Q&A: The 'vitally important' work of the Hillsborough Survivors Support Alliance

Peter, for anyone who is not familiar with the Hillsborough Survivors Support Alliance, can you tell us about how the organisation was formed and why?

The Hillsborough Survivors Support Alliance was formed to provide support for survivors who are still struggling to come to terms with what they experienced or witnessed on April 15, 1989 at Hillsborough Stadium. After three decades of fighting for truth and justice, we felt that it was important to provide these services for free to those who need it most.

We are currently the only active support group for those affected by the Hillsborough disaster. Anyone who has already been in touch with the HSA or wishes to reach out can be assured that it will be kept in the strictest of confidence.

Can you tell us more about the work of the HSA and why it’s so important?

We have several active WhatsApp support groups and sub-groups for Hillsborough survivors and those directly affected, from a one-to-one peer support group to a partners’ support group and many more. We are also here for the families of the 97 and have supported several family members and will continue to do so.

Our work is vitally important providing a lifeline for people who often feel they have nobody else to turn to, who understands what they’ve experienced or how they are feeling. To date, over 200 people have accessed our bespoke therapy with amazing results, but we know we haven’t even scratched the surface.

We have a fantastic team of therapists and access to a wider network of therapists and counsellors to provide bespoke therapy for complex PTSD.

We also have an education team, consisting of teachers and headteachers in schools across the Liverpool City Region, who have supported the HSA with an education pack, which is being rolled out in local schools.

The HSA also works with the club’s official charity, LFC Foundation. Can you tell us more about this collaborative work?

Yes, we are working closely with LFC Foundation and leading the support and access to therapy for those who reach out to us.

After the events at the UEFA Champions League final held in Paris in May 2022, we were inundated with messages of distress and concern, so we set up a new WhatsApp support group specifically for this to prevent others being retriggered.

This continued throughout the game and for some time afterwards, and as a result we reached out to LFC Foundation for financial support so we could expand our services further to help more people.

The Foundation was amazing, it let us lead the whole programme, and financially backed us for almost a dozen people to access expert trauma therapy and counselling. Then, working with the FA, it continued to fund therapy for more than a dozen more to access bespoke therapy. We are continuing to work with the Foundation as others reach out for help and support.

The HSA has a very distinctive flag, which many fans may have seen on matchdays. Can you tell us about its design and what it represents?

Many fans will have seen Jay on matchdays with our iconic flag. Our flag is a message of solidarity, unity and support. The flag was designed by several of our members to represent who we are and why we do what we do.

As many will have seen, the central focus is the eternal flame, there are 48 gold beams of light and 48 red beams spreading across the flag. US (Unity is Strength) and a symbol of us, as we matter too. Then the 97th gold underlining above the letters HSA.

Hillsborough Survivors Support Alliance, why not HSSA? Because you can see through our flag and that represents our transparency. The flag back to front shows the H and the A clearly but the S is reversed, therefore showing that there are two sides to the S – Survivors and Support.

Therefore, it represents that Unity is Strength and that as a support group we can achieve anything if we do it together.

What is next for the HSA?

2024 marks the 35th anniversary of Hillsborough and we are hoping to mark it by working together as a city. We aim to bring the whole region together. There are many memorials dotted about Merseyside and we are hoping to arrange a presence at all of them.

We are planning for each of our representatives to read out the names of all 97 innocent victims and say a few words to remember those we lost along the way.

We are also hoping to mark the occasion with a funday walking football tournament in partnership with LFC and the Foundation.

If fans would like to reach out to the HSA for support, what is the best way for them to get in touch?

HSA can be contacted via X @hillsboroughsu1 or our website hsa-us.co.uk. There is also an emergency contact number on the website. We also hold monthly meetings at Anfield or Hotel Anfield, the details are made available on X and our website.

How can fans support the work of the HSA?

HSA is currently a not-for-profit organisation, and completely run by a team of volunteer survivors who have carefully selected some of the best psychotherapists and disaster experts that have a complete understanding of what people have endured over a prolonged period.

We do raffles via X and rely on donations and donated memorabilia for raffle prizes and there are some amazing people hosting fundraising events on our behalf.

We also have wristbands and replica badges of our iconic flag for sale (contact us directly) and Straight Outta Liverpool has a range of HSA T-shirts and hoodies available to purchase.