At this crossroads, she took the decision to do something extraordinary, she built the DPJ Foundation in Daniel’s name to make things better for other people. Emma could have decided to shut out the world instead and nobody would have blamed her, but she didn’t. When we are faced with decisions and need to decide which road to travel, we can all can choose to take an extraordinary path, to stand up, make a difference and to do something heroic. Anyone can choose to be a hero in their 'milltir sgwâr' (square mile) by making a difference for other people.
People
At The DPJ Foundation, we know that the people in our team are absolutely vital to what we do. We have our small team of four employees: me the Charity Manager, Beth our Team Co-ordinator, Fiona our Volunteer and Events Coordinator and Nia our new Training Officer who all play a key role. We also have a couple of people who work with us on a sessional basis: Kathryn our Counselling Administrator and Emma our Registered Nurse. Then we have our Counsellors right across Wales who work with us on a self-employed basis using their professional skills and qualifications to support those people who receive our counselling and other talking therapies through our Share the Load service.
Last, but absolutely not least, are our vital heroic volunteers. We have a number of different volunteer roles at the DPJ Foundation and we are looking for more people to help us.
Structure
First, we have our trustees who are essentially my bosses and who have oversight to ensure we are operating safely, legally and that we have a clear strategy in place. We currently have 8 trustees and their Chair is the DPJ Foundation’s incredible founder Emma.
Next, we have our Share the Load volunteers who are the people behind the phones when someone calls or texts our helpline. This group of volunteers are not public-facing and they take their responsibilities around confidentiality, discretion and empathy very seriously. They are not counsellors but are very good at listening with an open mind and are trained to be able to support if someone is having thoughts of suicide or just needs to share their concerns. We also have a couple of Share the Load volunteers who have received additional training to be able to support families and communities who are bereaved by suicide and they do this work alongside me.
Regional Champions
The third volunteer group are our Regional Champions and hopefully you will know one or more of them as their job is to get out into their communities and help us raise awareness. These are the volunteers that may have come to your NFU or grassland meeting or who you have seen at a show. They are our local, community-based teams who share information and resources to help challenge the stigma surrounding poor mental health and suicide and who can help with distributing posters, stickers, and information about DPJ. Some of our Regional Champions also deliver talks and some deliver our full training either in Bereavement and Grief Awareness or in Mental Health Awareness.
The final group are our Lorry team. These volunteers work alongside Nurse Emma to encourage and welcome farmers on board the Hywel Davies Lorry and to chat with them whilst they await their health check. If you have visited Carmarthen or Whitland markets you hopefully will have seen one of them.
Could you be a volunteer?
Volunteering with any organisation is a simple way to do something heroic and we would love to speak to anyone who may be interested in joining our volunteer team.
In particular, we are keen to speak to people who may be interested in becoming Regional Champions in Gwent, Ceredigion, Meirionnydd or North East Wales as we are under-represented in these areas. We will also shortly be starting the training programme for Share the Load volunteers, which includes listening training with the Samaritans as well as our own internal training and induction to prepare you to take calls.
If you think you could help us, please take a look at our website or get in touch by phone. In the words of Bonnie Tyler “I need a hero” – could that hero be you?