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”.