SEEN

We provide a safe space to support those facing unplanned pregnancy and baby loss, and we deliver healthy relationship and sex education to empower and nurture our community. We have been established for 25 years and have recently changed our name to SEEN as we have evolved in our offerings where we Support, Empower, Educate and Nurture through the work that we do. We are a small local charity based in Twickenham with a team of 6 part time staff and 15 volunteers, and 4 trustees. Back in 1999, we started out by providing support for those women and men facing unplanned pregnancy and pregnancy loss, and over the years we have expanded into other areas including prison work and schools work. At present we have seen demand for support increase by double and are currently training more volunteers to support our clients. We are also seeing schools relationships becoming more established where we have become the ‘Go-to’ agency for certain schools using us to teach young people and children about many themes including self-harm, boundaries, STI’s, respect, self-esteem, unplanned pregnancies and pregnancy choices, to name a few. For the future, we are looking to do more in the community, and are currently in talks with local community centres to set up SEEN network hubs, where we can teach lessons around healthy relationships to youth groups. Plus, we want to set up listening hubs in these community centres which will give the public more access to our support for pregnancy loss and unplanned pregnancy. Here are some statistics which highlights the need for our work –

45% of pregnancies and 1/3 of births are unplanned in England 1 in 3 women in the UK will have an abortion by the time they are 45 1 in 5 pregnancies end in miscarriage The prison population has risen by 70% in the last 30 years and is currently set to rise by 18,000 by 2026 “A survey of young people found that half rated the sex education that they received as poor or terrible”