Childline, the 24 hour freefone active listening service for children and young people, is seeking volunteers.
The ISPCC service, which received 604 calls on Christmas Day, will hold an information evening on Tuesday from 7pm to 8.30pm at the Galway Centre for Independent Living, Town Park Centre, Tuam Road, Galway.
A spokesperson for the organisation which supports children/young people experiencing bullying, pregnancy, abuse and mental health issues, says it provides a vital service but needs more volunteers to keep pace with demand.
“No matter where the young person is they can always talk to Childline. However sometimes it can take a while to get through which leads to the young person hanging up. In order to increase accessibility for young people we really need more volunteers to give time to this service.
“The Childline service received 604 calls on Christmas Day, highlighting the sense of loneliness and isolation experienced by some children at this time. It also received 42 contacts to its automated text support service and 125 texts on its one-to-one text support service. The Childline website had 50 visitors and four children and young people posted questions to the online message board www.childline.ie Two children also engaged with Childline’s new one-to-one live chat service.”
In 2007 Childline answered almost 300,000 calls - the total number the service received was 634,000, explains the spokesperson.
“If we are to reach our target of answering 100 per cent of calls by 2011 we need to increase the number of volunteers we have.”
People interested in becoming volunteers should attend the information evening or telephone Marie Keeley at (091 ) 752387 or email mariekeeley.ispcc @gmail.com
