We would like to wish you a Happy Christmas after another challenging year for many of us with the tail end of COVID impacting many of our group members and clients as well as our Counsellors and with the rising cost of living impacting many of us However, we are continuing to offer our services with lots of energy and hope with the resources we have.
Impact Of Pandemic On Mental Health
We continued to take our responsibility seriously as a resource to Survivors and we continued to offer On Line Support to Survivors as the impact of the pandemic continues. We offered our counselling, Workshops and Groups Course on line via Zoom.
Women Survivors Group Psycho-Educational Course
Having our Women’s Survivors Group Psycho-Educational Course on line impacted us in a positive way as it increased accessibility and enabled us to reach disabled women and women with long term health issues and women who had small children who would not have been able to attend the course otherwise.
Some feedback from our Spring 2022 course Includes:
“ I’ve experienced healing and growth way beyond what I would have thought was possible over ten weeks. I have gained so much insight into how I have adapted to cope with what happened to me, and how what happened has affected various aspects of my life since then. But the most exciting thing is that now I am aware of these patterns and the effects of abuse, the course has given me the knowledge and courage to make positive changes and move forwards.”
Website:
Our website has proved a really important resource for many Survivors and their supporters. “I have recently been referred to your website – just watching the short videos was incredibly helpful – thank you!” Female Survivor – August 2022
One to One Counselling:
We were also able to offer some subsidised one to one counselling thanks to the London Community Foundation and MOPAC and Pathways Funding
We received very positive feedback from our clients including:
“ What I wanted was clarity and I really feel I’ve got that and I feel that’s going to be hugely liberating for my life going forwards. I’m already starting to feel more at peace, more content and more bliss from the work we’ve done (I feel I’ve really changed!)”
Email Support:
This year we have received over 450 emails for support Signposting and information from
Survivors, Partners, Social Workers, Counselling and Mental Health Professionals.
We respond to these with information resources and signposting.
On Line Workshops
This year we continued to offer our workshops on line. We did ask our April and November workshop attendees if they would like to go back to face to face only four said openly yes! We had 32 attendees in April and 34 in November.
We had some encouraging feedback from our workshops this year including:
“The handout is brilliant…I really thoroughly enjoyed this afternoon. It has offered new insight, explanations for phenomena I’ve experienced throughout life that I’ve found confusing and shameful. I think it was a brilliant introduction and I’m very keen to come along on another workshop”.
Sharing The Knowledge
We offer a training service to counselling service who wish to learn more about how to support Survivors, this year we have offered our training in several services including Sutton Women’s Centre, Wilfred Faber Counselling And Support, Sue Lambert Trust for Survivors, Young People’s Shop Chichester, Jersey Action Against Rape. We have received excellent feedback including:
“Thank you so much for delivering such amazing training. Feedback was incredibly positive and everyone in the room thoroughly enjoyed the entire day”. Lead Counsellor Rape Crisis Service
The Survivors Trust
We are also proud to be Full Members of The Survivors Trust (www.thesurvivorstrust.org) the National Umbrella organization that represents Survivors at Government Level. We have taken an active part in their meetings both in London and nationally through out the year; contributing to support other services with information and resources where we can.
Funding News
This year we gratefully received funding form from London Community Foundation and MOPAC and we also secured funding from Pathways in Ealing, Assura/Cheshire Community Foundation, OMF International UK, Persimmon Homes Community Champions, Pamela Barlow Trust, The Co-Op Local Community Fund, Arnold Clark Community Fund , Card Factory Foundation, Schreier Foundation. Renee Mallon who did some amazing creative fundraising for us, and her company Slaughter and May matched her funding. We would also like to thank Janet McNish and Prash Popat for their donations. We are so so grateful to all these funders and donations – without them we would not be able to function. Much of this funding went towards our Women’s Survivors Groups and Workshops and one to one counselling. We are so grateful for the help of our amazing Fundraiser Jemina Talja who has worked so hard to get these funding bids for us.
People Still Suffering:
Sadly the funding we have does not match the demand and along with many other agencies
we are not able to offer help to everyone who asks us – so we are constantly
seeking new ways to fund and support people creatively.
If you would like to donate to our work please send us an email and we can give you more information at: info@intothelight.org.uk.
Thank You!
We would really like to thank Jemina Talja our amazing fundraiser, John Williamson for his great work on the website and publicity, Sam White for Finance and Accounting Assistance. We would also like to thank Phil, Vikki, Faye and all at Survivors Trust, Alison at CCI Accountants. We would especially like to thank all our Facilitators for the workshops and groups this year including Suzette, Sophie, Cheryl, Rachel, Kasia, and of course all our attendees and clients who have joined us for our Into The Light workshops, courses and seminars and counselling it really has been great to meet you!
Have as good a Christmas as you possibly can, Happy New Year and hopefully see you either face to face or via Zoom in 2023.
Rebecca, Sadie, Nicky , Pritti, Leasa
Into The Light Directors