Youthline Auckland

Youthline has been supporting young people and working with communities for over 49 years. We are a “with youth, for youth” organisation and the first point of contact for many young people accessing youth development and support services across Aotearoa New Zealand. Youthline is recognised as “the number one organisation for youth to reach out to for help” with 71% being aware of Youthline alone (Colmar Brunton 2019). We are a respected and trusted frontline service which has changed the lives of many people who have reached out in their time of need.

The Youthline Helpline is at the heart of the work we do. Youthline Auckland is the backbone organisation for the national, free Helpline working in collaboration with the five other Youthline organisations operating across the country. Our Helpline is staffed by over 250 volunteer counsellors supported by paid Triage and Clinical Support staff. We managed over 270,000 contacts to our Helpline in 2019. 25% of young people and their friends have contact us (Colmar Brunton 2019). 1 in 4 texts we receive from young people continue to be around depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicide with 1 in 5 texts being around suicide.

The direct cost of the Helpline is $792,000 per year. We receive $90,000 from Oranga Tamariki and have to fundraise the balance, $1million, each year to keep it running.