Volunteers sought for Tullamore Darkness into Light

Pieta House has issued a call for volunteers to come on board to help with the organisation of the 2023 Darkness into Light (DIL) fundraising initiative in Tullamore.

Unfortunately, the volunteers who worked on the Tullamore DIL fundraiser in the past are no longer able to commit to their roles, which has prompted Pieta to issue the call for volunteers to serve on a new committee.

Darkness into Light is the biggest fundraising drive undertaken on an annual basis for Pieta, and takes place in venues right across Ireland and overseas.

In 2021 almost 100 people from Offaly sought help from Pieta, either at the in-person counselling sessions or bereavement services, and over 10 schools across the county took part in the Amber Flag initiative.

Five schools in Offaly and Laois took part in the the Resilience Academy initiative started by Pieta, with over 1,135 students taking part.

Nationwide in 2021, the 24/7 Pieta Helpline received almost 100,000 calls and texts and close to 2,000 crisis calls and texts each week. In response, each month, the team at Pieta provided over 4,000 hours of suicide and self-harm crisis therapy. Each day, seven additional teenagers come to Pieta for one-to-one support.

Pieta provided over 48,000 hours of free one-to-one suicide intervention and bereavement counselling sessions and supported over 6,700 unique clients with in-person therapy.

Over 600 households were directly supported by Pieta after they had been bereaved by suicide, and more than one third of clients were under 18. Over 60% of clients who contacted the service were aged between 13 and 25.

Anyone who thinks they might like to volunteer to help organise the 2023 Darkness into Light event in Tullamore is asked to contact irma.joyce@pieta.ie or phone: 01 2333755.