A counselling service for young people in West Lothian is fundraising to celebrate its fifth birthday.
SMILE counselling from Bathgate celebrate the occasion on June 15 and is raising funds and awareness around mental health to mark the day.
For the past five years the charity has delivered free, bespoke counselling to almost 350 young people in West Lothian.
In addition, they have also provided mental health work shops, information sessions and training to over 1500 people in West Lothian
Its ‘5 mile 4 SMILE’ initiative is asking people to run five miles between June 15 and July 15 to raise money and enable them to move to bigger premises.
The group’s client load has doubled in recent times and it anticipates a mental health epidemic after Covid-19 restrictions settle.
In order to cope the service wants to move to somewhere with more confidential counselling rooms and offer twice as much counselling to their young clients, with a tailored training room for delivering counselling and mental health courses.
Managing director, Declan Harrigan, said: “By taking part in ‘5 mile 4 SMILE’ you will be helping us raise funding to get a larger premises, which will allow us to increase our counselling capacity and have a space for delivering mental health training in the community.
“The coming months and years will bring its own increased difficulties in mental health for young people after the Covid-19 crisis. Let’s walk together on the week of the 15th June to show our young people that we walk with them always.”
Throughout the Covid-19 crisis SMILE have continued to provide counselling to all their clients, new clients and offer additional support to keyworkers.
To get involved or donate: https://justgiving.com/campaign/5mile4smile
