#FreeToBe

Once you have registered your interest to attend the group, you will continue to receive invites to attend unless you tell us to stop.  We will send you a reminder about the virtual session the week before and the day before its due to take place.

We ask for basic information about you to ensure we are able to keep you and others who attend the group safe.  If there is some information you would prefer not to provide, please email us at info@umbrellacymru.co.uk so we understand the reasons for you not wanting to provide this information.  We’ll want to discuss this with you.  Your safety, and that of others, is most important to us but we also wouldn’t want to exclude anyone so please do get in touch if you have any questions about this.

You can tell us to stop sending you information any time.  The quickest way to do this is by replying to any of the emails we send you and we will take you off the list.  If you would prefer to contact us in a different way, you can do that.  Click HERE for a full list of contact details.

No, we do not need consent from your parent or guardian to attend this group.  We will, however, require ‘in case of emergency’ contact details, and again, this is to ensure we are able to contact someone if it is felt you, or someone else, is at risk of harm.  We will not disclose your attendance at this group to anyone unless the purposes if this disclosure is to keep you or someone else safe.

If you are under the age of 16, we will require parental consent to share photos of you on social media, but it would be your choice if you wished to request this consent from your parent or guardian.

We will use the name and pronouns you would like us to; the ones which reflect your identity.

If you are known by another name and using any other might risk outing you, please let us know so we can keep a record of this.  This is a different question on the registration form for your safety and is in the emergency contact details section.

The main aim of this group is for you to be able to interact with others and to make friends.  We are a non-judgmental and accepting group and there will be a set of rules which you, other members and staff must agree to follow.  This is to ensure our values are upheld and everyone feels safe and supported.  There will be fun activities for you to engage in and also activities which will hopefully increase your knowledge of your rights.  We hope to create positive change as a result of this group and always welcome ideas of how this group can be developed and what is important to you.

We would love to see you, but we also understand how cameras can make people feel and we wouldn’t want anyone to feel uncomfortable or not attend because they don’t feel confident to use their camera.

There is a chat function which will allow you to engage in discussions if you don’t feel confident to engage verbally, but we hope we will be able to build your confidence to do so the more you come to the group.

We do need to know who you are when joining the group with the purpose of keeping you and others safe.  If you choose not to display your name on screen, a member of staff will need to either private message you or take you to a separate ‘virtual room’ to clarify who you are.

We want you to make friends and we encourage members to chat between group sessions.  However, if you feel unsafe or uncomfortable, please let us know as we will act on this.  We are considering a social media chat space for members of the group and welcome opinions as to whether this would be something you would like.

You can join on any device connected to the internet using a browser, but for the best quality experience we recommend a tablet, laptop or desktop (it all looks a bit small on a phone, but you can use one).  A link to access the session will be sent to you in your reminder message before the session.

Everything should work perfectly if you use Chrome, Safari, or Edge.  We do advise you check you have the most up-to-date versions of the browser in your settings before joining.

*The platform is not supported on Internet Explorer.

Yes.  All our services are free to access and always will be.  However, we are a charity and are always seeking new ways to fundraise so if you have any ideas please share them with us.

If you would like to speak to a member of staff during the virtual group, you can send us a private message.  There are various other ways which you can contact us outside of the group and these can be found HERE.

Yes! We would never exclude anyone from accessing any of our groups but as the face to face group receives funding for those living in the Newport and Torfaen area you might find there are higher numbers of people who attend the online group from these areas.