Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge attended a volunteer celebration event today for Shout, a 24-hour crisis text line which operates with a team of volunteers.

Shout is modeled after the US text service, Crisis Text Line, which was founded in 2013 and is a national text service. Shout was launched in May 2019 by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, as one of Shout’s principle funding partners is the Royal Foundation.

Shout’s team of volunteers are trained by qualified clinicians to create a safe space for people experiencing mental health crisis. There are currently 1,500 volunteers active on the platform.

If you are in the UK, you can text 85258 to be connected to the helpline.

William said gave a speech at the event:

Catherine and I just want to say a huge thank you to all of you, to all the volunteers, and all the supporters who have been here for Shout for the last few years. It’s been an amazing journey, and Catherine and I, and I know I speak for Harry and Meghan as well, couldn’t be more proud of what Shout has accomplished and what you’ve still to accomplish, actually. Still a relatively new charity, but hitting some very big goals and some very big objectives, so we really appreciate all the hard work you’re doing.

As some of you know, we launched formally earlier this year, and a few of you are here because you saw the launch so glad that worked. We had roughly 15,000 people volunteer after the launch, which is a fantastic number. We’re 3,000 now in training, and obviously 1,500 of you actively involved now. Catherine and I were hearing just outside about how many of you are waking up at 3am to answer the peak demand sometimes when there simply aren’t enough volunteers to go ’round for the sad demand that we have at the moment. And I think the fact that we’ve had to launch Shout shows how much in need the mental health sector is in support and help, but yet we still have an enormous challenge ahead of us.

The Heads Together campaign chipped away at the stigma of mental health but it was very important for us that we felt there was tangible support for the mental health community, and Shout is exactly that. It’s providing that leg up, that support. In some cases, the very first opportunity anyone with mental health issues has opened up before. So we’re hugely proud and hugely grateful to all of you for being part of this.

We’ve got a long way to go, and you don’t need me to tell you how important it is, you guys are living it and doing it every single day, and you’re seeing it for yourselves how important, how needed it all is.

My own transcription of the video below

I remember criticizing Heads Together in the past because it seemed very vague in what their ultimate goal was and what success looked like. But I think Shout is a great next step to the Heads Together campaign. I think it’s great that they now seem to fully understand that there needs to be tangible results. Hopefully they continue to be involved and it goes well.

A little more information on the royals’ involvement with Shout. The founder of Crisis Text Line spoke with Town and Country about the royals visiting multiple times.

Nancy Lublin, the Founder of Crisis Text Line in the U.S., told T&C that she was “so grateful” for how the royals have highlighted the service publicly and shared how they have also engaged in under-the-radar visits.

“They have been into our offices, I think, four times, at this point in time, quietly without anyone knowing,” Lublin said about the four young royals.

She added, “They’ve been to this event without anyone knowing last year. They are really here for the work.”

Describing how the young royals have “thrown themselves into hard issues,” she said: “I think they take their role very seriously, really learning about the data. Learning about how things work. I’m so grateful.”

T&C

Kate wore a Smythe blazer which she’s worn before, and new Joseph trousers, and Gianvito Rossi pumps. Her jewelry is her much-loved Mappin and Webb Empress earrings and necklace.

In the year and a half I was away from royal blogging, Kate developed a fondness for trousers, apparently – she’s worn trousers at quite a few events since September. She never used to wear trousers this much!

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