Teen Lifeline
We were inspired this month to tell you about Teen Lifeline, an organization with a confidential crisis hotline where teens can call or text and talk to someone just like them about their problems. These Peer Counselors receive rigorous and clinician-lead training so that they are able to answer any call from a teen, and help them find hope. Sadly, 1 in 3 of the calls that come over the hotline are from a teen contemplating suicide. However, they find a connection of hope talking to someone their age who can connect with them and understand what they are going through.
Teens in the community learn about Teen Lifeline as a service through prevention education in the form of class room presentations. Students also learn about what warning signs to look for in their friends, and how to develop healthy coping skills and help seeking behaviors. By spreading awareness of Teen Lifeline’s resources, we are able to better reach more teens, and let them know they are not alone.
The Peer Counselors who answer the calls and texts that come through the hotline are volunteers, and undergo 70+ hours of life-skills training on various topics so that they can effectively provide help and hope to the callers, no matter what the reason.
One child is lost to suicide in Arizona every five days. The aftermath of suicide is devastating. It forever changes the family, the neighborhood, school, and the entire community. Without Teen Lifeline’s hotline, prevention education, and life-skills training, troubled teens would suffer in silence when they feel like giving up. Fortunately the community can help make sure there is always a place for teens to turn to, by investing in Teen Lifeline’s life-saving work.
Connections of Hope: an Evening to Celebrate Arizona’s Youth is an impactful and youth-centric event happening on Friday, October 6th at the Montelucia Resort & Spa. It is unique in that the event is centered around teens and the incredible things they are capable of. With an incredible silent and live auction complemented by entertainment by a teen band, and experiences shared from Teen Lifeline Peer Counselors, it is an evening that will have an enormous impact on saving the lives of our precious youth.
Some teens will call or text to talk, others reach out as a last resort. Whatever the reason, teens helping teens is what happens at Teen Lifeline every day.
For more information on how to Save a Life, visit https://teenlifeline.ejoinme.org/savealife2017
For information on Connections of Hope, visit: http://www.teenlifeline.org/hope
