HELPING COMMUNITIES

The Cobh & Harbour Chamber recently held an auction in aid of the Breaking the Silence Group.  This dedicated group was established in 2006 in response to a number of deaths by suicide in Cobh.   Breaking the Silence in their initial years embarked on a number of research initiatives to determine how they could best support the Community around suicide. The group engaged in a number of meetings in the area also organising for the committee to be trained on Applied Suicide Intervention (ASIST).

President, Michael Martin in presenting the cheque for €750 euros to John Lawlor, Chairperson for the ‘Breaking the Silence’ group stated the Cobh & Harbour Chamber were delighted to support the “Breaking the Silence’ group, which he said “is an incredible group who are doing wonderful work and showing great initiative not just in Cobh but in the East Cork area”.

“Empowering Communities to help themselves is so important when a suicide happens” said John Lawlor “There is very important and practical work being done by this group at present and awareness training for the community around suicide is key.  Members of the group have trained with Living Works and the HSE to deliver different levels of training around suicide prevention, holding a safe TALK training programme that prepares participants to identify persons with thoughts of suicide and connect them to suicide first aid resources, while ASIST is Applied Suicide Intervention Skills training, a two-day skills-building workshop in suicide first aid and also Peer Support Education for young people in the community – the aim of the programme is to help young people to develop their listening and communication skills so that they may help those in difficulty or crisis in a practical and logical way”.

At the moment the group are in the early stages of developing a website which will be updated on a regular basis with details of courses and other upcoming events that the group has planned. One such event is a Celebrity Boxing Match between the Cork Senior Football Panel which is to be held in the Rochestown Park Hotel on Sunday 27th December at 7.30pm (over 18’s), €20 per person. The event aims to raise funding for ‘Breaking the Silence’, and to raise awareness of the services they provide.

If you would like to make a donation to the Breaking the Silence Group then please send however much you want to AIB Bank, Cobh, Act name: Breaking the Silence, Act No: 0727815, sort code 93-40-62.