We began our campaign in November to help to save Simeon Centre Counselling Service.
Since we lost our NHS England funding at the start of this year, we have been searching for new sources of income that would allow us to continue our core aim since we opened in 1999; high-quality talking therapies, free-at-the-point-of-need for the people of Bolton.
Due to the difficult financial climate and cutbacks on services across the UK, it has been a struggle to find sufficient funding to cover our costs. Similar situations across England and Wales have seen a great many counselling charities close in the last couple of years.
Our final effort to raise the income needed was our application to the National Lottery Community Fund, which we expected to hear back from in March 2026. In order to ensure we could remain fully operational until then, we started this GoFundMe campaign to raise the £30k it would cost. However, I am afraid we heard back from the Lottery on Tuesday 16th December to advise our bid was unsuccessful as it is against their policies to replace funding that was previously provided by a statutory body (in our case the NHS).
The funds we have raised so far (£2,665) has meant we were able to remain open through December and ensure we could complete our current client’s full course of sessions. We are now deciding on whether to close down the Simeon Centre at the end of next month.
However, there is still hope that we can raise the £30k needed to ensure we can provide a course of ten sessions to as many as one hundred people between January and March.
We humbly welcome any donations that you can make towards this goal. Any donations made from Tuesday 16th December onwards will be refunded if the decision is made to close the charity sooner rather than later, or we are unable to raise the amount needed.
The text of our initial fundraising campaign is below:
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After 25 years of providing free mental health support to the people of Bolton, we have just weeks to save our service. Without £30,000 by 31 December, the Simeon Centre will close - and over 600 people each year will lose a vital lifeline.
If you live in or around the town, there is a real chance that our work has touched your life in some way - whether directly or through friends, family, colleagues and loved ones who have accessed our service.
Whether you have known us for years or simply value knowing that a place like this exists when life becomes difficult, we are asking for your help now.
Why Simeon Centre Matters
“Since I first started in the process, filling out the application forms through to getting the appointments and completing the sessions, everything was so easy. I felt welcomed and cared for every step of the way. I feel so fulfilled with all the progress I have made, and it is so reassuring that my progress was acknowledged week by week, which was so motivating and helpful. There was a lot of self-reflection that has helped me to develop and adapt the way that I approach and handle situations. Everything was brilliant”.
The evidence speaks for itself:
• 100% of clients felt heard and understood
• 100% felt their counsellor created a safe and supportive environment
• 93.9% were very satisfied with their counselling
• 81.8% made significant progress in the areas they hoped to change
These aren't just statistics - they represent real people finding hope, healing and a way forward.
What Happened?
Until 2024, NHS funding allowed us to do our work effectively and financially securely. However, commissioning changes across England excluded voluntary counselling services, removing our main source of income. The impact has been devastating.
We remain open only because more than 40 counsellors, both qualified and trainee, continue to volunteer their time generously. But they cannot carry the running costs alone.
If we can reach our target of £30,000, we can stay open throughout winter and continue supporting those who have nowhere else to turn, while we await a National Lottery funding bid in March and explore new funding streams to secure the service's future.
Why the Simeon Centre is Different
NHS waiting lists are round the country are incredibly high, with Bolton’s exceeding 1,000 people. Many people can wait months to be assessed, before being offered 6-8 sessions.
The Simeon Centre has consistently offered:
• Quick responses – offers within two days and sessions within weeks, not months
• Free access to counselling at the point of need
• Face-to-face, online and telephone therapy, tailored to the individual - not a one-size-fits-all model
• A minimum of 10 sessions, frequently extended when more support is needed
• A range of modalities - trauma-informed person-centred, CBT and integrative therapies
• Skilled, compassionate counsellors committed to delivering high-quality therapeutic work
• A safe environment where people feel heard, understood and not rushed
What Your Donation Does
Every pound you give goes to keeping this lifeline of care and hope open.
• £35 provides one counselling session - one hour of hope for someone in crisis
• £350 supports someone through a full course of therapy
• £2,500 comfortably keeps our doors open for one week
• £10,000 comfortably ensures a full month of care for our community
Any amount helps protect this space for those who may have nowhere else to turn.
What Happens If We Don't Reach Our Target?
• Bolton loses its main source of immediate, free, longer-term mental health support
• Over 600 people annually will have one less service to turn to
• Extended support for chronic and complex trauma will end
• GPs will lose a trusted referral route
• A vital training pathway for the next generation of counsellors will be gone
• NHS waiting lists of 1,000+ will grow longer still
• A community space that has held people for 25 years will disappear
How You Can Help
You can support Simeon Centre in two ways – Donating and Sharing.
Any amount of donation helps us hugely. Your donation directly funds the running costs that keep our doors open.
Your voice also helps us reach people who may be able to support us. Your share could reach the person who saves us. Spreading word around the community is also key to bringing awareness to what is going on in the mental health landscape locally and nationally, to help counsellors campaign for change.
Time is running out. We have until 31st December 2025.
Everyone deserves access to skilled, compassionate mental health support, no matter their circumstances. Places like Simeon - free, relational and rooted in community - are becoming rarer every year. The impacts of our closure is likely to be felt far beyond the town.
⏰ We have only weeks left to reach our first target. Please donate or share today, and help keep hope, warmth, and understanding alive in Bolton this winter.
The longer that Simeon Centre can remain open, the more chance there is of finding new fundings streams that would secure a long-term future for free counselling in Bolton.
➡️ Donate now to help keep the Simeon Centre open, for yourself, for your community, for Bolton.
➤ Share to spead the word about what is at stake for mental health in Bolton
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Value for money
If each person in the Bolton area gave 50p, our service would be funded for a whole year.
£35 is the average cost of 1 counselling session at Simeon Centre.
£2,500 would comfortably keep the Centre open for 1 week.
£10,000 would comfortably keep the Centre open for 1 month.
Fundraising goals
Our fundraising goals are based around buying us time while also continuing to work with Boltonians who need our support.
Goal 1 - £10,000 - This would comfortably see us through until Christmas. This would be perfect for our clients (many of whom find the festive period to be a challenging time), our volunteers (who would get to see out the remainder of 2025 in this role that they generously provide to the community) and of course our staff.
Goal 2 - £30,000 - This would see us through to February 2026. At this stage, we will find out whether or not our current bid with The National Lottery will proceed. This is a point in time where we will really get a sense of our future options. 3 months is also a significant amount of time for us to have to attempt to source alternative sources of income, and work to make Simeon Centre more sustainable.
Goal 3 - £80,000 - This would allow Simeon Centre to continue operations until August 2026, when we hope to be given a final decision on our National Lottery bid. This is a huge target to aim for, but we know that there are businesses and individuals out there in the local community who will value the work that we do, and may have the resources to help us achieve this goal. Even if the National Lottery bid is not successful, continuing our operations until August 2026 will enable us to continue to support approx. 400 people in Bolton with their mental health. With this much time, we would also be able to really continue to work hard at making the charity sustainable and future-proof, meaning we would not need to ask for further public support, and could instead get our heads down and do amazing work as we have done for the last 25 years.
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Our track record
But do not just take our word for it. Over the years, Simeon Centre has collected a range of data on the impact of our service - which you can see below.
18.6% of the population in Bolton is income deprived and 56.8% of households are deprived in at least one dimension of education, employment, health, and/or housing. While our sessions cost us around £35.00, they are free-at-the-point-of-need for everyone who uses our service.
We offered Step-3 (High-Intensity Counselling) between 2014 and 2024 on behalf of NHS England. This is for moderate to severe common mental health conditions. This covers everything from general anxiety to childhood sexual abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder.
We also offered High-Intensity Counselling to stabilised Step-4 patients. This covers patients who have a severe mental health disorder such as bipolar disorder, personality disorders, and schizophrenia.
We have continued to offer the same service since the end of our NHS England contract in December 2024, with us accepting direct referrals for counselling since August 2024.
The standard offer from NHS Talking Therapies is six sessions. The industry standard is between six to eight sessions. We offer ten with the flexibility to extend on client need.
For example, clients may need more time due to neurodiversity or the severity of their trauma, and we have an ethical commitment to facilitate the best care possible.
70% of our current volunteers are experienced and qualified in at least one theoretical approach. We have nine counsellors trained in multiple approaches.
30% of our current volunteers are with us on placement due to our strong connections with local colleges and universities.
We offer students guidance, mentorship, support in the final years of their multi-year qualifications (e.g. Master’s Degree).
90% of students continue to volunteer with our service beyond qualification due to their community commitment.
Our end-of-counselling-client-evaluations reflects that:
• 100% felt heard and understood
• 100% felt their counsellor created a safe and supportive environment
• 93.9% felt very satisfied with their counselling, with 6.1% feeling satisfied
• 81.8% felt they had made significant progress in their lives, with 18.2% feeling they had made some progress towards their goals
An example of the kind of feedback we receive from clients is:
“I started out only going because my mum wanted me to, but you made me feel very comfortable and understood more than anyone I know. I don’t want to sound dramatic but i genuinely don’t know where I would be if we had not met. I couldn’t recommend you more to anyone considering coming to see you because you are an absolute saint. I also liked that it didn’t feel like regular counselling in the sense we just talk about problems. I felt very listened to and because you understood me so well any suggestions you made didn’t feel like you were trying to problem solve and because of that and other reasons it just made a very safe space for me.”
We have strong link with community organisations across Bolton, and over 45% of the almost 600 referrals received since August 2024 have come from GP’s and Mental Health Practitioners at their surgeries.
We provide counselling to service users of men’s charities, women’s charities, domestic abuse services, young adults between 16-18 years old services, social housing providers, and homeless charities, amongst others.
72% of the population in Bolton are White / White British and account for 85% of patients who receive NHS England counselling. The 28% of the population who are BAME account for just 15% of patients.
Our partnerships with GP’s in BAME communities have meant that 35% of our clients since August 2024 are BAME. 25.5% of our counsellors are also BAME, who have helped us to shape our service based on cultural understanding and sensitivities.
Our BAME counsellors have supported our charity to offer counselling to accommodate for cultural understanding and lived experience. For example, we have seven Muslim counsellors who have agreed to work with Muslim clients who ask to work specifically with a Muslim therapist:
“I am a Muslim female in my thirties. I trained to become a counsellor so I could be there for, especially, women with similar backgrounds of abuse, eldest daughter syndrome, narcissism of others, and relationship problems. I had a mental health breakdown in 2021 and have not been able to share my traumatic past with my family. It wasn’t until a friend signposted me to counselling that I decided to ask for support, and my experiences in therapy led me to decide to become a counsellor myself. I believe everyone should have access to therapy as mental health is as important as physical health.”
One of their Muslim clients has given their feedback after their sessions:
“Since I first started in the process, filling out the application forms through to getting the appointments and completing the sessions, everything was so easy. I felt welcomed and cared for every step of the way. I feel so fulfilled with all the progress I have made, and it is so reassuring that my progress was acknowledged week by week, which was so motivating and helpful. There was a lot of self-reflection that has helped me to develop and adapt the way that I approach and handle situations. Everything was brilliant.”