Catch up with our latest community events

Recently, our volunteers have enjoyed visiting a number of community events. Attending these events, chatting with guests, and providing information to raise awareness of our work is an essential part of being a Samaritan. It’s always rewarding to go out into the community and let others know that we are here to listen if they ever need someone to talk to.

Here’s a round-up of some of the fantastic events we’ve recently attended.

This August Bank Holiday Weekend, we were at Chichester’s Emergency Services and Community Day.

The family event took place in Oaklands Park on a very warm and sunny Sunday. The day aimed to bring the community together to celebrate local heroes – all those who help support and save the lives of others. The park was packed; our stall was just one of the many located around the park. In total there were nearly 100 different organisations, including various local charities as well as first responders: police officers, firefighters, paramedics, and coastguards.

These local first responders and rescue services conducted fascinating demonstrations for visitors, and plenty of historic and modern-day emergency vehicles were on display. We enjoyed seeing the full array of boats, fire engines, police vehicles, and ambulances.

That’s not to mention Air Ambulance Kent Surrey Sussex (KSS), who brought along a very impressive piece of kit – one of their helicopters, which flew overhead and landed in the middle of the park.

It was certainly very busy, with several thousand visitors throughout the day. The lively crowds meant we had plenty of opportunities for friendly conversations, and we had the pleasure of speaking with the many enthusiastic people, young and old, who dropped by our stall to say hello.

We also engaged with a few of the other organisations that had set up at Oaklands. During the event, local station V2 Radio interviewed our branch director, Paul, who spoke about the work of our volunteers and how our branch operates. Listen to the interview below.

This is the second time Paul has been interviewed by V2 Radio. He was previously interviewed for Samaritans Awareness Day in July.

We even got a special shout-out from Chichester’s town crier, Richard Plowman:

It was a fun day to be a part of, and a wonderful way to round off a great summer!

Now that it is September, it is of course the time of year again when students are returning to their studies, and at the beginning of the month we went along to the Freshers’ Fair at Chichester College. We joined many other organisations at the fair to greet new students. We’re proud to offer support to our local schools and colleges, ensuring students know that they always have someone to reach out to.

Here are a few pictures of our volunteers at the fair. It ran over two days, and our volunteers attended on both days.

We also got involved with a support services morning held by Fedcap. Fedcap is an organisation that helps its clients improve their employability skills and offers them support during their job search. The staff tailor their assistance to each client, ensuring they have access to the right resources. The purpose of the morning was to help clients understand what support services were available to them.

Volunteers Rupert and Catherine set up a stall at Fedcap’s central hub in Chichester. They had plenty of information ready to hand out to visitors, such as our SHUSH listening tips and flyers containing our ‘Little Tips’ for starting a conversation with someone who may be struggling.

It was a productive morning, full of many insightful conversations and friendly chats. Many of Fedcap’s clients were not aware of Samaritans and how we can help, and so the volunteers’ presence was very much appreciated. We hope that everyone left the event with plenty of invaluable knowledge about how they can support themselves and others.

Rupert also went along to a ‘Chi-Hub’ event run by Chichester Foodbank at St John’s Church in Southbourne. Our partnership with the foodbank is very important, and the Chi-Hub event was organised to highlight to the foodbank’s clients the different support services available and to provide them with advice. Rupert had many eye-opening conversations and once again found that everyone was very grateful for our service.

We are looking forward to more outreach events in the near future, and don’t forget we are holding our own fundraising events soon. Find out more about our Dawn Walk 2025.