Staff support counselling charity

Staff from Advantage Healthcare’s (IHC) Telford office supported a counselling service as part of Give a Day of Your Time.

Confide Counselling is based in Shrewsbury and provides counselling services to people in the wider areas taking in Telford also. The company offers reduced rates to people on lower incomes.

Give a Day of Your Time is an Advantage initiative which enables staff to work for a good cause or charity for a day, while being paid.

Kelly Lowe, a governance systems assistant for IHC, is based at the business’s Grosvenor House office in Telford. She arranged for colleagues to support Confide Counselling at a Book Fair event they hosted in Shrewsbury.

Confide had a Street Pastor on hand for anyone wanting to make an enquiry in confidence, and raised awareness about their work and collected donations.

Kelly said: “The day went really well, there was so much interest that we had to keep on topping up the book supplies, people were buying even before we’d had a chance to properly set up the stalls! The volunteer counsellors were also on hand to speak to BBC Radio Shropshire who were keen to know all about what they do.

“The generosity of the Shropshire folks was heart warming and so welcome.

“Confide and representatives from Street Pastors met with the public to discuss their work. If it helped just one person to reach out, it means all our efforts were worth it.

“Confide’s work is important. I think it fits in well with our ethos of providing care. We often deal with patients who may also have mental health issues. These organisations are there to catch people if they fall.”

Kelly added: “Give a Day of Your Time is a fantastic Advantage initiative. It not only meant we could help support such a deserving cause, but also was a great team building exercise for us.”

Trustee Heather added “Thank you all for the amazing hard work and in helping so cheerfully even when we had to move everything because of the rain and then when we deserted you all to take things up to the office. I have given Janet the names of you, Lisa, Tracey and Arianne but was not sure how to spell Lian who came in the afternoon. Do let me know. We could not have managed without your help and we raised just over £220 with a little more coming in from books and plants. We have been able to store many trays of books and the ornaments so lovingly packed by you all. We also have a promise from St J’s Gospel Choir to fund raise for Confide next spring. I am planning a fund raising project soon and will let you have details if it gets off the ground. Heartfelt thanks once again for raising funds that help our clients towards a brighter future”

To find out more about Confide Counselling, visit www.confide.org.uk