About Us

The two founder members of Hi! Help Inside conceived the idea for this service whilst working within the voluntary sector. It came to their attention that although many agencies offered befriending very few offered counselling, those who did could only offer a limited service often having to wait weeks/months for an appointment.

With the guidance of Business in the Community, a committee was set up and Hi! Help Inside became a reality. The BIC linked us with Infusion Partnership Ltd specialising in Business and Project Management (as a free community service) and together we were able to move forward and plan Hi!s future. We became a Registered Charity and then the battle for funding began.

With the help of a grant from Blaenau Gwent Borough Council we were able to set up our office in Abertillery, and began offering free counselling service on a part-time basis.

In January 2006 we received a grant from the Big Lottery Fund which enabled us to open full time with three salaried staff and a bank of qualified volunteer counsellors.  Following this grant we received a grant from Coalfields Regeneration Fund in October 2008.  Since this ran out in October 2009, we have managed with small grants to keep this service up and running.

The Charity has many people to thank for remaining open such as the project manager, Mrs Kathryn Beynon, who has worked full time without a salary for the last 12 months.  Without her passion and commitment there is no doubt that the Charity would no longer be open.

We would also like to thank our wonderful Volunteers who have worked without expenses to try and keep us up and running to the public free of charge.

Although we have secured grants for rent, utilities, Supervision costs and half our Volunteer Expenses, we are still looking for funds for salaries etc.

We are in our fifth year of offering this valuable service to our community (and to some degree very proud of our achievements so far).