We know the impact of the events of February 28 2022 on homeowners and businesses around Lismore and have only touched on the impact on charities through the reopening of The Salvos store on Carrington Street on September 1st 2022.

It is the turn of national suicide prevention service Lifeline to move back home and celebrate their incredible achievements over the past ten months in extremely difficult circumstances.

If you are not aware, Lifeline's Lismore Call Centre address is 104 Conway Street and, as you can imagine, it was heavily impacted by the megaflood and to a lesser extent the March flood a month later.

Michael Were is the Regional General Manager of Lifeline, as he was showing the Lismore App around the property and the building, Michael showed the height of the water on their building. As time goes by it is easy to forget the volume of water that surged through all parts of our city in the CBD.

Michael's first thought was how can he and his staff continue to provide their critical services to the Northern Rivers community quickly, especially at a time when he knew the volume of calls was about to increase drastically.

Enter CPB Contractors.

"We were looking for a different space around Lismore to set up a temporary facility while our building was out of action. We weren't able to secure anything that was going to work well for us and we started looking for portable site sheds to put in our back carpark but didn't find any luck with actual site sheds themselves. We were working with CPB Contractors, who are friends of lifeline, and they offered us up these mobile site sheds on trailers."

Two semi-trailers delivered the sheds in late March and by early April Lifeline Lismore was operational once again, albeit in unique circumstances.

(Not setup with computers but this is the cramped staff environment for staff since April 2022)

"I'm constantly surprised by the resilience of this town and the community support and the community spirit. I think it's fascinating that of all the stuff that's gone on in Lismore that there's plenty of community members that are putting aside their own challenges and turning up and volunteering for Lifeline and doing a shift on our national crisis line and supporting help seekers all around Australia from two caravans in the back carpark of our Lismore office."

As you would expect, Lifeline did lose some of its volunteers, as they had been personally affected by the natural disaster or were helping family members or friends. However, Michael explained many still had the time and circumstances to continue to volunteer and thankfully they did as calls from people seeking help doubled.

"Unsurprisingly, twice as many people were in crisis and now 12 months on it's still hovering about 50% higher than the months pre-flood last year. So, if you use that as a barometer of crisis, there's still a long way to go for a lot of people and, you know, people call Lifeline for so many different reasons and we know that it's related to financial stress, relationship stress, housing issues, all of that plays into people's well being, so it's unsurprising that so many people are reaching out to help for Lifeline and we want them to continue to do that."

With the increase in the number of calls still coming into Lifeline, there is a need for more volunteers.

"The good news is, with the refurb of our building, we've doubled the capacity," Micael explained. "We've built back better, reshaped the floor plan to allow us to have double the number of crisis supporters on shift at any one time in comparison to pre-flood. So, we've got huge opportunities for people that want to be crisis supporters to participate, to do the training and to become crisis supporters."

(Showing off one of the new call centres, Catherine Toomey is one of many Crisis Support Workers for Lifeline)

"We'll build to that capacity but I think that's really exciting that we've got that available and I think that also recognises our deep commitment to Lismore and the Northern Rivers. We're here to stay. We we love this town, we love being a part of the fabric of this community and we want to keep being there."

For those that have some spare time, and are good listeners with an empathetic personality, Michael says a minimum of 4 hours a fortnight is needed. If that's you get in touch with the team at 104 Conway Street.

"We provide all of the training. It's a training program that's been developed for Lifeline nationally. You don't have to have a specific skill set to to start off with, we can train you. A lot of students, particularly from Southern Cross Uni are involved."

"The training from start to finish is about nine months. So, from the time that you start to the time you take your first call is about three months of training and then you're supervised, so there is somebody holding your hand the whole way through. From the time that you start to the time that you're fully accredited is about nine months"

All being equal, Michael says his team should be operating from the Conway Street building today.

(Catherine Toomey (left), receptionist Kate Welch and Michael Were in the new foyer area in Conway Street)

"The caravans have been officially turned off. We had to stop work in the caravans to finish off the electrical and communications. So that's all been put into the building and there's lots of tech guys running around at the moment trying to get all that finished. So, fingers crossed our first official calls will come through here in the morning."

Conway Street is only one of Lifeline's buildings in Lismore. They also have three retail locations, one on Magellan Street, the furniture shop and warehouse on Three Chain Road and the old church on Casino Street, South Lismore.

"We are really excited to reopen our stores in Lismore, and obviously it's been a challenge, like most businesses around Lismore trying to rebuild."

"So, Magellan Street. I don't have an official date yet, but we're talking weeks and not months until that reopens and we're really excited about that."

"We're still working on the furniture shop and warehouse with the property owner to get that to a point where we're ready to be able to go back into that building. There's no imminent date on that one, there's still a bit of work to go there."

"Many people in Lismore and the Northern Rivers would have loved our shop on Casino Street in South Lismore. There are lots of people that have fond memories and the uniqueness of that shop. Sadly, we're not in a position to bring that shop back. The property owner made the difficult decision that they weren't going to repair the building after the floods. We're aware it's currently for sale. So we've exited out of the lease on that building, unfortunately. But we are hopeful that some of those unique features of that store can be implemented into Magellan Street."

"We hope that the loyal shoppers that really loved that store in South Lismore will check us out in Magellan Street downtown."