The Ostrich FoundationNow a registered charity 1186556
A Charity Helping Young People TakeTheir Head Out of The Sand
OurMission
To help young people, their families and friends
The Ostrich Foundation exists to work with and support other charities and NHS agencies helping reduce the number of young people who take their own lives, by shattering the stigma around suicide and helping remove the word ‘committed’ from common vocabulary.
Our aim is to work with other charities to help equip young people and their communities with the skills to recognise and respond to suicidal behaviour.
The Ostrich Foundation believes that many young suicides are preventable.
We believe that no one should have to go through the heartbreak and everlasting pain of losing a loved one to suicide.
We believe that everyone can play a role in helping to raise awareness of the issue of young suicide.
Values & Beliefs
Why we set the charity up
84 MEN IN THE UKTAKE THEIR OWN LIVESEVERY WEEK
The statistics are truly shocking. Every two hours a man in the UK takes his own life. Male suicide and mental health is a big issue that can’t be ignored any longer. It’s unacceptable that so many men are dying from suicide on a daily basis, yet so few people are talking about it and we need to change this.
To stop people in their tracks, make them pay attention and inspire much needed conversation and action around suicide, The charity Calm partnered with the internationally renowned artist, Mark Jenkins, and his collaborator Sandra Fernandez, to create 84 individual sculptures. Friends and family members of the deceased helped in the creation process of the figures. Each one, a poignant reminder of a real life lost and a call to society to come together and ultimately take a stand against male suicide.
Your donations help us in so many ways.
We are delighted to tell you all about what has been achieved with the many you have donated so far.
We are so proud to tell you that with your incredible generosity we have been able to support 16 teachers and staff at Harrogate Grammar School to attend a two day Mental Health First Aid Training Course. This is an absolutely fantastic achievement.
We have also been able to give help to our local Harrogate Samaritans and their education programme which is so important and we also continue to support Papyrus with all their amazing work.
Together we are all working hard and making a difference in reducing and raising awareness of suicide in young people. We couldn’t do this without you so thank you from everyone at The Ostrich Foundation.
We are delighted to announce that training courses for other Harrogate schools are now in place too. We are proud to be working with St. John Fisher and King James's schools.
Comments from the schools
Here's what some of our delegates have said
‘It was one of the best training opportunities I’ve had. Thank you.’
'I’ve found the training very beneficial in my role in school.’
‘Outstanding training that has pushed us forward as a school and really appreciate the funding.’
'We are very much looking forward to working with St John Fisher Harrogate who have arranged this training by Starfish for their staff and their course is already booked which is fantastic. '
Neil Renton, Head Teacher, Harrogate Grammar commented that 'Outstanding training has helped us to develop a focus on this important area and we really appreciate the funding.'
What we do with your donations
This is what we do at the Ostrich Foundation
At the Ostrich Foundation we’ve made it our mission to create a Suicide Safer Harrogate and when it comes to mental illness, we believe prevention is better than cure.
We want everyone to support and fund our ‘Suicide Safer Harrogate’ campaign.
The mythology around suicide is huge; in talking about it we don’t create the problem or increase the numbers, in fact it’s the opposite.
Talking about suicide can be a nerve-wracking thing to do – for the person who is suicidal and for anyone who may be concerned about them. If you are asking a loved one, family member or friend if they are suicidal, it can be distressing to learn that they feel this way and it can difficult to comprehend. Lots of people worry that asking and talking about suicide will make suicide more likely to happen – but this isn’t the case. We want people to become educated on how to spot initial anxieties before they manifest into bigger issues, telling our young people ‘don’t bury your head’ - help is out there! So, we are raising funds for the Mental Health First Aid training in local schools, sports clubs and other organisations.
Some of the staff from Harrogate Grammar School have been the first to benefit from training carried out by Pat Sowa of Starfish Harrogate. The Ostrich Foundation continues to raise funds for this training across the Harrogate District.
Forthcoming Events for 2020
Check back regularly for details of our next events.
Ostrich Gig 2020. Ivory Bar, Harrogate, Sunday 23rd February 2020
Come join us and see Robbie Miller, Let Luce and The 2 Wills. See the full poster here. Book your tickets online here.
Keep a look outfor forthcoming events
Autumn Ostrich Event,Details TBA
But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself.
Fundraising for us? Get your Sponsorship form!
Click the icon on the left to download our sponsorship form and start fundraising for The Ostrich Foundation. Thank you to everyone who has helped us by raising funds from their events!
Wow, wow, WOW! We’re thrilled to let you know the total monies raised at our latest Ostrich Walk was a fantastic £1400.
THANK YOU to all who donated and made the walk a success! Your donations will go towards funding Mental Health First Aid training in local schools.
See you at our next event - details coming soon!
PS If you have any photos from today please don’t forget to tag us.
Meet Norman, Our New Mascot!
Our mascot Norman the Ostrich sure enjoyed his walk in Ripley today and we hope you all did too!
A huge WELL DONE & THANK YOU to everyone who took part and/or donated, to Ripley Castle and their tearoom staff for having us and to all our fab volunteers for donating your time, effort & cake!
We hope our walk has provided the opportunity to talk about the stigma surrounding mental health & suicide and you’ll now spread the word about the Ostrich Foundation’s goals
Ostrich Beer Launch
Open to everyone, The Ostrich Foundation Beer Launch was a great success. Thanks to the Cold Bath Brewing Company, we were able to bring to Harrogate our very own Ostrich Pale Ale. The purpose of the event was to bring everyone together so raise awareness of our charity, raise money for our worthy causes and to get people to meet and talk.
Ostrich Gig, Ivory Bar, 24th February, 2019
With over 250 people attending, our first gig was an overwhelming success. We raised over £4,000 as as result and our thanks go out to Mirage, Robbie Miller and Megan who performed some great music. Thanks also go the Ivory Bar and our committee who did a great job organising everything and making the night such a success.
Missed our 2019 event or want to join us again in 2020, click here to get your tickets online.
Robbie Miller
A great guitar sole set from Robbie Miller
Over 250 guests!
With three performers over five hours it was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon!
Mirage brought the house down!
Two great sessions from Mirage got everyone up and dancing!
Bring Dad to Dance with HDDC
Ripley Walk, 7th October 2018An excellent first fundraising event for us!. With around 200 people walking and almost £2,000 raised to fund our chosen charities. Thank you to everyone who came and supported us.
Thank You to All Our SponsorsWe would also like to give a big thank you to all our supporters, committee members, trustees and all the people who have helped us create a great charity for such a worthy cause, in such a short period of time, from our start in May 2018. Thank you, from all of us.
LMDC Espresso Bar
The Kitchen
Rock-Up and Sing
Stray FM
SRO Solutions
MedSoc
West Park Hotel
Ivory Bar
Rollinson Planning Consultancy Ltd
We are looking for volunteers!
We are growing fast and have lots of events planned for over the next year and would really like to hear from you if you would like to help us as a volunteer. If you are interested, would like to find out more information or would like a chat with one of our trustees, then please contact us using our contact form below.
Our 2018/2019 Partner
MedSoc is the University of Manchester’s largest student society, supporting its students in all stages of their medical degree and ensuring they have a good time and make the most out of their Manchester experience.
We are responsible for organising socials, annual balls, charity events as well as educational events and Pacemaker, our own student-led magazine. We endeavour to be inclusive and cater for everyone at our events and within the society.
Each year MedSoc work along side a selected charity that supports a cause that is held dear to the society. This academic year MedSoc are happy to announce we will be working along side The Ostrich Foundation. Mental health and particularly mental health of students is an extremely important issue, and so MedSoc look forward to supporting the charity that was founded for the prevention of suicide in young men. We will be organising charity events of our own to raise money for The Ostrich Foundation as well as supporting their own events.
We look forward to our forthcoming partnership with The Ostrich Foundation and are excited for the opportunities it will bring to support such a meaningful cause.
MedSoc Annual Ball16th March 2019
Alison Pearson-Segal, chair of the Ostrich Foundation, speaking at the Manchester MedSoc Spring Ball. A huge thank you to Medsoc for all your support and helping us in our mission to raise awareness and help prevent young suicides.
Support
We aim to work with these valuable organisations - call them if you'd like to talk
Call 116 123
Whatever you're going through, call us free any time, from any phone on 116 123.
We're here round the clock, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. If you need a response immediately, it's best to call us on the phone. This number is FREE to call. You don't have to be suicidal to call us.
Call 0800 58 58 58
The Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) is leading a movement against male suicide, the single biggest killer of men under 45 in the UK. Join the campaign to take a stand against male suicide and get the tools you need for action.
Call Hopeline0800 068 4141
We exist to reduce the number of young people who take their own lives by shattering the stigma around suicide and equipping young people and their communities with the skills to recognise and respond to suicidal behaviour.
Call 0800 1111
Call us free on 0800 1111 or find out how to get in touch online. Whatever your worry, day or night, we're here for you.
Call 0800 4 70 80 90
The Silver Line is the only free confidential helpline providing information, friendship and advice to older people, open 24 hours a day, every day of the year
The National Suicide Prevention Alliance (NSPA) is an alliance of public, private and voluntary organisations in England who care about suicide prevention and are willing to take individual and collective action to reduce suicide and support those bereaved or affected by suicide.
We help people change their behaviour to become the very best that they can be. It could be their drug or alcohol use or worries about their mental health – we support people to make lasting change in their lives.
We deliver 81 services across England and Scotland. In 2017 we supported 140,000 people.
We work with adults and young people, in community settings, in prisons, in residential rehab and through outreach.
Men's Minds Matter is a not for profit organisation dedicated to the prevention of suicide through building psychological resilience and emotional strength.