Affirmations LGBTQ Helpline Off the Hook

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FERNDALE, MI - The AffIrmations community center has ended its helpline program for LGBTQ southeast Michigan residents.

Oakland County 115 reports that Rachel Crandall-Crocker, who has been offering peer counseling for the program for many years, confirmed the program has been discontinued after 27 years.

Affirmations, located at 290 W. Nine Mile Road, remains open, and calls for assistance may be made to the center’s main number, Affirmations said on its website that the welcome desk will field calls at (248) 398-7105, but emergency and helpline-type calls will be directed to a national expert helpline “to provide the best possible service to our community and people in crisis.”

At one point, the hotline received up to 100 calls a month, but the call volume has declined in recent years, Oakland County 115 reported.

According to a 2013 story in Between the Lines, people under 45 used phones less and relied more on texting, live chats and social media as their primary means of communication. A large number of calls came from outside Michigan, which Cass Varner, Affirmations communications director at the time, said prompted the staff to “reevaluate the program as a whole and think more strategically about marketing and outreach.”

The peer counseling hotline was a key part of Affirmations’ programming for many years. It was staffed by individuals who had gone through training by psychologists to deal with young LGBTQ individuals who were considering suicide, according to the report.

» Photo by Hades2k via Flickr / Creative Commons