Resources

Thanks to everyone who joined us at the Gala Screening of Pride at last night's themed social on Advocacy. Aside from the fabulous pizzas and excellent film, Derek from Advocacy Support led a short discussion on what advocacy, or "supporting someone to get stuff done" meant to some of the LASSN volunteers who came along. Along the way we discussed things like the importance of seeking guidance and reassurance with things you might not be familiar with the excellent resources to be found on the new website the Advocacy Charter - a set of principles used by professional advocacy organisations; the different cultural expectations people have when they ask for help - and that perhaps "Empowerment" was a curiously Western concept whether or not advocacy necessarily led to "dependency" and tactics we might use to avoid this What we might learn from models of collaboration in medical contexts We also discussed the forthcoming Q&A Board for LASSN Volunteers. We're still testing out the space at the moment but it should be going live in a couple of weeks. We hope the Q&A Board will be a place where volunteers can ask questions, and have them answered by other volunteers with experience of similar things. Thanks to everyone who came, andwe hope to see you at our next Themed Social in May - when Andrew from Solace will be helping us think about how we respond to mental health Emergencies