‘Who’s Calling?’ Childline: supporting young people in Ireland

This year Westlife are helping the ISPCC’s Childline service to launch it’s “Who’s Calling” awareness initiative, the aim of which is to highlight the difficulties with which Ireland’s children are contacting the society. Young people are able to contact the service for a wide range of reasons; 63 per cent of calls from children were about their personal life. This can cover a lot of topics such as school, bereavement, and mental health issues. Childline is accessible to all children and young people throughout Mayo and Ireland. The ISPCC’s staff call to various schools throughout the county making as many as possible aware of the service, and indeed the various means of accessing it.

Childline has spent the last 22 years listening to and supporting children and young people in Mayo and throughout Ireland. It is able to continue this work through the hard work of its dedicated volunteers and staff.

At the end of the last decade, 2009 saw Childline answer 815,708 calls — an increase of 150,000 on 2008. Volunteers and staff are continuing to answer more than 60 per cent of these calls.

Last year will also be remembered for other reasons as the year when our nation’s shocking history of child abuse was brought to light and families everywhere were faced with unforeseen hardship and uncertainty. This impacted on the type of calls to Childline, which saw an 11 per cent rise in calls relating to abuse and welfare.

Childline’s regional office which is located in Castlebar was opened in March 2009. It was recently announced that the unit answered 9,626 calls alone last year. These calls are answered by a volunteer base of 25 which is growing and expanding who are trained to listen and support children and young people.

Childline is just one of the services which the ISPCC offers to children and young people. Childline seeks to empower and support children using the medium of telecommunications and information technology. A web based service is available at www.childline.ie and its text service can be contacted by texting ‘Talk’ to 50101.

The young person can decide what he/she wants to talk about. Young people do not have to give their name so there are no consequences to making a call — they are always in control. And, because Childline is non-problem focused, it is OK to call for a chat.

The ISPCC/Childline relies on the general public for 90 per cent of its funding. However a lot of calls still go unanswered. Volunteering can be a way of learning new skills or putting skills you already have to use.

As we start in to a new decade, let’s all play our part and make sure this decade is one to remember for the right reasons. And in this special week where Westlife are announced as the first ambassadors, Childline asks you to think about how you too can help out. This may be through volunteering, advocacy, or fundraising. Every little bit helps.

 

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