For those unfamiliar with group chat breaks, click the spoiler below for some info.
What is a 'group chat break'?
Roughly
three times a year, we have a week (or two) where we take a break from
running group chats.
We use these
periods as a chance to gather
up the feedback we've received from you all, reflect on how things are
going on the community, and look at anything we might want to work on.
Sometimes that happens behind the scenes, and sometimes we run projects on the discussion boards for you to get
involved in during that week. It's also a good chance for our volunteers and staff to have a break.
When are they?Typically, there's a break in January, April, and August.
You might remember back in March,
we decided to cancel the April break.
COVID had just hit the UK in full force, lockdown was very new, and
ultimately the importance of our service and the needs of the community
needed to come first. Around the same time, we expanded our chat service
to be 7 days a week. Our staff and volunteers have been absolutely
incredible in helping us get that up and running - a lot of them doing
extra chats every week.
Fast
forward to August, and the picture looks very different - there's no end
in sight for the COVID situation right now and nobody knows how long
it's going to be affecting our lives. With that in mind, we need to
think longer-term and consider what's sustainable for the community.
Part of that means re-introducing group chat breaks, because they give
our volunteers and staff a break and we want to make sure we're still
making time to reflect and improve our services, which arguably is even
more important now.
When's the next break?
Following our usual routine, we're due a break this month. That's been scheduled in for the week of the 17th, so there will be no group chats from Monday 17th to Sunday 23rd. The usual group chat schedule will resume on Monday 24th.
What are we doing that week?
Given we've had our foot on the gas for a while now, we're going to use this break as just that: a
break. So there will be no projects or anything happening, but we'd
still encourage you all to submit any feedback you have during that time
because we'll definitely still be reading it. There may still be a quiz (unconfirmed).
We're
not sure how things will look when January's break rolls around, but by that
point we might be in a better position to run some projects and get you all involved in something.
Where can I go instead?
If you'd like some quick, live support while Group Chat isn't running, feel free to head over to our
one-to-one helpline. You can get in touch in three ways - phone, webchat and email. Call for free on
0808 808 4994, from 4pm-11pm. The boards will also be open as normal.
If you're at breaking point, our
Crisis Messenger is also open as usual.
Text THEMIX to 85258. You can also head to
this thread to find more crisis options if you need urgent support.
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As always, feel free to throw any questions or comments below.
