A West Lothian charity providing free psychological well being assist for younger individuals has been nominated for ‘Charity of the 12 months’ by the Scottish Charity Awards.
S.M.I.L.E Counselling presents free counselling for 11- to 24-year-olds in West Lothian – fulfilling 2253 one-to-one counselling periods final 12 months, permitting 361 younger individuals in West Lothian to entry psychological well being assist.
Along with the Charity of the 12 months award, the charity has additionally been nominated for the Folks’s Alternative Award, wherein anybody can vote for his or her favorite nominated charity to win the award.
Declan Harrigan, founder and CEO of S.M.I.L.E Counselling, mentioned: “It’s wonderful to be nominated within the high 5 for Charity of the 12 months and to see the popularity of not solely our employees and volunteers, however for our shoppers, who have been courageous sufficient to return ahead for counselling.
“It’s the second time we’ve been nominated, however the final one was on-line so it’s going to be thrilling to go in individual.
“We’ve opened up areas for workers and volunteers to return so we’re actually wanting ahead to it.
“The award occasion really coincides with S.M.I.L.E’s seventh anniversary on June 15. We’re additionally prone to tackle our a thousandth shopper subsequent month, so if we get the award on the identical night time it’ll simply be phenomenal.”
Declan was beforehand nominated for the ‘Main Mild’ award for inspirational figures within the third sector.
As lined in final week’s Courier, additionally within the high 5 charities nominated for Charity of the 12 months 2022 is The Larder, a West Lothian enterprise supporting locals with employability and meals safety.
Declan added: “Proper now ready lists are extremely lengthy for accessing psychological well being providers in West Lothian. To fight this we’re providing coaching providers for psychological well being assist qualifications.
“In simply two years we’ve witnessed one-in-four shoppers exhibiting suicidal ideation flip into one-in-two shoppers exhibiting suicidal ideation.
“There has additionally been a a lot bigger enhance in under-16s referring for assist from S.M.I.L.E – the explanations behind this are fairly multi-faceted, however the pandemic has undoubtedly been a catapult for rising psychological well being points.
“Couple this with the rising value of residing, and these psychological well being points for younger individuals in West Lothian are solely going to be exacerbated.”
To seek out out extra about getting on licensed coaching programs with S.M.I.L.E go to: https://smilecounselling.org.uk/coaching/
To vote for S.M.I.L.E for the Folks’s Alternative Award go to: https://scvo.scot/scottish-charity-awards/vote/2022/charity-of-the-year/s-m-i-l-e-counselling