Outreach at the University of Surrey

Our callers know that when they ring 116 123 they will get through to someone who will listen, ‘sit in that space with them’ and will help them explore some of the difficult issues they are facing.

But what about the groups of people who have no idea about what we do and how we could support them?

The Guildford branch over several years has been building up and strengthening a partnership with Surrey University. This hasn’t been an immediate thing; it has involved really important connections and relationships between the two parties, a build up of trust and absolute passion in the vision of Samaritans being able to offer a safe space for students to talk to them in confidence.

In the video: Samaritans Outreach at the University of Surrey, we follow Liam, the Vice President for Support at the Students’ Union. Through his candid and open dialogue, we start to understand the importance of the partnership between the University and Samaritans.

Volunteers from the branch have a presence on campus twice a week in term time and every day during exam periods. This has relied heavily on a very loyal and committed group of volunteers, lots of hot chocolate and cakes plus of course a whole range of Samaritan materials. Samaritan pens with our phone number on the side, go down very well with students!

Things change all the time, and it is important that as volunteers we reflect and adapt to ensure we are in the best position to support our students.

At the end of the last academic year, we became increasingly aware of the pressure that Veterinary students were under and with the help of the Students Union, the Chaplaincy and the University we were able to set up weekly slots on the Vet School campus to start to build up a relationship with these students.

In a typical 12-2pm slot we will have many conversations with students, lecturers, Students Union Reps and out of those we generally have a number of ‘significant’ conversations where people may often prefer to have a slightly more private conversation with a volunteer. The university has enabled us to use rooms and spaces where we can be seen by our fellow Sam.

We are all aware that the pressures on students are immense; they may be thousands of miles from home, they may be under pressure to conform and ‘fit in’, they may be struggling with crippling anxiety or struggling with academic deadlines, whatever it is, as volunteers we are here to listen and what a humbling privilege this is.