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Lifeline Waikato provide a valuable service to people in need, but that service is of no use if people don’t know it exists.

However being the chosen recipients of the Community Media Grant, worth $15,000, should go a long way to helping Lifeline get their name out to the public.

The grant is a awarded by partners Hamilton City Council, Community Radio Hamilton and Bettle to a deserving Hamilton community organisation once a year.

The grant gives the organisation access to $15,000 worth of campaign planning, graphic design, advertising and editorial. The idea being that most volunteer organisations have to pour all their funding into the work they do and don’t have any money left over to promote their services to the public.

This is only the second year the grant has been awarded, last year’s recipients were Volunteering Waikato.

Lifeline Waikato is a telephone counselling service which operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Established in 1991, Lifeline Waikato has been providing this free service to the community for 15 years.

“We have trained volunteer telephone counsellors that provide a 24 hour crisis-line and referral service. The key is we are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, if fact every minute of the year,” said Lifeline director Shelley Walker.

“We are basically there to listen and work through the issue with the person. It might be 2.00am in the morning and someone has nobody else to talk to but is feeling really down or stressed”.

Lifeline Waikato cover the Waikato, Thames/Coromandel and Bay of Plenty regions, but Lifeline’s volunteers can answer calls from people all over the country because calls to the 0800 number are forwarded on to the next closest Lifeline office if the local line is busy. Lifeline Waikato has about 70 volunteers and somebody is always in the office answering the phones, there is even a bed in one of the booths for the volunteers on the late shifts.

Last year Lifeline Waikato received about 5200 calls. Ms Walker said they were very grateful for the grant and the chance to make even more people aware of what they offer.

“We are pleased to see Lifeline benefit from the grant this year. At a grassroots level not-for-profit organisations play a huge role community building role in our city,” said Hamilton Mayor Bob Simcock.

“In the past year Lifeline Waikato have experienced a 15 percent increase in helpline call volumes to reach an all-time peak of over 600 calls per month. They are in the unique position of being available to provide a free helping hand to any Hamiltonian at any time, regardless of their background or situation. That universality of Lifeline Waikato’s service means the potential reach of benefits across the whole community is huge,”

Ms Walker said part of the reason their numbers have climbed recently is because of the big jump in male callers they have had in the past few years. “Last year we had a significant increase in our male callers. In 2006/2007 around 29 percent of our callers were male, then last year it jumped to 40 percent and so far this year they make up about 44 percent”.

Ms Walker said she thinks this is due to campaigns like John Kerwin’s depression adverts that make the point that it is OK to seek help, as well a larger number of male volunteers now answering calls for Lifeline. Bettle general manager Aaron Begbie said, “We are excited about the opportunity to work with Lifeline, a not-for-profit organisation that really does make a difference to all areas in the community. A lot of us take for granted that we have a support structure in place for when times get tough but some people are not so lucky and that’s where Lifeline makes such a difference”.

A $25,000 boost for LifeLine Waikato will mean the organisation can offer expanded help and support to young people who find themselves in anguish or at the end of their tether.

The money was raised for the organisation at a charity golf tournament and auction run in October at the Ngaruawahia Golf Course. It was organised by Hamilton man Ken Moran and the manager of the Cock and Bull pub, Paul Gibson.

The two men spent almost a year organising the event, which drew 29 four-person teams. Each team paid $140 for their games, and a number of the holes around the course were sponsored at $300 each.

Shelley Walker, director of LifeLine Waikato, said she was astounded at the generosity of so many people who took part in the day.

“We had all these auction prizes donated to us – mountain bikes, an All Black’s jersey, two Chiefs’ jerseys, heaps of vouchers, even some David Tua memorabilia,” she said. The money is to be used to promote mental health and well-being, with a particular focus on younger people. As well, workshops may be run to help young people cope with anguish, despair, relationship crises or other difficulties in their lives.

“We want young people to realise that it is perfectly o.k. to ask for help if they find they can’t handle a problem, or if things are going badly for them,” she said.

“We want them to feel they can call LifeLine any time, day or night, 24 – 7, and ask for help, no matter what the problem is. They shouldn’t wait until the problem gets to crisis point.”

Ms Walker said this year had seen an almost 60 per cent increase in calls from people seeking help.

“We’ve had a record number of male callers, and in October alone we had more than 250 calls from males,” she said.

“Mainly they’re seeking help with a crisis over a relationship, or else they are having serious financial worries.” Ms Walker said LifeLine was always able to provide help for such people, and the $25,000 boost to the charitable organisation’s funding means it can continue to carry on helping people in difficulty.

Just over 6700 people from around the Waikato region made a phone call to LifeLine Waikato last year, seeking help with a problem.

The number is a 30 per cent increase on the previous year, and one of the most important increases was that 45 per cent of the callers were male, says Shelley Walker, director of LifeLine Waikato.

“We had almost 3000 male callers, which is a huge increase, considering that just two
years ago less than 29 per cent of our callers were male,” she says. “About a third of them wanted to discuss problems with relationships, and a lot of others called in to talk about financial problems. There were considerably more male callers talking about money problems than there were females. “This is a really good indication that men are realising that it is OK to discuss their
problems, and that LifeLine can provide help.”

Shelley Walker says the organisation also took a noticeable increase in Maori callers, with more than 600 phoning in to talk mainly about family problems or difficulties with relationships.

“We also had an increase in the number of calls from both men and women in the 20 to 30-year age group, most of them wanting to discuss relationships, or how to cope with day-to-day stress and life difficulties,” she says. “Perhaps our best result was a 3 per cent decrease in the number of potential suicide callers. Last year we took more than 100 fewer calls.”

Shelley Walker says she believes one of the main reasons LifeLine Waikato was so successful last year is because the organisation was able to raise its public profile through more advertising and media recognition. “It’s good that we can let the world know what we are, how we work, that we are out there 24-7 every day and night of the year, and that it is perfectly OK for people to call us
any time to talk through a problem,” she says.

“We are able to help, and often people just need to talk to someone who will not be judgmental, but who can suggest ways of solving problems.”

She says LifeLine Waikato will take part in the national LifeLine appeal day on Friday, February 19.

“We are also seeking a number of new volunteer counsellors, and we will be holding a volunteer selection day on February 21. We need at least 30 new counsellors and would really like to have 40.”

She says volunteers do not need counselling training or tertiary qualifications, but need to be people who are “non-judgmental and accepting of other people’s struggles”. “Those selected are given 54 hours of counselling training, including micro-counselling, communications skills, and in-depth training on the range of issues callers phone in about.”

She says those wanting to make a donation or ask about counselling work should call Hamilton LifeLine Waikato at 838-0715.

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The application form can be downloaded here(PDF)