Castlemaine’s Safe Space (CSS) is going from strength to strength, helping over 130 individuals since it first opened its doors last July, and with the possibility of a permanent site now on the horizon.
The premise behind Safe Spaces is to provide a safe and welcoming place for people experiencing emotional distress, loneliness, or suicidal thoughts to drop in, have a cup of coffee, and chat with trained volunteers who have lived experiences of suicide.
At present CSS operates Tuesdays from 6.30pm to 8.30pm at the Senior Citizen’s rooms near the library and Saturdays from 1.30pm to 4pm at the Salvation Army Hall on Kennedy Street. Both spaces require a significant amount of additional work for volunteers, moving furniture around and making the spaces welcoming.
Having a permanent, centrally located home, would make the space more accessible and enable the possibility of expanding services. The proposed building is a centrally located former retail space, that could potentially be co-leased to other businesses such as musicians, and art therapists, which would aid in creating awareness of CSS.
CSS Project and Peer Volunteer Coordinator Amy Sonsie told the Mail that while they currently have 30 volunteers, more are always needed as each volunteer only works two shifts a month.
“Having more volunteers would enable CSS to consider expanding the number of sessions provided to the community,” Amy said.
“We have a great group – we are like a family and there is lots of ongoing support for volunteers.”
Amy noted that on average, the volunteers have been supporting three to four guests per session, with some guests enjoying group interaction including games, music, and puzzles and other guests who prefer one-to-one support.
“We have one gentleman who catches the train up from Melbourne regularly to visit us. He says he feels comfortable here. He travels up, has something to eat and drink, sits for a while and travels back to Melbourne.
“Isolation and loneliness are a big concern for many people and we are finding that roughly 80 per cent of our guests are over 50 years old and 95 per cent of them are male. Sadly, over the past three months there have been a number of older males in our community that have committed suicide,” Amy said.
CSS is currently in the process of creating a resource folder which can be accessed by sporting clubs, community organisations or those who are reluctant to reach out for support. These resources will be available at www.castlemainesafespace.org/ in the near future. If anyone is interested in becoming a volunteer email: castlemainesafespace@gmail.com