About Lifeline South Western Victoria

Our Mission :

We are dedicated to providing free, twenty-four hour counselling, information and referral services to the southwest region of Victoria .We aspire to reliability, courtesy and efficiency in our service provision and are committed to the highest ethical standards. Our service, based on Christian values, is available to any person, any time, for any reason.
We will act at all times with integrity in providing the community with quality services.

Lifeline SWV delivers a range of health and community services within the rural municipalities of Glenelg, Southern Grampians , Moyne and Corangamite and the City of Warrnambool.

The population base for the area is approximately 130,000.

Our Structure

Lifeline South West (Vic) Inc. is one of 42 independent Lifeline Centres operating throughout Australia , linked and accredited through the national organisation of Lifeline Australia.

Lifeline SWV has Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status and attracts broad based, community support for its range of services. With an active volunteer base of over 150 people, Lifeline SWV currently operates:

• A 24 hour-7 day, year round telephone crisis intervention, trauma response, counselling, information and referral service dealing with around 5,000 callers annually
• A Training facility, that provides a range of mental health education and early intervention programs to industry and the community, plus access to Certificate IV in Telephone Counselling
• A multipurpose Access & Resource Centre providing assessment & referral, face to face counselling, a service information hub, support groups and training;
• Six opportunity shops throughout the region that provide the community with low cost second hand goods and clothing;
• A sorting/ recycling Warehouse that processes all donations from the community for the funding of program delivery.

Serving rural communities

Since 1979, Lifeline SWV has delivered 24 hour telephone counselling and crisis support to consumers in the south west of Victoria. Known for its accessibility, Lifeline has good linkages within the human services sector. Able to provide after hours support to agencies that are not staffed on a 24-hour basis, Lifeline ensures that a range of diverse needs can be addressed, or triaged through the 24 hour, 13 11 14 Helpline.

Lifeline Australia's status as a Registered Training Organisation is an initiative that offers enhancement of the knowledge and skills base of rural residents, by providing accredited counselling training to the community at a local level.

In 2004 Lifeline SWV completed regional social research and analysis of community and provider needs. The outcomes of this project were shared to improve knowledge about communities and the services that support them, and to inform future service development.

Lifeline SWV is striving to enhance the sustainability of the rural communities by: 

• Addressing need at a community level in response to evidence-based planning,
• Participating in alliances between agencies and encouraging transparency and communication between service providers,
• Identifying opportunities for strengthening individual, family and community capacity.