What we're trying to do is build a culture between us where your ability to choose is important and your pain will be met with care, non judgmental curiosity and understanding. We practice this together and learn as we go.

Not the Void UK is a place where we'll hold space for you to be, exactly as you are that day. We aren't looking for you to demonstrate coping skills or to advocate for yourself clearly. We're here to listen to you, to sit alongside you.

Sometimes, the words don't come and the cursor blinks in the chat box because you don't know what you need. Maybe you've never spoken about suicide and had any kind of care and respect offered to you. Maybe it's all too blurry.

Our conversations include this same theme, everyone is free to share what they choose to and say what kind response they need from others. We keep in mind that we deserve support from each other and we ourselves are worthy of the care we give others.

Suicide is not always an easy topic of conversation so part of making this emotionally easier is to tune into how we are as we begin talking. What do we need; a hot drink, a blanket, to fidget, to be on or off camera, to say that chronic pain or brain fog or grief is heavy today.

In the introductions bit, we invite members to share their name, the pronouns they would like us to use for them any any needs they have in todays meeting, what accessibility and comfort needs are we bringing?

I do a lot of resources sharing and signposting so if you are in an organisation that supports people through bad times, I would love to hear from you so we can widen the web of contacts resources for members.

No matter what kind of pain you're in and the sense you make of it (or not), you're welcome to join meetings with us.

If we were going to do shiny PR about the amazing things our members are doing then I'd never be short of something to share but we're prioritising the precious private space we hold for people, without pushing them toward an outcome.

We offer support to adults +18 in the UK (and Europe) who want to seek support around their own experiences with suicide. We have no referral intake process, people who want to attend can do so on their terms.

I see a lot of 'where to get support if you are suicidal' lists that Not the Void UK doesn't appear on so every time we get recommended, it helps enormously. It's hard to get visibility when you are a grassroots groups and not a charity/CIC/ attached to a suicide prevention organisation.

We have a radical safeguarding approach and are happy to share that with you so we can chat with you about privacy, confifentiality and what you need.

We also recognise that agencies who may respond to a suucidal crisis like the police and emergency services are not safe for many trans, enby and genderqueer, gender fluid people. Rates of medical abuse and trauma make health services difficult to access.

We welcome new members who want to talk about what they are going through; we *will* affirm trans and queer phobia is real, it damages lives, your experiences will be respected and trans, enby and genderqueer, genderfluid members will be here to relate with their experiences too.

From training in the Alt2sui method with the Wildflower Alliance to setting up Not the Void, the safety and ease of trans, enby, gender queet and gender fluid people has always been important to our facilitator team. Harm reduction and suicide helplines come to us from queer lineages. /2

When I asked members what they'd say to a new person unsure about joining us, one offerd this:

'Don’t think it’s just one of those groups’ – it's radical and radically healing. It can be scary at first but nearly every meeting we have a laugh about something. So come along.'

Thank you Rhonda, I appreciate you sharing our group and I'm grateful for you.

More info here
www.notthevoid.uk