The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge celebrate Shout Crisis Volunteers

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attended Shout’s Crisis Volunteer celebration event at the Troubadour White City Theatre in London. The event brought together people from across the UK who volunteer with Shout to support people in crisis. The event enabled volunteers, who work from computers in their own homes, to see the scale of the national network they have joined.

Shout, a 24/7 text support service, was researched and developed by The Royal Foundation as a legacy of the Heads Together Campaign. It was launched by The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and The Duke and Duchess of Sussex in May 2019. Since the service went live, Shout 85258 Crisis Volunteers have had 145,000 conversations via text with people in crisis, exchanging 6 million messages.

During the visit, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge heard how 75% of people who contact Shout are under 25, and that the most frequent subjects raised in those conversations are suicide (37%), depression (36%), relationships (29%), anxiety (31%), isolation (19%) and self-harm (17%).

Their Royal Highnesses also met with people who answered their public appeal to volunteer with the service. An amazing 13,000 people registered an interest with Shout following the appeal and 3,000 enrolled in training. Shout 85258 now has 1,500 Crisis Volunteers active on the platform with more training, graduating and joining the platform each week. 

Lastly, The Duke and Duchess joined Shout volunteers in the theatre to watch a special performance and participated in a group photo with volunteers to encourage everyone to spread the word about Shout.