Hey friends! How are you all? Hope you’re having a lovely week – it’s friday now so I hope everyone has some nice weekend plans.

Apols again for my lack of posting! My new job that doesn’t allow me much time to schedule posts on the blog, also I have no internet in my new house – this will happen SOON though (end of sept i think… booo) HOWEVER, these are very poor excuses. Truth be told i’ve burnt out a bit. I managed to get funding to start school again very soon so I’m guessing my juggling is going to have to get better! It just MUST.

THIS IS THE NEWS:

POETRY – JEMMA FREESE:
One of our contributors – Jemma Freese has been emailing her plans for a poetry book with the theme of anxiety and depression. From what I have seen so far of Jemma’s work I am super excited to see the finished product. Perhaps we can theme a workshop together on poetry and creative writing. I’ll have info soon on where to find Jemma’s book.

DoS MEN ONLY: 
I’m trying my hardest to come up with solutions to create some sort of platform that is strictly men only. As I have mentioned in the past there are so many great charities that fund suicide preventative campaigns for men only. One in particular which is really fantastic is CALM – Campaign Against Living Miserably. You can join their campaign really easily by following this link. You can also fundraise, volunteer, donate or stay up to date with activities and news. Also sign up to IAN – their instant action network to find ways of taking part and raising awareness.

It’s quite difficult to come up with ways in which we could support men only. We need to recruit a male person who is interested in running a project alongside DoS for women only. The gender specification can be really important. It could be the difference in someone having the confidence to speak out or to take part in a peer support session. However, the fact that DoS is ran by a female may hinder it’s interaction with me – so we’d really appreciate it if anyone is interested in helping in the male side of things. There are a couple of people who expressed an interest in workshops and helping this side of DoS that I need to get back in touch with – if there are any more people please get in touch with me via the following email designingoutsuicide@gmail.com

WE COULD BE HEROES Thanks to everyone who came to the EUPP, FREE HAND, HANDMADE CINEMA & DoS – WE COULD BE HEROES workshop day. It was absolutely ace and we had such a fun time. Thanks for all of the helpers too – what a fantastic day and turnout. Free Hand are running the workshop we did as a part of the next set of 6 weeks booked events over at CADS, find information here !

IT SNIPPED MY HEART, NOVA COX:
Nova and DoS did a zine swap of her ‘it snipped my heart’ crying zines. We are going to do a lovely post all about it next so watch this space & find out where to get a copy!

GIRL GANG SHEFFIELD
We attended The Creep Store and Handmade Cinema’s and Free Hand’s GIRL GANG SHEFFIELD meet up recently, and had an absolute blast! I had my coat on at the end pretending to leave to go help unpack my house for about an hour – I couldn’t actually drag myself away. Their ethic and attitude is perfect – a load of girls getting together to make friends, have fun, show and tell, collaborate and eat cake. They are all so amazing at making people feel comfortable and letting everyone have their say. I can’t wait for their screening of THE CRAFT! There was even talk of someone interested in opening a CAT CAFE – please please please be true! Mewwwwww

Anyway – more posts to come, but they’ll be a bit staggered due to my lack of time! Sorrryyyy – ALL GUEST POSTS WELCOME!!! please get in touch designingoutsuicide@gmail.com

Lisa xxx