Last year we launched the largest ever survey of people living with vitiligo in the UK. A very important strategy that emerged from the conversations with our community was the need to be able to talk to someone about the condition and the challenges they face. Speaking freely about vitiligo, finding a wider community of people with vitiligo where things related to vitiligo can be discussed provides a hugely important opportunity to learn from others and relate to their experiences. Those who had already been involved in support groups reported improvements in different areas of their life, including stress and anxiety management and self-esteem.

As a result of these findings we have recently been awarded a small lottery grant of £19,995 to help us facilitate people in our community to connect in others their local areas. You can read about the first pilot in-person group here, run by two of our incredible Ambassadors from the #Let’sTalkVitiligo Campaign: https://vitiligosociety.org/vitlife/new-vi-tea-ligo-adventure-in-manchester/ 

This project will build on learning from our current online group and help expand our work in the following ways:

We have a lot of work to do to get this project ready for launch including arranging the relevant public liability cover for groups; updating our safeguarding processes; updating our volunteer recruitment and training processes; and putting in place Local Leader support resources. So please be patient with us as we want to make sure everyone is fully trained and supported, ensuring that Local Leaders and future group participants are all kept safe.

We hope to launch this new programme in 2025, so if you think you’d be interested in being a Local Leader then please complete our volunteer application form. We’ll be in touch with more details early 2025 when we are ready to launch.