Australian home builder, Henley Properties Group, has extended its partnership with TIACS and TradeMutt, to further grow the provision of mental health support across the nation for tradies and other blue-collar workers. TIACS stands for This Is A Conversation Starter.
What does Henley bring to the expanded alliance?
The extended relationship will see Henley Properties contribute over $120,000 in financial support to TIACS to help aid its much-needed services, funding an additional 1,300 hours of conversations and counselling. TIACS is an industry-funded not-for-profit organisation that provides mental health counselling to Australia’s truckies, tradies, rural and blue-collar workers and those who care about them via confidential chats, texts and callbacks.
The service is free, confidential and delivered by highly trained counsellors who have great experience in working with blue-collar workers. TIACS matches up callers with counsellors that best meet their needs and arranges for them to talk to the same counsellor each time.
TIACS offers phone and text services between the hours of 8am to 10pm, Monday to Friday, nationwide and to date has serviced over 16,000 customers across the country since June 2020, translating to over 14,000 hours of conversations with a return of market services of $2.5 million. It’s worth noting, calls and texts to the chatline are increasing week on week.
Henley Properties Group CEO, Antony Blackshaw said the building and construction industry has faced unprecedented issues due to the impact of COVID. “There has never been a more critical time to help our tradies and team. We are committed to supporting our team, network of tradies and suppliers and our colleagues across the industry and we are proud that our contribution to TIACS will help bring even more support to our industry,” he said.
What does the partnership mean for TIACS?
Head of Partnerships for TIACS, Jason Banks said the donation is one of the biggest contributions to be made to TIACS since its inception in 2020 and solidifies the business’ role as a top tier alliance partner. “Henley is a wonderful supporter of our work at TIACS and TradeMutt helping to share awareness of the free confidential mental health counselling services we provide to workers across the building and construction industry,” Banks said.
“Every year, tradies in the industry continue to struggle with the immense pressures facing the sector which directly impact the personal and professional lives of those working in it.”
“As an industry-funded mental health support line, we need donations to be able to provide our counselling services. Henley Properties Group’s contribution will not only help us to continue to provide our vital services, but it will also enable us to increase the level of services we offer to help more people in need, during a time when they need it most.”
“TradeMutt has been pivotal for tradies and other blue-collar workers to open up about mental health issues. TIACS is now giving them the ability to go one step further and talk to someone with the skills to help them process how they are feeling and take next steps. TradeMutt is a conversation starter and TIACS helps workers to continue the conversation.”
