PIPS Larne gets new local HQ

The move will provide the organisation, which has previously worked on a peripatetic basis in a selection of charity and community group centres, with a physical base from which to support clients.

PIPS Larne is currently fitting out unit five at Stylux Industrial Estate on the Old Glenarm Road, which will function as a treatment centre until the permanent headquarters opens in the old Woodside’s building on Main Street in Spring 2017.

“We hope that the unit will be open and treating clients by this September,” PIPS Larne Chair Carlee Letson revealed.

“We are currently getting the premises fitted but it will include counselling rooms and therapy rooms.

“We previously had an administrative headquarters on Main Street, but this is the first time in PIPS Larne’s history that it will have a physical drop-in and treatment centre. The unit will also house East Antrim’s first charity shop for a suicide prevention organisation.”

Carlee believes the new centre will help the charity provide more centralised care.

“It will mean we are not running around all over the borough to different meeting rooms, and it will be available for the whole of East Antrim to use in a central location,” she continued.

“Anyone who feels suicidal or who has a loved one who needs help can drop in and we will have councillors available.

“We will be able to be more focused and we will take all the fixtures and fittings with us when we move into the Old Woodsides building next year.

“When it opens we will have 1,600 square feet upstairs and the same downstairs, which will contain counselling rooms, therapy rooms, offices and hopefully a training room in a central location.

“Next year is PIPS Larne’s tenth anniversary, and we are very excited at the prospect of celebrating it in our new permanent premises.”

The group is appealing to the public for a second-hand kitchen which will be used in its temporary and permanent premises, and for clothes, furniture and goods for the charity shop which can be collected.

Contact PIPS Larne’s helpline on: 07530 797716 or its admin line on: 07972705564.