What it takes to keep the lights on

At any given moment, somewhere in Queensland, a Crisis Support Volunteer is logging into their shift.

There is up to 10 months, or 170 hours, of training. Face-to-face sessions teaching active listening, suicide risk assessment, trauma-informed response. Online modules completed between day jobs and family commitments. Role-plays practising the hardest conversations they may ever have.

Your support helps funds every hour of that preparation.

Then there’s the placement in a Crisis Support Centre. They’re taking real contacts now, but never alone. A trained supervisor is available—someone who knows when backup is needed, who debriefs after the call that hit too close to home.

You make that supervision possible.

But graduation isn’t the end. Every single shift, there’s ongoing support. Clinical oversight. Technology that routes contacts to available volunteers. Backup for the nights when three high-risk calls come in at once.

Debriefing after traumatic contacts. Mental health support for the volunteers. This is what 24/7 actually requires.

When someone calls at 3am, they don’t see the machinery behind the voice that answers. They don’t know about the months of training, the supervisor on standby, the technology connecting them. They just hear someone who’s calm, present, ready to listen.

But you see it. You understand what it takes.

Your generosity helps power it. Not just the crisis line itself, but everything required to make it possible. To make it sustainable. To make it there when someone needs it.

You’re sustaining the entire architecture of care that ensures when someone reaches out in crisis, they connect with someone prepared, supported, and equipped to help them survive. That’s what it takes to keep the lights on. And you make it possible.

The numbers below aren’t just statistics. They’re lives touched. Crises navigated. Moments when someone in darkness found light.

This is what your generosity made possible through our Queensland Crisis Support Centres between January 2025—October 2025: