During the last year Reach have been meeting with the trustees from Fountains Counselling. Fountains have been offering counselling in North Shropshire and Staffordshire since 1996. Like Reach, they are also affiliated to the Association of Christians in Counselling (ACC). Fountains contacted Reach as they were exploring ways to restart their counselling following various challenges, including the impact of the covid pandemic.

We have now progressed to agreeing a working partnership, in which: Reach will be responsible for managing the counselling in Shropshire and North Staffordshire using our usual systems, and Fountains will publicise it locally and provide financial support. The next step is to build a team of local counsellors.

Andy Bond, Reach’s Co-ordinator, who has met with various combinations of the trustees from Fountains over the last year says:

Each time we have met has been hugely encouraging as there has been such an evident sense of ‘sharing heart,’ as we have worked towards agreeing and launching this distinctive partnership. Hopefully, this will, once again, make this type of counselling available to those in need in Shropshire and North Staffordshire. This large region neatly connects directly with North Wales and Cheshire, where Reach already has some counselling presence.