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Raft celebrates 40th anniversary!
Volunteers, alumni and members of the community gathered
on December 3 to celebrate he 40th
Anniversary of the Raft Hotline! The event provided an
opportunity to recognize Raft volunteers for the literally
hundreds of thousands of hours they have given
selflessly to a countless number of citizens in crisis.
Click here to view a
gallery of photos from the event.
Raft seeking community
volunteers
The Raft Crisis Hotline, a free service offering suicide
intervention, empathy and support to residents of the
New River Valley, is currently seeking volunteers from
the community to help with coverage of its phone lines.
Raft is a program of New River Valley Community Services
and has been serving the local community for over forty
years. A majority of the hotline’s volunteers have
traditionally been students at Virginia Tech, but Raft
Hotline Manager Brittany Morrison explained that she is
specifically seeking non-student volunteers that can
offer a diverse mix of knowledge and experiences to help
answer calls. The need for community volunteers becomes
even greater during college breaks, Morrison added, when
many student volunteers are not available.
Volunteers are typically asked to provide coverage
during evening hours and on weekends and in most cases
shifts are limited to two hours. Perspective volunteers
are also screened and must complete a thorough training
before they can take calls. The training is provided at
no cost to volunteers.
Registration for Raft’s spring volunteer training runs
through Friday, February 5. For more information,
contact Brittany Morrison at 961-8405 or at
bmorrison@nrvcs.org.
Calling all Raft alumni!
We are looking
for any and all contacts with former Raft
volunteers—“Raft Alumni”—to set up future Raft
Reunions. If you ARE or KNOW OF any Raft Alumni,
please pass on names, emails, phone numbers and
addresses if you wish by contacting
Brittany Morrison at
bmorrison@nrvcs.org.
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Morrison is new Raft manager
Brittany
Morrison, a native of Lexington, Virginia, and former
Raft volunteer, has been hired as the new manager for
the Crisis Hotline.
Morrison, who began her duties as Raft manager in May,
is a graduate of Virginia Tech with a bachelor's degree
in Sociology, Crime and Deviance concentration, with a
minor in Psychology. She has been employed by New River
Valley Community Services (NRVCS) for the past year as a
Clinical Phone Assessment Case Manager.
With more than a year of experience as a Raft volunteer,
Morrison also completed an internship with the hotline,
working under former manager Sarah Eisenman.
Morrison also has five years of experience in community
and political fundraising, organizing, and event
planning.
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Morrison |
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Other news... |

Freedom First Credit Union contributes to Raft!
Officials with
Freedom First Credit Union present a $5,000.00 check to
the Raft Crisis Hotline in December 2008. Freedom First
has been a long-time supporter of the Hotline. We are
truly grateful for their generous gift! |
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The
Raft Crisis Hotline.
Providing suicide intervention,
empathy and support,
and information and
referral to
residents of the
New River Valley
for nearly 40 years.
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Comments from a recent e-mail:
I just want to comment on Stephanie at Raft. As a phone volunteer she
has proven to have a very sound and wise judgment in working with me,
and has helped me with extraneous issues that affect my mental health,
in a very good way. She is competent and sure of herself and seems to
know what to do when difficult situations arise...
The Raft program is
fantastic. I can call and get psychological help -night or day, when I need it. I
cannot get this needed aid from my counselor, who has normal business
hours. This micro psych fine tuning has helped me make good, solid
decisions over the years and I greatly appreciate it.
I hope you will continue funding this
program and get the word out to the mental health community that this
service exists.
- Seth
Want to
share your thoughts on the Raft Crisis Hotline?
Send us an e-mail! |
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