Naperville’s Collaborative Youth Team has partnered with the national Crisis Text Line to bring to the Naperville area a resource that gives individuals in crisis a new, discrete and familiar way to receive counseling.
Crisis Text Line serves anyone, in any type of crisis, providing access to free, 24/7 support and information via the medium people already use and trust: text. A crisis can be defined as any painful emotion for which you need support, including depression, anxiety, eating disorders, bullying, suicidal thoughts and more.
“The beauty of having an option to text with a trained crisis counselor is that it is already a comfortable medium for communication, and it’s extremely discreet,” said IdaLynn Wenhold, executive director of the Naperville nonprofit KidsMatter, which runs the Collaborative Youth Team. “A student can be texting while sitting across from their peers at lunch or a colleague can text while at their desk at work and no one will know.”
To receive support from trained Crisis Text Line counselors, anyone can text “REACH” to 741741. The support is free, accessible 24/7 and confidential.
Those seeking assistance will be connected to a live volunteer crisis counselor rigorously trained to help people move from an emotionally-overwhelming place to a sense of calm and provide resources when requested.
To date, the Crisis Text Line, a national organization, has answered more than 55 million messages. The organization has over 3,000 trained crisis counselors with strict safeguards and protocols to provide care, safety and confidentiality for each user.
“We are excited to make this a community effort, and we encourage other local agencies to partner with the Collaborative Youth Team and encourage use of this keyword,” said Eirene Leventis, counselor with the Naperville Police Department, which is an active member of the Collaborative Youth Team. “The goal is to help as many people as possible, and increasing awareness of the keyword and encouraging people to use this free service is how we’re going to do that.”
About Crisis Text Line: Crisis Text Line serves anyone, in any type of crisis, providing access to free, 24/7 support and information via the medium people already use and trust: text. For more information, visit www.crisistextline.org.
