Get Connected UK - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Get Connected UK is the UK’s free support service for under-25s. Young people can contact the helpline in confidence with any problem and a trained volunteer will find them the most appropriate help using a directory of over 13,000 trusted services around the country. Young people can call, email or webchat any day of the year, for emotional support to find the help they need to better their lives.

Get Connected was established in 1999 by a partnership between the Suzy Lamplugh

Suzy Lamplugh

Susannah "Suzy" Lamplugh was a British estate agent reported missing on 28 July 1986 in Fulham, South West London, England. She was officially declared dead, presumed murdered, in 1994. The last clue of her whereabouts was an appointment to show a house in Shorrolds Road to someone she referred...

Trust and the British Transport Police

British Transport Police

The British Transport Police is a special police force that polices those railways and light-rail systems in Great Britain for which it has entered into an agreement to provide such services...

, with support from Railway Children. Diana Lamplugh wanted to provide help to young people to young people under 25 who had run away from home or been thrown out. Get Connected’s role was to put these young people in touch, for free, with whatever service they needed.
The establishing principle was to empower the young person to make their own decision about the help they need, with the role of Get Connected being that of a gateway for a young person on the street to access any help they might need.
Get Connected has developed beyond the initial remit, to help any young person under 25.

Helpline

Get Connected Helpline provides help via phone

Phone

Within phonetics, a phone is:* a speech sound or gesture considered a physical event without regard to its place in the phonology of a language* a speech segment that possesses distinct physical or perceptual properties...

, email

Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...

or webchat. Whichever means of contact a young person chooses, each contact includes three stages: emotional support, exploring the options, and making contact with the best help. No young person is pressured to answer questions they are not comfortable answering and everything happens at the pace of the young person. The Helpline

Helpline

A helpline was originally a telephone service which offers help to those who call. Many helpline services now offer more than telephone support - offering access to information, advice or customer service via telephone, email, web or SMS....

Volunteer helps the young person decide what they want to happen next, whether it is to change their situation or simply talk to someone about it. Get Connected gives contact information for the young person’s chosen source of support by phone, text to their mobile, or via email or webchat if they are online. For those young people who have no credit, do not want a phone call to show up on their phone bill or are simply too scared to explain their worries themselves, Get Connected’s Helpline Volunteers can make a one-off connection to another service.

Helpline Statistics

In 2009-2010, Get Connected’s team of 126 volunteers helped nearly 20,000 young people. The average numbers of contacts per months were: 236 emails, 1037 webchats, and 4071 calls. The top ten issues that young people contacted get connected with included: Housing and Homelessness

Homelessness

Homelessness describes the condition of people without a regular dwelling. People who are homeless are unable or unwilling to acquire and maintain regular, safe, and adequate housing, or lack "fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence." The legal definition of "homeless" varies from country...

(12%), Emotional Problems (10%), Relationship Issues outside Family (7%), Relationship Issues within Family (6%), Self-harm

Self-harm

Self-harm or deliberate self-harm includes self-injury and self-poisoning and is defined as the intentional, direct injuring of body tissue most often done without suicidal intentions. These terms are used in the more recent literature in an attempt to reach a more neutral terminology...

(6%), Sexual Issues (5%), Mental Health

Mental health

Mental health describes either a level of cognitive or emotional well-being or an absence of a mental disorder. From perspectives of the discipline of positive psychology or holism mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and procure a balance between life activities and...

(5%), Bullying (5%), Sexuality

Human sexuality

Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...

(3%) and Feeling Suicidal (3%).
Get Connected maintains a strict code of confidentiality

Confidentiality

Confidentiality is an ethical principle associated with several professions . In ethics, and in law and alternative forms of legal resolution such as mediation, some types of communication between a person and one of these professionals are "privileged" and may not be discussed or divulged to...

. Confidentiality police implies that any information given to Get Connected by a service user remains within Get Connected, unless it falls into a situation where it may be breached. Circumstances where confidentiality can be breached include situations of life-threatening danger, situations when a service user identifies him or herself as a current abuser of a child, or situations when there is a threat to the service or those providing the service. The service user is always informed if confidentiality is to be broken.

Relationships with Other Charities

Get Connected has links with other organizations that share their commitment to helping young people and whose learning they can benefit from. These organisations include Beat, Brook, Metropolitan Police Service

Metropolitan Police Service

The Metropolitan Police Service is the territorial police force responsible for Greater London, excluding the "square mile" of the City of London which is the responsibility of the City of London Police...

, NSPCC

NSPCC

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children is a United Kingdom charity campaigning and working in child protection.-History:...

, Samaritans (charity), Shelter (charity)

Shelter

Shelter is a basic architectural structure or building that provides cover. The word may also refer to:-Places:*Port Shelter, Hong Kong*Shelter Bay , various locations*Shelter Cove , various locations...

, SANE (charity)

Sane

Sane is an English word meaning "of sound mind"; see Sanity.Sane or SANE may also refer to:* Sane Ancient Greek city* An archaeological site and a modern name of Sani, Greece*Sane, Mali...

, Youth 2 Youth and others.

Organisation

Get Connected is made up of a mixture of paid staff and volunteers. Get Connected staff are paid employees responsible for implementing and achieving the organisational strategy formulated by the Executive Committee

Executive Committee

Executive Committee may refer to:* The Executive Committee of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland, a government body in the United Kingdom 1921–1972* The Northern Ireland Executive, a government body in the United Kingdom...

. The Chief Executive Officer of Get Connected is Fiona Clark.
Get Connected currently has over 100 Helpline Volunteers, of whom approximately 20% are also shift leaders, trained to support and supervise other Helpline Volunteers. On average, one volunteer helps 200 young people each year.

Fundraising

Get Connected raises funds through event fundraising

Fundraising

Fundraising or fund raising is the process of soliciting and gathering voluntary contributions as money or other resources, by requesting donations from individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies...

, corporate partnerships, and individual giving. The largest of fundraising events is the annual auction

Auction

An auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder...

organised in conjunction with The Carphone Warehouse

The Carphone Warehouse

Carphone Warehouse Group PLC , known as The Carphone Warehouse, is Europe's largest independent mobile phone retailer, with over 1,700 stores across Europe. It is based in the United Kingdom and is a 50% subsidiary of Best Buy...

. Other events include quiz

Quiz

A quiz is a form of game or mind sport in which the players attempt to answer questions correctly. In some countries, a quiz is also a brief assessment used in education and similar fields to measure growth in knowledge, abilities, and/or skills.Quizzes are usually scored in points and many...

nights, comedy

Comedy

Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

nights, runs, skydiving, trekking, cycles and other activities.
In 2000, Get Connected became an independent charity and in 2001, joined The Carphone Warehouse in a partnership

Partnership

A partnership is an arrangement where parties agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests.Since humans are social beings, partnerships between individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments, and varied combinations thereof, have always been and remain commonplace...

that continues today.
The Carphone Warehouse supplies Get Connected with office and helpline equipment and it has been instrumental in ensuring it is free to call from all landline and mobile

Mobile phone

A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...

. This partnership won the Charity Times Corporate Partnership Award in 2003 and the Voluntary Sector Excellence Award for Corporate Partnership in 2006.
In 2003, Get Connected developed an email service in order to make their help more accessible to young people with speaking or hearing impairments. One-to-one help via live webchat was launched in 2006 and consequently won the ICT Hub

ICT Hub

The ICT Hub was a project in the UK that aimed to support voluntary and community based organisations in England with their technology needs....

Award for Delivering Social and Environmental Benefits in 2007.
Get Connected has an ongoing partnership with The Carphone Warehouse. Another corporate partnership is with Merrill Lynch

Merrill Lynch

Merrill Lynch is the wealth management division of Bank of America. With over 15,000 financial advisors and $2.2 trillion in client assets it is the world's largest brokerage. Formerly known as Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., prior to 2009 the firm was publicly owned and traded on the New York...

. A number of other corporate supporters with who Get Connected have developed relationships, such as The Finsbury Group, Eatsleepthink Design and HH Associates help by either pro bono

Pro bono

Pro bono publico is a Latin phrase generally used to describe professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment or at a reduced fee as a public service. It is common in the legal profession and is increasingly seen in marketing, technology, and strategy consulting firms...

services or gifts in kind, such as printing and design, media space

Media space

Media spaces are "electronic settings in which groups of people can work together, even when they are not present in the same place and time. In a media space, people can create real-time visual and acoustic environments that span physically separate areas...

and online coverage. Get Connected and Eatsleepthink Design won a Corporate Community Involvement Award in 2008.
Get Connected also receives support of numerous corporate foundations, including Vodafone

Vodafone

Vodafone Group Plc is a global telecommunications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest mobile telecommunications company measured by revenues and the world's second-largest measured by subscribers , with around 341 million proportionate subscribers as of...

UK Foundation, Lloyds TSB

Lloyds TSB

Lloyds TSB Bank Plc is a retail bank in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1995 by the merger of Lloyds Bank, established in Birmingham, England in 1765 and traditionally considered one of the Big Four clearing banks, with the TSB Group which traces its origins to 1810...

Foundations and KPMG

KPMG

KPMG is one of the largest professional services networks in the world and one of the Big Four auditors, along with Deloitte, Ernst & Young and PwC. Its global headquarters is located in Amstelveen, Netherlands....

Foundation, and trusts, such as Children in Need

Children in Need

Children in Need is an annual British charity appeal organised by the BBC. Since 1980 it has raised over £500 million. The highlight of the Children in Need appeal is an annual telethon, held in November. A teddy bear named "Pudsey Bear" fronts the campaign, while Terry Wogan is a long...

, The Dulverton Trust, The Sylvia Adams Charitable Trust, Volant Charitable Trust, and Help a London Child.
Other supporters of Get Connected include Girls Get Connected, a women’s networking initiative. It hosts a variety of networking events that enable its members to make contact with other like-minded business women, whilst also raising funds for Get Connected.
Other supporters include Get Connected’s “Best Friend” Daniel Radcliffe

Daniel Radcliffe

Daniel Jacob Radcliffe is an English actor who rose to prominence playing the titular character in the Harry Potter film series....

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.