Wardell Community-led Safe Space
Wardell Neighbourhood Centre is working with Roses in the Ocean, a national organisation dedicated to empowering people with lived experience of suicide, to explore the establishment of a Community-led Safe Space for our region.
Community-led Safe Spaces are welcoming, non-clinical environments where people experiencing emotional or suicidal distress can connect with compassionate support from trained volunteers who have lived experience of suicide.
These spaces are intended to provide a welcoming, approachable service that is an alternative or addition to other services that may not be immediately available or the most appropriate fit for a person’s needs all the time.
For many people, having a space grounded in empathy, dignity, and shared human experience can make an important difference in moments of distress.
Community Consultation – Help Shape This Service
As we begin exploring how this service could work in our region, we want to hear directly from our community.
We are inviting community members, partners, and service providers to contribute their perspectives through a short community consultation survey. Your insights will help guide how the Safe Space is designed, how it operates, and how it connects with existing supports across the Northern Rivers.
Please take a few minutes to complete the survey
We would also greatly appreciate it if you could share the survey with others in your networks. The more voices we hear, the stronger and more responsive this service can be.
Are you wanting to support people experiencing suicidal distress in your community?
Wardell’s Community-led Safe Space volunteer workforce, known as Peer CARE Companions, are local people with a lived experience of suicide* who are trained by Roses in the Ocean to use their lived experience to support others.
Want to get involved? To complete our Expression of Interest Form click the button below.
*A lived experience of suicide is having experienced suicidal thoughts, survived a suicide attempt, supported a loved one through suicidal crisis, or been bereaved by suicide.
To become a volunteer within a Community-led Safe Space, people are generally asked to:
• be available for at least 3 hours per month
• complete online self-paced training and approximately 1.5 days of online workshops
• commit to being involved for a minimum of 12 monthsYou can learn more about volunteering here:
https://rosesintheocean.com.au/community-led-safe-spaces-volunteer-with-us/If you would like to talk with our Working Group to find out more or discuss this program we would love to hear from you. You can contact the Wardell Neighbourhood Centre via email. hello@wardellcore.community or phone : 0431 716 457