The Living Stone Foundation has today been presented with a $196,804 Lotterywest grant by Volunteering Minister Mick Murray, to support the delivery of Lifeline WA’s crisis support.
The Living Stone Foundation was founded in 1986 as a not-for-profit organisation that provided off-air counselling support for callers to pastor and radio personality Graham Mabury’s Nightline program on 6PR.
The foundation started operating Lifeline WA in 1994, using trained volunteers to deliver a 24-hour counselling and support service providing loss and grief support services and counselling.
The Lotterywest grant will fund the fit-out of a new purpose-built training centre for Lifeline WA, which will enable the organisation to train more telephone crisis centre volunteers.
The centre will also be used for community workshops on suicide, mental health and illness, and domestic and family violence.
Lifeline WA trains more than 100 call centre volunteers annually. A total of 184 hours of training is required to prepare a Lifeline WA volunteer to be accredited as a Telephone Crisis Supporter, including an intensive 12-week course and a subsequent 12-month internship.
Lifeline WA currently has 197 volunteer crisis supporters, and its crisis support centre answered more than 33,600 calls in 2019-20: a 12 per cent increase on the previous year.
The number of calls made to Lifeline WA in March and April of this year – the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic – represented a 50 per cent increase compared to the same period last year.
As stated by Volunteering Minister Mick Murray:
“The value of the services provided by Lifeline WA’s Telephone Crisis Support volunteers cannot be measured in dollar terms alone.
“These are people who are making a difference to people’s lives, and often saving lives, every day.
“Being a Telephone Crisis Supporter for Lifeline WA is not something these volunteers do lightly.
“It takes many hours of training and a willingness to help others at a time in their life when they need it the most.
“It’s a huge commitment but, like so many other volunteers I meet, their dedication is incredible and the impact they have on the lives of members of our community cannot be understated.”
