- While the UK has been on lockdown, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have been making regular appearances on video call engagements.
- On Wednesday, Prince William and Kate Middleton hosted a Zoom call with volunteers for the charity they co-founded a year ago, Shout, which is the UK’s first 24/7 crisis text line.
- “You guys are the trailblazers, you have been doing a fantastic job keeping Shout moving forward, so well done and thank you for all your hard work,” Prince William said to responders.
- Shout was initially a shared effort between the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
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Over the past year, the crisis text line co-created by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge has facilitated some 300,000 conversations with users in need of urgent mental and emotional support.
Shout85258, which is informally referred to as “Shout,” is the UK’s first support line available 24/7 over text.
On Wednesday, in honor of the one-year anniversary of Shout’s inception, Prince William and Kate Middleton hosted a video call via Zoom to honor its responders.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge spoke with the charity’s Chief Executive, Victoria Hornby, and five crisis text line responders: Jo Booth, Kiel McPhilips, Michelle Fernandes, Jo Irwin, and Alexis Caught, according to a Kensington Palace press release.
"You guys are the trailblazers, you have been doing a fantastic job keeping Shout moving forward, so well done and thank you for all your hard work," Prince William told volunteers during the video conference. "We really appreciate it."
A video recording that shows portions of the Duke and Duchess' conversation with Shout responders is available on the organization's Instagram page.
Users who contact the Shout line most frequently raise issues including suicide, depression, anxiety, relationships, loneliness, and self-harm, according to Kensington Palace, and 2/3 of the conversations during the text line's first year of service were from users aged 25 and under.
Shout volunteer Alexis Caught told Prince William and Kate Middleton on the video call that the line's services are more vital than ever.
"The unique support that Shout is able to provide to people in crisis is crucial at all times," Caught said. "But now more than ever it can serve as a lifeline to those most in need - whatever they're going through, big or small. Without the hundreds of volunteers who give up their time to provide help and reassurance to others, the service simply wouldn't be able to function."
Since UK's lockdown was announced in March, Shout's 1,800 volunteers have responded to nearly 6,000 text conversations, Hornby explained during the video conference with the royal couple.
"In twelve months Shout has become a vital service for thousands of people across the UK who are able to text our volunteers for support, wherever and whenever they need it," Hornby said on the video call.
Hornby continued: "We have seen during the COVID-19 lockdown how young people find it incredibly useful to have a neutral person to listen confidentially to their worries and give independent support, we now want even more people to text 85258, whatever their crisis."
A Shout volunteer hosted a rare Instagram takeover of Kensington Palace's account on Saturday
In honor of Shout's one-year anniversary, volunteer Alexis Caught, who also spoke on the Duke and Duchess' video conference, answered questions about the text line via Kensington Palace's Instagram story on Saturday.
It's the first time an outside organization has partnered with an official royal Instagram social media account in this way, according to Kensington Palace representatives.
Shout was originally a joint effort between the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle
Prince William and Kate Middleton co-founded Shout with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in May 2019.
Prior to Shout's launch, the two couples spent nearly six months planning the organization's concept.
Shout is supported by the Royal Foundation, a charity that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge once shared with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
In June 2019, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle split from the foundation to start their own charitable foundation, which some royal experts said may have signaled a rift between the couples months before the Sussexes announced their move to completely step back from royal duties.
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