Self Injury Support has received money from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to research the story of how our pioneering service was created by local women in the late 1980s.

Not happy with the medical response to women using self-injury, a group of female activists in Bristol set up their own listening service. Through these women listening to women they were able to learn from service users what support they needed and create the resources that would help. Armed with this knowledge, the staff and volunteers also advocated for women using self-injury in the medical establishment and ultimately changed the way people using self-injury are treated. 

Over the next 12 months volunteers will be helping us interview the founding members of Bristol Crisis Service for Women (the organisation that became Self Injury Support) and digging through our archives to piece together the story of how female activists in Bristol created a groundbreaking service for women in distress.

Get involved

If you have memories to share or would like to help out as a volunteer researcher, please contact our Community History Worker, Rosie Wild, at [email protected]