The creative cycle: receiving and giving help in a black and minority ethnic counselling service

Purpose - This paper seeks to provide an overview of Mothertongue, a multi-ethnic counselling service which offers volunteering opportunities for people from a range of black and minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds. The paper aims to explore the roles that volunteers occupy, the ways these have changed over the life of the organisation, and the ways in which they provide opportunities for social inclusion. Design/methodology/approach - The paper provides a descriptive account of the project with discussion of the challenges the organisation has faced during its development. Findings - Mothertongue provides a safe community space for individuals in distress to try out a range of activities and roles through its volunteering opportunities; and to move between dependency, independence, and the ability to offer support to others. The volunteering opportunities promote social inclusion for both clients and volunteers - offering possibilities to meet with people from a wide range of cultures. Originality/value - There are limited expositions of the ways in which a BME counselling service can develop a non-clinical volunteering arm which develops people's often undervalued skills of bilingualism.