The number of families reaching out for help from the industry’s Lighthouse charity rose by almost a quarter last year over 2021, with more than three quarters of requests coming from tradespeople seeking help with emotional, physical and financial wellbeing issues.
The Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity helped more people than ever before with 3,421 families reaching out for support, according to the organisation’s impact report published this week.
The charity’s caseworkers leveraged £1.77m of additional funding to support 1,976 complex cases where multiple interventions were required to resolve issues such as homelessness, family breakdowns and domestic abuse.
In response to the issues faced in what can be a challenging environment, the charity invested 22% of its grant expenditure in delivering 1,753 face to face and virtual counselling sessions. This service has meant that our construction workforce has had fast access to a variety of counselling services to address issues such as bereavement, relationship breakdowns and anger management.
Bill Hill, CEO of the Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity, said: “We know that there is still much work to be done, but we don’t see the increase in calls for help as a negative. Quite the contrary, if people are reaching out for help it means that they are hearing about us and not letting issue reach crisis point.
“Our Make It Visible On-Site initiative has been one of our most successful campaigns to date and has enabled us to reach out directly to our trades and site operatives. Our team can share their own lived experiences in an informal and approachable way and the fact that we have provided immediate safeguarding and lifesaving interventions to 25 people last year alone is testament to its success.”
Another new initiative introduced by the charity in 2022 was their Critical Response Service which delivers essential support and early intervention during critical incidents. These can include serious or fatal on-site accidents or incidents where someone has attempted to, or already taken their own life on site or elsewhere. In 2022 the Critical Response team attended 28 sites where a critical incident had occurred and supported 1,218 people in coping with the trauma they had experienced
Sarah Bolton, COO of the charity added: “We are continually expanding our charitable services to respond to the needs of our industry to ensure that our message of support reaches those who may not know how or where to ask for help.
“Last year we introduced a new text support service alongside our existing 24/7 Construction Industry Helpline and Helpline App. The HARDHAT text service offers immediate support to those who feel more comfortable texting rather than talking on the phone.
“We’ve also increased our network of Lighthouse Beacons that provide a safe, non-judgemental environment where people can share their issues with like-minded people either online or face to face.
“All these services are underpinned by our Construction Industry Helpline app and the recently launched, CITB funded, Workforce Welfare and Wellbeing portal giving every opportunity for our workforce and their families to gain free access to the support they need.”
