Time to Talk West Berkshire provides free counselling and support for young people in the area. The charity has just been awarded £5,000 through Co-op’s Winners Share It All prize draw, providing a vital boost in its efforts to support young people’s mental health
When the charity Time to Talk West Berkshire was launched a little over 35 years ago, its primary focus was to help teenagers and young adults struggling with drug abuse.
More than three decades on, the variety of challenges blighting the lives of children, and which the free counselling service has found itself dealing with, has only increased.
“We experience extremely high levels of anxiety in young people,” says clinical lead Davina Nicholson.
“Thanks to social media, comparing oneself to others and feelings of inadequacy have been blown into one hundred times what they were. We think rising levels of anxiety are partly due to overstimulation through phones and electronic devices.
“Young people are having much less down time, so their nervous systems are never switched off until they are sleeping, and many don’t even sleep well.”
In the year to September 2023, Davina says the charity dealt with 27 safeguarding concerns among young people, including those who were self-harming and experiencing suicidal thoughts. This year, that number more than doubled to 61.
Since its inception, the charity has also reduced the minimum age of those it offers its services to from 14 to 11.
And having started with just a handful of counsellors, Time to Talk West Berkshire now engages 34, with the hope of expanding this to 40 in order to handle increased demand.
“In the past year, 700 young people engaged with us,” says Davina. “That’s an increase of 17% from the previous year.
The charity has now been handed a huge financial boost with £5,000 from Co-op as part of its Winners Share It All prize draw.
Each month until December, 10 Co-op members are picked to win the cash prize for their chosen Local Community Fund cause. They also receive £500 for themselves.
“There are so many profound stories of the people we help. One young girl had been in care and had a very poor relationship with her birth family.
“She received homophobic harassment and was told she had a personality disorder because of the trauma she had experienced. She had been suicidal and had self-harmed repeatedly.
“In telling her story she felt understood. That finally enabled her to go out and get a job. She found a better place to live and it was a lovely success story.
“From a positive perspective, this generation is more emotionally literate. They are more ready, willing and able to talk about how they feel.”
The Winners Share It All prize draw is designed to help boost Co-op’s existing support for thousands of grassroots causes. Time to Talk West Berkshire is just one of around 2,500 Local Community Fund causes that Co-op members support throughout the year.
In total nearly 40,000 projects have been supported since 2016, raising £108million.
But getting vital funds to causes like these can’t be done without your help. Each of these winning projects was chosen by a Co-op member, and by taking part you have the chance to start changing local lives with your next shop.
Simply choose your Local Community Fund cause via the Co-op website or app. Then spend £5, either in-store or online via shop.coop.co.uk
Scan your membership card at the till and you will automatically be entered every month for a chance to win big for you and your community*.
Members get additional entries for every £5 spend. Non-members can also sign up and take part for just £1 via the Co-op app.
“One of our ambitions is to try to get a counsellor into every school in west Berkshire, to enable us to reach more young people,” adds Davina. “The money we’ve received from Co-op will help us.
“This has been such a lovely surprise; we are so proud of the work we do with young people and parents in our community, and it’s fantastic to be recognised by Co-op and its members. Local support and recognition means the world to us.”
1. Choose your Local Community Fund cause via the Co-op website or in the app
2. Pop into a Co-op near you and spend £5, or buy online via shop.coop.co.uk
3. Members get an entry for every £5 spent
4. Scan your membership card at the till and you will automatically be entered for a chance to win big for you and your community
Find out more at coop.co.uk/communities
*UK, 18+. Co-op members only, 10/04/24-31/12/24. Co-op Group food stores and web purchases only, excludes independent co-operatives. Full Ts&Cs at coop.co.uk/terms/winners-share-it-all