High Hopes Pinned on Dancing with the Stars Funds

Youth charity, Youthline say they will use funds raised from Dancing with the Stars to begin a project to increase text access to youth help services.

Megan Alatini, chose Youthline as her charity and will be competing in the final on Tuesday on TV1 at 8.30 pm, where every text and phone vote Mshe receives will help raise funds for Youthline.

Youthline receives hundreds of texts per month from young people who pay their normal text fee to reach Youthline.

Youthline says they would like to make texting the service free to allow more young people to be connected with support and predict this could easily treble the number of texts received.

Youthline National Spokesperson Stephen Bell says the charity has wanted to increase text access for a long time and plans to allocate funds raised from Dancing with the Stars to help “kick start” the project.

“We feel so fortunate that Megan chose to support young people and are so proud of what she is doing for Youthline. “We just hope that the public will keep supporting Megan and young people by voting for her tomorrow.”

Youthline have been working with young people since 1970 and provide a range of services in ten centres across the country, including their 24/7 youth help line, text and email counselling, online services, youth information, seminars in schools, youth leadership programmes and professional-level training.

Viewers can vote for Megan by phoning 0900 89 812 or texting Megan to 8981.