Lifeline New England North West will be the beneficiary of a rare, two-year partnership with Toyota Australia at the Toyota Country Music Festival, Tamworth. The success of the charity partnership at this years festival has paved the way for Lifeline and Toyota to continue working together bringing Lifeline Crisis Supporters to Tamworth.
The Toyota and Lifeline Partnership at the 2024 festival will fund the training of Crisis Supporters in Tamworth who will answer the 13 11 14 crisis line locally. Thanks to the Toyota Partnership and local community support, Lifeline now has a temporary crisis support call centre located in Peel Street. The centre is currently being fitted with lines to the national 13 11 14 service and crisis supporter work-stations are being installed.
The temporary space will be in operation until Tamworth’s new, purpose-built Lifeline hub located on Country Road is complete.
Toyota Australia Chief Marketing Officer, Vin Naidoo, said that Toyota is incredibly proud to be partnering with Lifeline New England North West at the 2024 Toyota Country Music Festival for the second year.
“The support Lifeline provides is essential and it’s fantastic to see how the sales of Toyota hats and pins from this year’s festival has helped fund the opening of the temporary crisis support call centre in Tamworth.”
“The hats and pins are an iconic part of the summer festival, and all funds raised go directly to Lifeline New England North West to help fund such a critical project and strengthen the local community. We encourage all festival goers to visit the ToyotaZone during the festival to show their support to Lifeline."
Lifeline’s General Manager in the region, Michael Were said the continued support from Toyota outlines just how important Lifeline’s 13 11 14 crisis line is to Australian people.
“Lifeline receives more than one-million calls every year from Australians needing to talk – on average 3000 calls a day. The work we are doing in Tamworth will train local people to be crisis supporters in their community while saving Australian lives through the Lifeline crisis line.
‘In partnership with Toyota Australia, Festival goers will be able to support Lifeline when they purchase the popular Festival souvenir hats and pins.'
‘We’re excited to be planning a whole raft of fundraising activities including the iconic ‘even cowboys/cowgirls get the blues’ t-shirts and our second Concert for Lifeline held in the Park as part of the opening night celebrations.
“The support for Lifeline in Tamworth is tangible. Tamworth Regional Council, local business, community groups and media are helping us to raise the funds we need to get this service off the ground. There is a genuine drive to train local people and create a Lifeline community in Tamworth.
“With the current cost-of-living, housing stress and need for mental health services, Lifeline’s crisis line is seeing a higher demand than ever before.
‘In order to answer all of these calls we need to continue growing our team of crisis supporters across the country. We’re proud to be part of the Tamworth community … we’re here to stay and grow mental health services in this region.
‘Importantly, all funds raised through the Toyota Partnership will remain local. We’re very grateful to Toyota and Tamworth Country Music Festival for their tremendous support and backing for this life-changing service, Mr Were said.
Lifeline Tamworth Background
Lifeline has secured philanthropic support for a purpose-built centre to be constructed in Tamworth’s new business park in 2023. This building will become a hub for training Lifeline volunteers who will answer calls from people in distress all over Australia.
It is common for our crisis supporters to receive calls where a person is anxious, depressed, worried, suicidal or in a threatening domestic situation. The training is comprehensive, the trainee takes their first call under supervision after three months of training, and the total training program takes approximately 9 months to complete.
Lifeline exists so that no person in Australia faces their darkest moments alone.
Lifeline’s services are free and include our 13 11 14 crisis line as well as text and video chat, video counselling, face-to-face counselling and education and training around mental health.
24/7 access to Crisis Support
- Lifeline Crisis Line - 13 11 14
- Text – 0477 13 11 14
- Chat - lifeline.org.au/crisis-chat
For local services - Click here
Lifeline is Australia’s leading suicide prevention service, operating the 24-hour crisis telephone line 13 11 14 (pronounced thirteen eleven fourteen), text and web chat services from 41 centres around the nation. The service expects to respond to over one million requests for support this year, creating an average of 120 safety plans to keep a person experiencing suicidal ideation safe every day.