1970’s – Carole Jones, a local disabled woman, set up a service from her own home to give advice to disabled people and carers as no such service existed.
1981 – DIAL West Lancashire was established as a charitable Trust.
1987 – Obtained core funding from Lancashire County Council & moved into Skelmersdale Library.
1992 – A part-time development worker recruited, via a three-year RADAR grant and DIAL West Lancashire renamed the West Lancs Disability Helpline due to confusion with DIAL A RIDE.
1993 – Launch of the home visiting form-filling service for housebound disabled people and core funding secured from West Lancashire Borough Council.
1994 – Helpline becomes the first group in Lancashire to meet Access Lancashire's Core Standards.
1995 – Obtained core funding from Joint Finance, making the development worker full-time.
1996 - Part-time secretary recruited to help meet rising demands and a partnership formed with the Association for the Mentally Infirm and Elderly for fund-raising assistance.
1997 – The Helpline dealt with 1,097 enquiries and generated £250,000 welfare benefits income for clients in need.
1998 – Recruitment of a part-time information officer via a three-year Lloyds TSB Foundation grant.
1999 – Moved into shop front premises via a three-year Northern Rock Foundation grant and a new in-house computer-based enquiry software system installed.
2000 – Strategy Day held to produce a new three-year Business Plan formulated by new manager.
2001 – Award of three-year £132,189 Community Fund grant and recruitment of two welfare benefits advisers.
2002 – Twenty-first Anniversary celebration, outreach launch and achievement of the Community Legal Services Quality Mark at General Help Level comprising disability and welfare benefits case work.
2003 - The Helpline was featured seventeen times on Granada Action on TV and was the first organisation in the UK to be awarded the DIAL UK Quality Mark; the last of the former Business Plan’s objectives was achieved.
2004 – Launch of new three-year Business Plan, award of a new £257,909 Big Lottery Fund grant for new staff and achievement of the disability symbol (fourth quality mark).
2005 – Video conferencing project launched with the personal tuition of Noel Edmonds and start of Alternative Office pilot with the Department for Work and Pensions.
2006 - Nomination for the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service and twenty-fifth Anniversary celebration; third bid submitted to the Big Lottery Fund for a five-year £500,000 sustainability project.
2007 - Awarded £500,000 from the Big Lottery Fund under the Advice Plus scheme – for five years – about £100,000 a year. Not only part securing the paid staff’s jobs for the next five years, this also provided the money to recruit two new part-time welfare benefits advisers. A part of this bid was the setting up of three new outreaches.
2008 - Moved to Whelmar House.
2009 - Our new project "Client-led, Volunteer-Focused," is launched, funded by a three-year £42,950 SCOPE bid to maximise our volunteer capacity. Only one application from every eleven was successful and we were one of those funded.