Self-Injury Awareness Day 2009

Each year, the 1st of March is designated as SIAD around the world. It's a time when we can all come together to help raise awareness about self-injury and self-harm. SIAD has been running for many years, and has become more and more popular in the UK over the last few years, and FirstSigns is proud to lead the UK in self-injury awareness by providing support, information, factsheets and posters for everyone to use.

On this page you will find:

1. Things to do during February;
2. Factsheets to print and distribute;
3. Posters to pin up at work / school / college / uni;
4. Templates for Letters to send to newspapers and radio shows, MPs, doctors and teachers;
5. Our free booklet to download;
6. Guidance for a School / College Self-Injury Policy

Things you can do to raise awareness

Buy Awareness Keyrings and Wristbands from FirstSigns

They're fab, and they don't say 'self-injury' or 'self-harm' on them, so if your friends ask "what's the orange keyring for?" you can just say 'charity' or you can talk about the work FirstSigns does.

• View all Wristbands and Keyrings

Spread the word about this page

www.FirstSigns.org.uk/siad/

• Could you link to this page from your website or blog?
• Could you write a note about this page on Bebo, Facebook, MySpace or your fave Social Networking site?
• Could you email your friends with the link?
• Could you mention this page on your fave Message Board?

'Attend' our SIAD Event on Facebook

It has no 'location' so everyone is free to 'attend' and anyone can invite their friends too!

• View our Event and choose to 'attend'

Join in the SIAD discussions on our Message Board

You don't have to be a member to read and post in this section of our Board, so everyone is free to take part.

• View our message board's SIAD forum

Write for our blog

If you're planning an event for SIAD, *doing your bit* to raise awareness in any way, or have something to say about self-injury awareness, then we want to hear from you! We'll be publishing your SIAD stories on our blog (they'll be published by Jules and you're welcome to remain anonymous).

Email Jules@firstsigns.org.uk and don't forget pictures of your event if you have them (sorry, no photographs of people will be published).

Write a letter

You could use our template letter to write to your MP, your doctor, your school / teacher, your local radio station, your local newspaper, your local TV news, your favourite magazines – the whole media!

Our template letter is also appropriate for email of course.

Template SIAD Letter [RTF / Word; 9KB]

Feel free to mix our letter up, put your own words into it!

Send out / Stick up our Factsheets

Along with the letter (or without) send the appropriate Factsheet to:

1. your parents or guardians; Parents' Factsheet [PDF; 480KB]
2. your school, college or welfare officers at uni; Teachers' Factsheet [PDF; 450KB]
3. your RGN or doctor / psychologist; Healthcare Worker Factsheet [PDF; 600KB]
4. your friends; Friends' Factsheet [PDF; 450KB]
5. the local media;
6. your male friends who self-injure; Males' Factsheet [PDF; 450KB]

Stick up our Posters

Print our posters on A4 paper (or larger if you can) and ask permission to stick them up at your local library, in your school / college / uni and even at work.

Our posters have 'tear-off' bits at the bottom so passers by can take our web address with them.

Each poster is available as a photo and as a PDF - download which ever you prefer, but be aware that each file is quite large and may take some time to download.

1. Break the stigma poster (Hands Version) Photo [.jpg 3.2MB]
   Break the stigma (Hands Version) PDF [3.3MB]
2. Break the stigma poster (Sun Rise Version) Photo [.jpg 2.7MB]
   Break the stigma poster (Sunb Rise Version) PDF [2.8MB]
3. Self-injury doesn't discriminate Photo [.jpg 3.2MB]
   Self-injury doesn't discriminate PDF [3.3MB]
4. We're talking about self-harm Photo [.jpg 3.2MB]
   We're talking about self-harm PDF [3.2MB]
5. What the hell are you on about? Photo [.jpg 3.1MB]
   What the hell are you on about? PDF [3.3MB]
6. Wristbands and Keyrings (Hands Version) Photo [.jpg 3.2MB]
   Wristbands and Keyrings (Hands Version) PDF [3.3MB]
7. Wristbands and Keyrings (Sun Rise Version) Photo [.jpg 2.7MB]
   Wristbands and Keyrings (Sun Rise Version) PDF [2.9MB]

To save a PDF / photo poster, 'right-click' on its link and select 'Save Target As...' and save it to your computer.

Download the FirstSigns SI Awareness Book

It's only 50 odd pages, but it's a handy resource to have around.

FirstSigns Self-Injury Awareness Book - 2nd Edition (Revised) [PDF; 500KB]

For printing on A5 paper, or, two pages per A4.

Help your teachers create a Self-Injury Policy for your School or College

Our guidance document helps headteachers and principles consider what is necessary for a school self-injury policy; it's a very popular document, please download it for your school or college / uni.

Creating a School Self-Injury Policy [PDF; 240KB]

You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open PDFs, which is free from Adobe, and every computer should have it!

All files, programs and downloads within the FirstSigns website have been scanned for virusses, and you are encouraged to scan all files that you download.

You can contact the Directors of FirstSigns from the Directors Page and email FirstSigns on info@firstsigns.org.uk