Lifeline Central West received $30,000 earlier this week as a result of Orange Ex Services Club Grants Program of 2020 Category 1.

“Orange Ex Services Club has been instrumental in the whole history of Lifeline Central West,” explained Lifeline Central West CEO Stephanie Robinson, “We actually started in an outbuilding on the premises of the Club. For our entire history they has been involved in supporting our operations, and have been incredibly generous supporters of our work, I actually don’t know if we would be here without them to be honest.”

Unbeknown to many, the Orange Lifeline centre does not receive funding from Lifeline Australia, so, for the team to operate and be present within our community, they need just that.. the support from our community.

Stephanie continued, “Each year we have been lucky to receive from Club Grants, it supports the work that we do here, from our face-to-face counselling, to our Rapid Community Support Program, and all of the community work that we do.”

The Rapid Community support program is a relatively new program, it is about responding to critical incidents in communities, whether it be accidents, suicides, or any incident that causes significant distress within the community, the team are available as a free service.

“Lifeline has taken more calls, in its 58-year history in January even, every month we get more calls than ever, really since the bushfires. 3,395 calls were our largest call volume in January.

“Obviously to meet that increase in calls we need to recruit more volunteers; it actually costs significant money to train a volunteer, so money goes towards that and running that service. We can proudly say that despite all of the challenges of COVID19, many centres had to reduce their operations because they were not COVID safe, we were really lucky to have our centres continue to operate.

“I’m always so proud of our centres, in the giant scheme of things we aren’t giant centres, yet we really punch above our weight, so it’s something to be incredibly proud of.”

Orange Ex Services President, Graham Gentles added, “We’ve been supporting Lifeline since 1984. The association has been built over many years with Alex Ferguson, and a of more recent years, since Stephanie Robinson has been elevated to the role of CEO.

“It’s their interaction with our Club and the way are driven in the community that keeps that association active.”

Last year alone, Orange Ex Services Club gave the community $107,000 through Club Grants.

“That’s the reason we look after the community,” Graham added, “We have a huge community involvement, both through the ethics and obligations we have through our Ex-Servicemen Association, our community is fairly important in what we do as the majority of the residents in Orange are members of our Club.

Across the board of Orange Ex Services Club, it has always been a commitment from both our present and previous boards, that community engagement is something that we really support and look forward to.”

Applications are now open to apply for Club Grants, head to www.oesc.com.au and follow the link to ‘Club Grants’.
If anyone is struggling, please utilise the Lifeline Service, crisis support is open 24/7, call 13 11 14.