Our History
The early years
Our organisation, previously named Walsall Pregnancy Help, first opened its doors in November 1992 at the Butts Community Centre, Walsall. The organisation was founded as a charity offering specialist support to teenagers who were dealing with unplanned pregnancies in the Walsall area, who were often trying to make important choices alone, afraid and without reliable information as to what options were available. We aimed to make the service user friendly, unbiased, non-judgemental, and caring, with services delivered by a group of volunteers who wanted to help.
From the outset our aim was to establish a caring and welcoming place where people could drop in and find compassionate care, reliable information and emotional support at times of crisis and concern. We have always wanted to help people make their own informed choices, to respect those choices and to support people through their dilemma, offering them time and space to explore reactions and feelings and to discuss their options and choices without any pressure.
We soon found, however, that it was not just teenagers who accessed our service and it was not only crisis pregnancies that worried people. We also found that it was not just women and girls who needed our help. At this time, we recognised a need to become more professionally qualified if we were going to continue to do our very best for the growing number and range of people using our services across ever-widening concerns and issues.
We therefore decided to embark upon a rigorous training and development programme for our staff. It was also at this time that the Butts Community Centre was sadly due to close and our organisation faced a crisis due to a loss of venue. Fortunately, we were offered facilities at the nearby Walsall Deaf People’s Centre located on Lichfield Street. From this point onwards, we began to develop into a professional counselling organisation offering a broader range of services.
Growth and development
A year after moving our services to the Walsall Deaf People’s Centre, ‘WPH Counselling and Education Services’ was launched to run alongside the successful specialist pregnancy counselling service. We also began taking more referrals from health professionals such as GPs, psychiatric nurses, hospitals, midwives, social workers and other youth and community professionals such as Black Country Connexions and WMBC youth workers.
As the organisation continued to grow, we came to a point where the available space at Walsall Deaf People’s Centre was no longer adequate. We had been working around the problem by careful room allocation and working at other venues such Walsall NHS Walk in Centre and the Electric Palace at Bloxwich. Reluctantly, we came to the decision that we must move on, but did not want to leave our Lichfield Street address. After discussing this problem with our good friends at Walsall Deaf People’s Centre, we learnt that a house within the grounds, ‘The Haven’, would be becoming available for letting and would be suitable for our needs.
The Haven and WPH Counselling today
We made applications to the Community Fund (Big Lottery Fund) and they kindly agreed to support our move. As a result of this support, we moved into The Haven in 2002. The Haven is ideally suited to the work that we do, and staff and users alike find the centre to be a relaxed, peaceful and safe place to find the help and support they need in a time of confusion, concern or crisis.
Whilst the charity now runs WPH Counselling and Education Services as a professional counselling organisation offering a wide range of services and talking therapies, we also continue to offer some of the services once provided by our incorporated company, Walsall Pregnancy Help, through our Crisis Pregnancy Service. At WPH, you will never be pressured into something against your will; we are here to help and support you to find your own answers.
