Pick Up the Phone
I just ran across THIS STORY on the To Write Love on Her Arms band web site. Wow. Take the time to read Renee's story and her quote below.
"The stars are always there but we miss them in the dirt and clouds. We miss them in the storms. Tell them to remember hope. We have hope." (Renee)
Here's what To Write Love on Her Arms is doing:
For the last year, we've been sending money to the Kristin Brooks Hope Center, which is also known as Hopeline and 1-800-SUICIDE. It's been far from a one-sided relationship. These guys have helped us provide suicide prevention training to our entire team, including all of our volunteers. They have shared everything from ideas and information to struggles and dreams, and they've become friends in the process.This post is a port of Watercooler Wednesday hosted by Ethos.
Hopeline was founded by Reese Butler in 1998, after he lost his wife Kristin to suicide. Since that time, the Kristin Brooks Hope Center has provided help to nearly three million callers.
Today, 1-800-SUICIDE is in need of some help of it's own.
PICK UP THE PHONE is a campaign partnership between the communities of To Write Love on Her Arms and PostSecret to provide support for the work of the National Hopeline Network and the Kristin Brooks Hope Center (KBHC).
Over the past decade, the Kristin Brooks Hope Center and 1-800-SUICIDE have helped thousands of people through the Hopeline network. With your support and with the support of TWLOHA and PostSecret, they will be able to continue to provide this assistance, along with the comfort of complete confidentiality.
As a result of the many calls that 1-800-SUICIDE receives every day, and because of a delay in government funding, Hopeline is struggling to pay their phone bill. If this bill is not paid, the government will be allowed to fully take control of 1-800-SUICIDE. Part of what makes Hopeline such a powerful resource is that the calls placed to this number are completely private and confidential. We believe that the responsibility for providing a private and confidential environment in which to find help should remain in the hands of those who had the heart and compassion to begin this work ten years ago.
3 Comments:
Thanks for blogging about this ever important issue. I had no idea about this program and hope they will get their phone bill paid, don't want the government taking over anything else!
July 17, 2008 11:26 AM
Hopeline was the recipient of a 3 year federal grant to run 800-Suicide, after the three years they lost the grant, in part because they were not fiscally responsible. Money given to them to support the line was misapproriated including putting family and friends on the payroll, and buying a car for relative with it.
When the number was in within hours of being shut down because their current phone provider had not received payment in months and learned that they had run up bills at other phone companies and then just switched companies when they threatened to be shut down, your government stepped in and promised to pay the bill if they did not shut it down and offered to process calls to 800-Suicide through the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline's network.
Donate to Hopeline if you want, but realize your dollars are not being used to pay their phone bill, who knows what they do with the money. The Lifeline has been paying the 800-Suicide bill for about a year now.
July 24, 2008 7:32 PM
Anonymous...
I could find no information on your claims anywhere. Can you provide links to this information so that I can update the post?
July 24, 2008 9:53 PM
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