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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 Mabry explained that she is
specifically seeking non-student volunteers (age 18 and
up) 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,
Mabry 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 and is offered 3 - 4 times per
year.
For more information and to inquire about training dates,
contact Brittany Morrison at 961-8405 or at
bmabry@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
bmabry@nrvcs.org.
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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 over 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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