Childline Gibraltar Helpline

Keeping children safe from abuse

Every year, more than 600 people call the Childline Gibraltar Helpline. Many are children feeling scared about things happening in their lives. Others are adults worried about a child’s safety. They all need to talk to someone they can trust.

We’ve partnered with Childline Gibraltar since 2009, awarding a series of grants to cover their core costs, as well as coaching and mentoring for staff and a theatre workshop for young people.

We became a major sponsor of their Helpline, awarding up to £10,000 a year, for seven years, to make sure there’s always someone there when a child needs support.

Childline Gibraltar’s free telephone and live chat helpline service is available every day between 5pm and 9pm and takes more than 600 calls a year.
In 2017/18, 40% of contacts were concerns about mental health and 30% were about children being abused.
The charity also offers a support service for adult victims of childhood abuse and a 24/7 ‘appropriate adult’ service for young people who’ve been detained by the police.

Coaching and mentoring

Staff training is essential to help charities grow and develop. Through the Kusuma Trust Coaching and Mentoring Award, Childline employees had six Skype sessions with Directory of Social Change trainers and a bespoke one-day, face-to-face training. The training sessions covered topics such as working with volunteers, project management and how to develop a fundraising strategy.

Theatre workshop

Childline hosted theatre workshops tackling family breakdown and emotional abuse – 378 pupils attended over the six-day programme. We also funded two practitioner workshops for professionals who work with young people, to develop their skills when dealing with family breakdown and emotional issues.

Before we gave our final grant in 2017/18, we worked with Childline to develop their future fundraising plans.

“Thank you for replying to me. It really means the world to me that you want to help. Recently, I told a close friend about my feelings and he has been really supportive. If I had not contacted Childline, I never would have known what else to do or where to turn to. Thank you so much.”

Childline Gibraltar user