On May 17th Youthline will be celebrating the fourth annual international helpline day run by Child Helpline International (CHI).

This year it will align with world telecommunications and information society day with the theme: reaching more children with information communications technologies.

Youthline spokesperson, Stephen Bell says this theme is very appropriate as adapting is the key if we are to continue helping young people effectively.

‘We realised some time ago that we can’t sit back and let young people come to us- we need to meet them where they are and the obvious thing to do was introduce text and online counselling to our services’, he says.

This philosophy seems to be working, with the youth development organisation receiving over 200,000 text messages last year, exceeding the number of calls to the helpline.

With text messaging and online mediums relatively untouched, Youthline is seen as a global leader, even presenting case studies overseas.

‘It’s fantastic that the rest of the world is following suit- last year two of our staff members travelled to South Africa to train helpline representatives on text message support and equip them to establish similar systems in their countries.’

Youthline has also seen the need to upgrade their phone system as it can longer cope with the volume of calls it receives.

With a lot of fundraising the upgrade has now become a reality and will be implemented later this year.

‘The upgrade is just another step in our commitment as an organisation to stay on the cutting edge of research, development and collaboration.

Over the decades the struggles youth face remain relatively unchanged, but the way they reach out will continue to evolve and change and Youthline will be there every step of the way.’

ENDS

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