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Crisis Center offers 24-hour
support
By Jamie Teibel
Summer
Editor
Friends or family are often looked to for advice
and problem solving, but sometimes a stranger can be more helpful or
more readily available.
"We are here 24 hours a day, no matter what," said
Cheryl Ubelhor, executive director of the Lafayette Crisis Center. "If
a person needs to talk about something that is troubling them, if they
need help solving problems, we know how to intervene and assess."
The Crisis Center got its start on Purdue's campus
in 1970. After a group of students and professors felt the community
needed a listening line. They found that people called 24 hours a day
about anything and everything. So, for the past 30 years, the Crisis
Center has been helping the community around the clock with family,
relationship, work and school problems.
"We have a long history of helping people, services
are free and it's as easy as picking up the phone," said Ubelhor. "Volunteers
are well trained, they really know what they are doing, they really
know how to help people. I've seen that what we do works."
The Crisis Center offers a varieties of programs
to the community — a crisis line (742-0244), a teen line (423-1827),
walk-in service, support groups, rape survivor advocacy, 24-hour advocates
to take phone calls and talks held around Lafayette to provide information
and provoke action.
Ubelhor said that the volunteers help with two
main needs: the first is relationship issues, the second is environmental
— shelter for the night, food for families and/or paying bills.
Volunteers are trained in active listening, problem solving, emergency
assessment and intervention, suicide prevention and providing referrals.
"We have to be able to take our (problems) and put them aside," she
said.
Ubelhor added that 60 percent of the funding for
the Crisis Center comes from United Way, the rest comes from fundraisers,
donations and grants from Lafayette and West Lafayette. "We really rely
on the community, it's all local. We're really proud of (the fact) that
we don't get help from state or federal governments; it tells me that
they want us to be here."
Kim Brown, a senior in the School of Liberal Arts,
is a volunteer at the Crisis Center, "It's a wonderful experience,"
she said. "(The Crisis Center) gives people the chance to talk to someone
anonymously, lets them make their own decision and come up with the
best option for themselves." Brown continued to say that she would use
the service because it is nice to be able to talk to someone who is
not a part of the situation, as a friend or family member might be.
The Lafayette Crisis Center is located at 1244
North 15th Street in Lafayette. For information call 742-0247.
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BMV
relocates branch in Market Square
Crisis
Center offers 24-hour support
CITY DESK PHONE:
(765) 743-1111
ext. 250
To
send a letter to the editor, please email opinions@purdueexponent.org
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