Our story
Sasha’s Project is a charity which has been set up in memory of Sasha, a local girl from Fleet, who died by suicide when she was just 20. Sasha’s struggles were exacerbated by the lack of help available to her when her mental health was poor. When she was feeling suicidal, she needed compassion, support and a safe place to go to, especially during the night. This wasn’t easily accessible.
​
Options for a young person is in crisis in Hampshire and Surrey borders can be limited, especially at night. With cases of suicide rising nationally, we are providing support that fills this gap.
​
Sasha’s family felt that having somewhere safe to go to, would have made the biggest impact on Sasha’s struggles and they decided they wanted to open a crisis house which is open 24/7, with facilities that allow for overnight stays. This is their long-term plan that involves raising substantial funds. In the meanwhile, the charity runs the drop-in centre until there is sufficient funding for a crisis house.
Our aims
We help and support young people in suicidal crisis through the provision of a safe place designed to help them through a mental health crisis.
​
We provide emotional support that helps reduce suicidal thoughts and behaviours. We assist the development of skills and capabilities to enable young people to be better equipped to deal with a future crisis.
We want to be accessible to all young people up to the age of 25 within Hampshire and it's borders, giving free advice about suicide and the programmes and support available.
​
Providing a safe space, in person, on the phone or online, relieves distress and provides time to stabilise emotions and establish a clearer vision.
We aim to promote our values by:
listening without prejudice and judgement
giving young people the tools to help themselves out of a crisis and upholding their dignity
acting with compassion, a sense of common decency and with humanity
​
We aim to raise awareness through:
networking and events
associating with local authorities, voluntary organisations and residents within our area to carry out the objectives of the group
being open and transparent about the support we offer and the need for it
challenging the public perception about the stigma of mental health and inspiring others to do the same
promoting zero tolerance of suicide
​
Our listening volunteers
Our Listening Volunteers go through a rigorous training programme which is tailored to their experience and can take more than six months to complete. It's core covers:
​
Our code of conduct
Confidentiality and data protection
Understanding boundaries
Listening skills and advanced active listening skills
Suicide awareness, suicide prevention and staging an intervention
Self-harm awareness, understanding self-harm and responding to self-harm
Crisis planning
Understanding autism and neurodiverse crisis planning
Safeguarding
Health & safety
First aid