The following message was taken from www.hopeline.com ::
1-800-SUICIDE marks its tenth anniversary this year. It was founded in 1998 by Reese Butler in memory of his wife, Kristin who had committed suicide. The Kristin Brooks Hope Center has helped almost three million callers connect to help and hope.
As they enter their second decade of service to the public, continued support is needed to ensure that the confidentiality of every caller is protected. Because they are totally privately funded, they need to prove to the government that they are capable of supporting 1-800-SUICIDE to keep control of the line from being taken over by the federal government.
The money you donate will not only be used to pay the phone bill that connects about 50,000 callers each month to the Hopeline Network, but will also be used to pay for training of online crisis counselors who will provide the same support via online counseling. This is where the young people of today reach out for help. The success of 1-800-SUICIDE is based on individuals in crisis knowing that any personal identifiable information is kept strictly confidential.
The Hope Center’s volunteer staff and Board remain committed to preserving confidential suicide prevention programs. Your action today assures their sustainability!
The Kristin Brooks Hope Center and its national 1-800-SUICIDE hotline is a great asset to our society – one of those private-sector initiatives called a “point of light.” For reasons of their own, certain officials within the government tried to snuff that light. With your help and support together we can prevent that tragedy from occurring and help the Hopeline achieve success in liberating 1-800-SUICIDE from government control permanently.
I don’t really have anything to say except that life is different for everyone, and everyone deserves to live. The Hopeline gives second chances, and it saves lives everyday. It’s a cause that’s really important to me, so please look into it and see how you can help. There will be post sometime soon on To Write Love On Her Arms as a follow up.
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Hi. I’m writing from The Jed Foundation which works nationally to reduce the rate of suicide and the prevalence of emotional distress among college and university students. We are presenting The Jerry Greenspan Student Voice of Mental Health Award for college students who have had mental health issues like the one’s you write about on your site and wanted for you to help spread the word.
The award is for a video on their experiences with mental health issues and how they are working to raise awareness and encourage their peers on the issue. The award includes a $2,000 scholarship, a trip to NYC to our annual gala in June 2009, recognition through our site and events and possibly appearing on MTVU. The info is on our site (link below).
We are interested in having you post the information on your blog. We are also interested in having folks write about the importance of doing work like this and show casing, if you will, this award we are presenting.
Thank you so much for your time and feel free to email me. I’d like to talk further about how we can work together.
http://jedfoundation.org/programs/student-voice-of-mental-health-award
Eman Rimawi
Comment by Eman Rimawi January 15, 2009 @ 4:47 pm