Presently we have only 9 volunteers on our helpline. Our helpline is the only national Rape Crisis helpline open 365 days a year. This low number of volunteers means most shifts are staffed by only one worker, reducing the capacity of calls we can take per shift by at least half. This is a crucial reduction given the number of separate callers trying to get through during peak times reaches over 100, and the average number of calls able to be answered by one worker per shift is 5. Securing the funding for a round of training in October and then again in April 09 would mean we could raise numbers to a point where each shift is staffed by two support workers. The training costs approximately £2,500 for 12 trainees, including advertising, recruitment, trainers fees, administration, and paperwork. On average 8 trainees pass through to the line. Over the course of two trainings we thus could increase the number of our volunteers by almost 200% and enable approximately 2,000 more survivors per year to access the specialist support and information they deserve.