who attended giving out information packs and angel wing keyrings. We also attended a yearly bowling event in memory of a local man. Every person who attended was given a wrist band and information to take away on suicide prevention. There where around 250 people attended, and we had several conversations of people who could use support. We also attended a local event Celebrate East which brings together c & v organisations to celebrate the huge amount of work that takes place and the people who give all to help local communities. There where over 100 people who attended and lots of information given out. For WSPD we held our annual Walk at Dawn which was supported by Belfast Lord Mayor Mickey Murray. People meet at Holywood arches at 6 am to walk to Belfast City Hall for 7am for a short program of words and music to remember all those affected by suicide and raise awareness of supports available. Around 40 people attended the event and had bacon butties at the end. Then are huge event for WSPD, our community it’s a knockout, supported by local organisations and attended by the local community. We have inflatables that teams compete in a good-natured way and bring along their supporters. We provide refreshments and sweetie bags for kids and information bags for adults. We invite other organisations to attend and have stands. And to end the event we hold a minute’s silence with candles to remember those lost to suicide. Around 150 adults and children attended. We met with Kaizen to start work on our new website which we are really excited about. We also hosted the Take 5 working group for Belfast and discussed the Take 5 Charter which we have developed getting agreement moving forward. The charter will be for c&v orgs of all sizes and will be supported by those organisations with more experience reinvigorating Take 5 in Belfast. And we attended the Suicide bereavement UK conference online (as flying was not an option), as we have been working with SBUK and attended their conferences each year and completed their PABBS and on the go training. 3 of our volunteers completed. Community dialogue training which focused on holding conversations between people from different backgrounds to reduce stereotypes, build relationships and increase the number of people who are able to speak up respectfully when they hear or see degrading language or behaviour in our communities Cultural awareness training focusing on awareness of our own cultural worldview, attitude towards cultural differences, knowledge of different cultural practices and worldviews, and cross-cultural skills Raise your voice training which defined sexual harassment as any unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature that makes you feel humiliated, or intimidated, or creates a hostile environment, and how everyday sexism and sexual harassment contribute to sexual violence and abuse. The training also looked at bystander Interventions which addresses common concerns about intervening, such as not knowing what to do or fear of worsening the situation. And learning five safe ways to intervene and review case study examples. We also had 1 person complete the Choice Diabetic training programme The aim of the programme is to give children, young people and their families or carers, the skills and knowledge they need to manage their diabetes and to reduce the impact of the condition on daily activities and lifestyle. We held our World mental health day event which was a take five coffee and chat event with activities around Connect, be active, take notice, keep learning and give. We attended the Lighthouse Conference, and we spoke at the Royal College of Psychiatrists conference which was held in Belfast. We took part in the Towards zero suicide, suicide prevention care pathway evaluation and follow up. We had a fundraiser by a family we have supported and a fundraiser with the 43[rd] Football team would we are closely linked too. We did a presentation for staff at EE in November and delivered training in Top tips and Connections link life. We completed Infant mental health training. Attended the final DOH mental health funds event attended by our health minister. We held our Celebration of life which was slightly different this year as we had a brunch event. We took our families and volunteers out for Christmas dinner and celebrated our 18[th] year of service with a celebration event. . POLICY ON RESERVES NO POLICY ON RESERVES SIGNATURES JACKIE DRUMMOND CHAIRPERSON 16/01/2025 Michelle Kelly Treasurer 16/01/2025 Survivors of Suicide