Volunteers needed to help man 'Childline' phones

The ISPCC in Mullingar is hoping to recruit more volunteers to help operate its "Childline" phone, web and text service for youngsters.Set up locally just last January, there is a core group of about 20 volunteers currently in place - but more are needed says Regional Organiser Laura Gaffney."We don't like to put numbers on it, because we will welcome as many people as we can get," she says.A course for volunteers is to start in early September, and Laura is encouraging anyone else interested in finding out more about the work to contact her."The demand is for volunteers at the moment, for all the helplines," says Laura, adding that these days, some children contact them by text or by email as well - and the volunteers respond in kind."The volunteers would be fully trained to deal with all three methods," she says.The Childline call centre in Mullingar is part of a network of such centres throughout the country. When a child rings into the service, a central operator puts them through to an available "listener" - which means that the calls that the volunteers in Mullingar take can come from children anywhere in the country."We wouldn't know where they're calling from.We have no caller ID, so unless the childl tells us where they're from, we don't know."Volunteers give up four hours a week to work in the centre - and locally, it is manned from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Calls that come in later than that are dealt with by staff at one of the larger centres - Dublin, Cork or Galway, which run overnight shifts."We're not just completely problem-focused," says Laura. "It's the children who decide what they want to talk about. You could have a child that needs to chat because they are lonely, or bored.""It is very satisfying for the volunteers. Of course, probably there are times when they would find it upsetting. But there's huge support in place for volunteers."The economic recession hasn't led to an increase in the number of calls to Childline, but it has certainly led to a change in the type of calls coming in, Laura says."It does show that the recession is having an effect on children. You get calls from children maybe in private schools who are being told by their parents they haven't the funds to keep on sending them to that school, or it could be affecting their pocket money."Volunteers have to be over eighteen. A lot of those who do volunteer are parents themselves - but it's not at all necessary to be a parent to be a Childline volunteer."We're not looking for qualifications: we're just looking for people who can come in with commitment, who are willing to help, willing to listen to these young people, and do the training course and commit to four hours a week."Laura can be contacted at the Childline numberlocally, which is: 9341744.