Caring Contact
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Mission Statement
Caring Contact is an award-winning, volunteer-staffed caring and crisis hotline and listening community. We provide active listening support and best-in-class education to the central and northern New Jersey community.
About This Cause
Caring Contact’s activities fall into 3 major areas: Listening: Caring Contact has responded to calls to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline since 2005. We answer calls from Bergen, Essex, Middlesex, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, and Union Counties in New Jersey. We also answer a non-emergency warm line. Our services are available to anyone, anonymous and confidential, 365 days a year. In 2023 we answered 8,693 crisis calls and almost 10,000 warm line calls. We will answer over 13,000 crisis calls in 2024. For most of our history, Caring Contact Listeners came to our call center to answer calls. Now, over 1/3 of our volunteers take calls from their homes using special WIFI phones, while the remainder continue to listen from our call center. Most of our Listeners are volunteers while about 1/4 are paid part-time crisis center staff. Training: Our volunteers complete a rigorous 11-week training, certification in ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training), and 24 hours of live call center training prior to being certified as a Caring Contact Listener. The training is hybrid with some sessions in person and others held on Zoom. The call center training is held on site in Westfield, NJ. Training sessions are held Spring and Fall. Supporting: Organizations and individuals come to us to learn more about caring for others in emotional pain. We provide training and education tailored to the needs of each group and can hold sessions either online or in person. As of 7/1/24, we have interacted with 10,500 youth and adults this year, bringing increased awareness of the warmline and the 988 Lifeline, as well as in-depth training in suicide awareness and intervention, to schools and organizations throughout our service area. Contributions to Caring Contact support our Listeners, ensuring that they are providing the life-saving support needed by so many.