In October 2020 Barnardo’s launched a UK-wide support service which is making a positive difference to the lives of many Black, Asian and minority ethnic children, young people and their families impacted by the pandemic. This support service is called Boloh Helpline which provides a free telephone and web chat facility for children, young people and families from these communities. The helpline’s team of specially trained advisors and psychotherapists provide advice, signposting and therapeutic support.
Since its launch in October 2020, the helpline has provided a service to over 1200 children, young people and families from these communities who are experiencing a complex range of issues including mental health, bereavement, family break-down, neglect, back to school, parenting advice, counselling, family stress, discrimination, barriers to services and more.
Children, young people and families can be referred to the helpline for support by using this referral form
For further information on the service see the following leaflets:
Barnardos is also appealing to local organisations working with children, young people and families as follows:
“We know that as communities come out of lockdown the complex range of issues experienced means that they would require a high level of support. We know that that the helpline cannot address these issues within the wider communities alone, and we are particularly keen to discuss with organisations already running support services, community programmes or helplines for children and young people how we can coordinate our services and make sure we reach as many of those who need support as possible.
We would hugely welcome your assistance with this initiative. Please do get in touch with us if you would like to discuss collaborative ways of supporting this new service, or if your colleagues could be involved from an operational point of view. We’d also like to invite you to share this service with your wider networks, to help us to spread the word amongst seldom heard communities and young people. If this is of interest, we’d be happy to share communications assets with you”.
If you require any further information on the helpline please don’t hesitate to get in touch. You can find out more about the new helpline here: helpline.barnardos.org.uk/helpline