Contact Helpline has been serving Central Pennsylvania since 1970 and they are also the PA 211 providers for Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Fulton, Huntington, Juniata, Mifflin, Petty and York.
A friendly voice on the other end of the line for those in need.
Volunteer Linda Hunter, “Contact Helpline provides a human touch. You can search our 211 database and final useful information, but that doesn’t provide the calming voice, the understanding, the compassion.”
Executive Director Christine Marriott is seeing one specific need on the rise, “Housing, housing, housing and housing related issues.”
Contact Helpline is desperately in need of volunteers to help with the increasing number of calls and to offer general assistance around the office. All volunteers and staff who answer calls receive 55 hours of training and help guide callers compassionately and without judgement.
“We are trained to empower the caller. We’re not there to solve the problem. We’re there to facilitate by finding information or just listening compassionately if they are in distress,” explains Hunter.
An average day includes staffing the emotional listening line, PA 211 calls for health and humans services, as well as a teen line and Safe Haven line.
Hunter adds, “Contact Helpline is really important to me because it’s the kind of interaction that we are lacking in society today.”
Services are free, confidential and available 365 days a year.
Biggest Needs
- Contact Helpline’s biggest needs currently are staff and volunteers.
- Monetary Donations
- Volunteers