“Our volunteers come from all walks of life. We have housewives; architects; students; childcare workers; business owners; the list goes on! Each volunteer commits a minimum of four hours each week to the ISPCC. Before going on-line each volunteer is fully trained. Volunteers commit to the service for a minimum of two years, although, in the cork unit, we have been lucky enough to have people who have volunteered with us for over 9 years.”

“If we are to reach our target of answering 100% of calls by 2011, we need to increase the number of volunteers we have. In 2007, Childline answered 294,898 calls; the total number of calls the service received was 634,000. Childline is 20 years old in 2008 and to mark this we are embarking on an ambitious but necessary five-year plan,” Ms Terry added

Childline also provides an automated text support service, a Teen text service and a website as well as Teenfocus—a mentoring and counselling service for 13 to 18 year olds who are at risk of misusing drugs and alcohol or are experiencing challenges at home, in school or finding it hard to cope.

“In order to fund these services, the ISPCC in Limerick has a very active fundraising team which holds many events throughout the year. This summer everyone is also encouraged to host a Centra Childline Big BBQ to raise funds for Childline,” she said.

If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Meadhbh Terry or Suzanne Slattery on 061-400077/88 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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