ewe’s Christmas Community Commitment: Leeds Survivor Led Crisis Service

What is our Christmas Community commitment?

We wanted to do something special for the Leeds community in the spirit of giving this year for Christmas. We're proud of our city, and we're aware of many fantastic charities and organisations that make a significant difference to people living in Leeds so we wanted a way to celebrate and recognise the great work people do in our community.

As an agency, we've decided to donate our time and services to support a Leeds basedcharity with their marketing efforts. We plan to continue this as an annual ewe Christmas tradition.

Charities often struggle to find the time and resources for marketing. Marketing positions within charities are often volunteer-based roles. Budgets and donations, as they should be, are put towards helping those who need it most.

We hope that by donating our time, we can help free up some budget that would have gone towards marketing and redirect it towards those in need. Our aim is to ensure that volunteers' time is spent doing the vital work of supporting the people of Leeds.

Who are we supporting this year?

This year we've picked Leeds Survivor Led Crisis Service as the charity we're supporting for 'ewe's Christmas Community Commitment'.

Who are Leeds Survivor Led Crisis Service?

Leeds Survivor Led Crisis Service (LSLCS) are part of a network of mental health services in Leeds. They offer a range of tailored services to provide support and advice for people in crisis; this consists of face-to-face support and remote support via helplines and online chat services.

We were already aware of LSLCS and their great work through one of our clients, MindMate. MindMate is an NHS organisation based in Leeds that offers mental health support to children and young people. MindMate and LSLCS often work closelytogether.

We knew from working with MindMate that mental health charities, particularly those that offer helplines, are in particular demand during the festive period. Papryus, a suicide prevention Chairty for young people, noted that calls, texts and emails to the Papyrus Hopeline increased by 25% over Christmas and New Year in 2020.

We recognise the importance of charities like LSLCS; therefore, our focus this year is to support them. Even on Christmas day, LSLCS volunteers work tirelessly to provide everyone with someone to talk to if they require emotional support. Their work is crucial, and we are committed to helping them in any way we can.

How are we supporting LSLCS?

In late November, we contacted LSLCS to present them with our Christmas gift of free marketing assistance. They expressed their gratitude for our offer, and we agreed to collaborate. They requested that we concentrate on three of their services: Safe Zone, Teen Connect, and Night Owls. These services aim to provide emotional support to children and young people in Leeds and the surrounding areas, either face-to-face, via message or phone.

Throughout the beginning of December, we've been working on creating a brand and marketing tool kit that LSLCS can use for each of these services. It was agreed we'd create a new logo for Teen Connect and Safe Zone along with some brand assets for each service that could be used across the website, social and in any print marketing. We want to create a marketing toolkit that anyone can use internally to produce consistent and eye-catching marketing materials going forward.

We are currently awaiting feedback from a focus group of young people to see their thoughts on the branding work we have completed so far. We plan to deliver the completed project in January, so stay tuned for our upcoming case study where we will share more about the work we have done with LSLCS.

Who should we support in 2024?

As mentioned previously, we would like to continue this tradition annually. We are open to suggestions for charities we can donate our time to in 2024.

Please email us at hello@ewe.agency with your nominations for the next ewe Christmas Community Commitment.