Humans of Lifeline —Chair, Lifeline Australia
Jacinta Munro
“I want people to know "Lifeline is there. It's anonymous. And it's for you".“
What would you like people to know about Lifeline?
First of all, I want people to know “Lifeline is there. It's anonymous. And it's for you”.
The second is how important all our volunteers are to Lifeline. The best part of my job, and I'm smiling because I don't get paid for it, but I call it my job, is meeting and speaking with our volunteers.
I was interviewed in the middle of Marvel Stadium at the Western Bulldogs Mental Health Round in August last year. A volunteer and her family had also been chosen to walk out and toss the coin before the bounce. I got to meet her and her family beforehand. I got to understand why she does what she does and why she volunteers her time to talk to people in crisis.
I had the honour of reopening our newly renovated Geelong Lifeline Centre. I was called on to unveil the plaque and make a speech. Meeting the people that volunteer for Lifeline, they are amazing. They truly are.
I appreciate and value what they do so much. It's a tough job to pick up the phone and talk to somebody in crisis. Day after day, and still turn up for more and more shifts. They're the two messages I would tell people about Lifeline.
I think about being the shy country who girl came to Melbourne, and if you'd said to me thirty years ago: You will have the confidence to stand in the middle of Marvel Stadium and be interviewed on the big screen, I would've said you've got the wrong girl. But you don't go from zero to a hundred right away: It's a journey of a thousand miles, and you take it one step at a time.
Human Stories
The Humans of Lifeline
These Humans support lifeline in their own unique way, to ensure that no person in Australia has to face their darkest moments alone.
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