Caring Contact, the Westfield-based crisis hotline and listening community, recently celebrated its volunteer listeners and other supporters at its 42nd Annual Volunteer Recognition Night, held in March at Ferraro’s of WestfieldIn addition to thanking their more than 100 volunteer listeners, Caring Contact also recognized four volunteers for milestones and welcomed its newest listeners. The hotline also recognized nonlistening volunteers, such as board members, fundraisers and marketers.
Caring Contact is an award-winning, volunteer-staffed caring and crisis hotline and listening community, providing active listening support and best-in-class training to the Central and Northern New Jersey community. More than 100 trained volunteer listeners answered nearly 9,000 calls last year from people in crisis, having suicidal thoughts or simply feeling depressed and lonely.
Dayle Moore of Westfield and Kristal Ras of Westfield were welcomed as two of Caring Contact’s newest listeners. Moore spent 55 years as a nurse and found she was bored after retiring. She tried delivering meals on wheels and teaching literacy classes to adults but did not feel fulfilled, she said. She volunteered at Caring Contact and has been on the phones since June, averaging about 20 hours per month.
“The part of nursing I loved the most was afterward when I could talk to the patients one-on-one,” she said. “I feel that’s what I’m getting now. It’s very rewarding. When I listen and talk to the callers, I feel I can help them. I’m 76 years old and I have a lot of empathy inside. Sometimes when my shift is over I want to keep going because it’s so rewarding.”
Ras is a part-time hair stylist and college student studying forensic psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She also has been on the phones since June and averages eight hours per month, with an eye toward more.
“Mental illness runs in my family,” she said. “Any way I can help, to be there and listen to someone in a time of need is more meaningful than I can say. It’s very rewarding. If I have a week I’m not actually on the lines, I miss it.”
Hotline volunteers come from all age groups and backgrounds, including retirees, those working in a wide variety of careers and college students.
Listeners are given 52 hours of training in empathetic and nonjudgmental active listening and mental health issues and attend a two-day intensive session on suicide intervention called ASIST, or Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training. Training is followed by an internship on the lines with experienced listeners.
Anyone interested in volunteering at Caring Contact, either as a listener or in some other capacity, should visit http://caringcontact.org/give-support/volunteer. If you are in crisis and need someone to listen, call us at 908-232-2880. To learn more, visitwww.caringcontact.org.
(above l-r) Ashley Bambo volunteer manager at
crisis hotline Caring Contact, welcomes Westfield residents Dayle Moore and Kristal Ras, two of the hotline’s newest volunteer listeners.
(above l-r) James Stewart, Jim Lenox, and Robert John of Westfield, were recognized for reaching 2,000, 1,100 and 1,300 hours on the lines, respectively, as volunteer listeners. John also serves as president of the hotline’s board of directors. In addition, Caring Contact posthumously honored former listener Edna Nash for her more than 1,000 hours on the lines over her decade of volunteering.
