When young people reach out for help, Kids Help Phone is there with immediate, 24-hour, anonymous support and information they need. Kids Help Phone is Canada’s only national, toll-free, 24-hour, bilingual and anonymous phone and web counselling, referral and information service for children and youth. Every day, professional counsellors provide immediate, caring support to young people in urban and rural communities across the country. Kids call for help about issues ranging from peer pressure and sexuality to abuse and violence. It’s designed so that kids can contact Kids Help Phone the way they want, when they want and when they are ready.

Kids are looking for help in new and innovative ways and Kids Help Phone is responding. The number of kids helped last year exploded due to the increase in the use of our web services. The online “Help Yourself” services provide kids the opportunity to read questions from other kids in the “Ask a Counsellor” section and benefiting from the counsellors’ responses, view entries to the “Express Yourself” section, and visits to the informational topic library.

Due to the substantial increase in usage of Kids Help Phone’s services by children with the launch of our web counselling services the number of children contacting Kids Help Phone in Atlantic Canada has increased from 44,835 in 2004 to 161,000 contacts in 2005. Atlantic Canada represents approximately 7% of the Canadian population but accounts for 12% of the kids contacting Kids Help Phone.

In 2005, Kids Help Phone helped kids in need from almost 3,000 communities more than 1 million times through our phone and online services.