CONTACT Altoona is a nonprofit organization of Blair County that helps people in need 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The organization’s phones are manned by volunteers trained to listen and help callers with problems. Now CONTACT Altoona needs help because it is short of volunteers.
“We’re a 24-hour helpline for people to call into us that are lonely, alone, depressed, that type of thing,” said Roxanne Barr, administrative assistant at CONTACT Altoona. “But we also have another service called our reassurance service where we call individuals that we have made previous arrangements with them or a member of their family that we can call them at a designated time each day to remind them to take medication, to check on them to make sure they’re okay, that they haven’t fallen or injured themselves.”
Volunteers are trained to answer the phones and help to answer questions, lend a caring ear, help identify problems, and point the caller in the right direction. The volunteer is the link to community resources and human services in Blair County for the caller. Examples of calls received are when someone needs help, is lonely, grieving or depressed. The caller could be an adult or child. The problem could be addiction, abuse, illness or contemplation of suicide.
“We have all kinds of people who call in,” said Barr. “We have also information and referral service. People call in and ask us can you find the number for someone, or who would help me in this area, or different areas like housing needs. We have a thick book from the County that has referral services, and we can check online to get information to give to people.”
The 24 hour a day, seven day a week phone service includes a telephone helpline where volunteers listen to people who call in. There is an information and referral line where volunteers help callers locate needed services. Also, there are reassurance calls where volunteers call the elderly or shut-ins to make sure they are okay.
If anyone is interested in becoming a volunteer, the next training course starts March 1 at the East End United Methodist Church. Call CONTACT Altoona at 946-0531 for more information.
This course will train volunteers in what to say and how to help in crisis situations, drug and alcohol problems, shut-ins, ill or disabled, sexual identity problems, grief stricken, lonely or depressed or suicidal callers.
“We start out with basic listening skills and tell basic information about the organization,” said Barr of the classes. “Listening is our main focus that we teach people that they don’t realize that they don’t do very well. And then we go into more depth on mental illness, grief and loss, advanced listening skills, dealing with difficult callers. We do have some specialists in the area that come in and talk about crisis intervention and local resources that we have.
“We have great volunteers. We have a lot of retired people volunteer, but we have working moms, we have several gentlemen that volunteer that are retired that can give time during the week. Right now we have 75 volunteers. We usually need 90-100 to cover four hour shifts. We ask that they fulfill eight hours a month, which would be two working shifts.”
Also, the helpline is available for anyone who wishes to call. It is free of charge and confidential. The number for the helpline is 946-9050. For additional service like reassurance calls to provide contact with the elderly or shut-ins to make sure they’re okay, call 946-0531.
“We try train our volunteers to be good listeners,” said Barr. “Because of that we’ve been able to help people in our community.”
