TEENAGE HELPLINE RECEIVES SIGNIFICANT FUNDING FROM THE NATIONAL LOTTERY COMMUNITY FUND SECURING THE CHARITY FOR 12 MONTHS

Teenage Helpline is pleased to announce that it has received a significant funding grant to the total of
£31,102 from the National Lottery Community Fund. This funding will secure the services provided by Teenage Helpline for a further 12 months, whilst also affording the charity the opportunity to grow its reach and services further to aid more young people through a difficult time.

Teenage Helpline provides peer-to-peer mentoring support to young people across the UK. Peer mentors at Teenage Helpline have already supported hundreds of young people directly through its mentoring program and are now set to support hundreds more. Whilst Teenage Helpline is not specifically a mental health focused charity, the majority of cases entering the helpline are mental health related (54% of cases are related to mental health as published in the Teenage Helpline 2021 Annual Report). With the current pressure on UK mental health services, especially for young people, at crisis point, the early-intervention support services provided by Teenage Helpline are critically needed. The funding provided by the National Lottery Community Fund will enable Teenage Helpline to continue to do their bit in support of reducing the pressure on the heavily subscribed UK services.

Joshua Towers, Chief Executive Officer and Chairperson of Teenage Helpline says: “This funding from the National Lottery is a great way to demonstrate the trust that others have in what we can achieve as a charity. This funding will not only secure our crucial early intervention support services for the next 12 months but will also enable us to grow Teenage Helpline even further which means we will be able to reach out to more and more young people who are in need of our services. As an organisation, we have come so far, and I continue to be incredibly excited for the future of Teenage Helpline. I founded Teenage Helpline at the age of 14 after struggling with my own difficulties, making it my personal mission to ensure that young people are not left stranded when they need support the most. It pleases me to see that others see the benefit in what we are doing and are providing the vital financial resources to allow us to continue fulfilling our mission to bring young people together and allow them to reach their best potential by ensuring that nothing is holding them back.”

Teenage Helpline operates nationally across the UK and is entirely volunteer run, with a staff base of over 100 volunteers spread remotely across the country. As the charity continues to grow, they will further leverage their Youth Advisory Committee to ensure that the charity grows in the right direction, providing services that are designed with input directly from the demographic that needs them.