Newcastle College University Centre Students Create Free Community Counselling Service

Students from Newcastle College University Centre (NCUC) have spent the last year working with local charity Newcastle Community Asset Trust (NCAT), to create a free community counselling service.

NCAT works to transfer public buildings and land across the North East for the benefit of local communities and have recently been transforming council-owned community centres into private community hubs.

CEO Glenn Pendleton approached Richard Cave, a Counselling Lecturer at Newcastle College University Centre in early 2022 to find out how students could help his team to create and support a therapeutic counselling service that would support those using the community centres.

The task became a live project for students on NCUC’s Foundation Degree in Counselling and Therapeutic Communication, who designed and pitched the service to Glenn before launching in Blakelaw Community Centre, Newcastle in September 2022.

Referrals came thanks to word of mouth and social media, and by June 2023, there were three volunteer counsellors working at the centre. All three volunteers graduated from the Foundation Degree in Counselling and Therapeutic Communication, with two going on to become lecturers at the University Centre as well.

One of those is Lisa Johnson, who now also sits on NCAT’s Board of Directors, as the Trustee for Counselling and Wellbeing Services.

She commented: “I am so proud of how far this project has come. I was one of the first people to start working on it last year, and I am thrilled it is flourishing. I am proud to be able to say I am an NCUC trained counsellor volunteering as an NCAT Community Counsellor.

“We have been involved in activities in the centre to meet the locals and spread the word about our service and we now have a healthy waiting list.

“We provide counselling either face-to-face in the centre, on the phone, or online. We have been approached to deliver training and continue to raise awareness about the importance of counselling for all mental health needs, and we hope to be able to offer student placements soon as well.”