Long Island Crisis Center Expands Services

For more than 30 years, the Long Island Crisis Center has been headquartered in Bellmore with its 24-hour, seven-day a week telephone crisis hotline and teams of highly trained counselors. Its reach, however, extends far beyond this South Shore hamlet, where this counseling, referral, and support organization has been recognized for its live-saving initiatives and advocacy for Long Island's underserved and disenfranchised population.

"We've always been innovative," said Linda Leonard, executive director of LICC. "We're aware of trends and problems in the community before traditional agencies address and develop services."

During the holidays, many would believe that this crisis center would be deluged with telephone calls from residents seeking to relieve stress and solve family issues. "The number of our calls does not go up," said Theresa Buhse, assistant director of LICC. "However, the nature of the calls is exaggerated." Buhse said that their calls reflect that the holidays can amplify a person's loneliness or depression. "If a person has had a death in the family, the holiday will bring back those feelings of loss and make it more apparent, especially if they have no one to shop for," she said. "People feel that they should always be happy during the holidays and this provides even more stress."

This year, said Buhse, the center is receiving more calls with a financial aspect. "People are calling because of the recession, stressed because they don't have money to buy gifts, or they are out of work, having their home foreclosed upon, or perhaps in need of affordable housing," said Buhse. The team of counselors offers referrals for housing and foreclosure assistance.

LICC's team of counselors goes through extensive training, more than any other agency in the country, according to Leonard. The organization requires more than 250 hours of training over nine to 12 months. Each volunteer is then required to give back the 250 hours and must make crisis intervention a part of their lives.

"What we teach is not taught in college," said Leonard. "Our volunteers have to purge themselves of their own agenda and focus on our caller's problem and give them alternate choices."

Although the crisis center serves Long Island, its initiatives have been copied all over the country. LICC provided housing for Nassau's homeless in the 1970s before homelessness was recognized. The group's online counseling service started in 1999, which functions through a live online chat, was the first in the nation and possibly the world, explained Leonard.

In its 30 years, LICC has grown to include various services. Its 24/7 crisis hotlines include coverage for seven different programs. The Pride for Youth division, started in 1994, provides counseling, advocacy, and education for young gay and lesbian youth. The Street Outreach Project takes crisis intervention onto the road to at-risk neighborhoods to help runaway homeless youth and gang prevention. Recently, the organization launched the Look Closer Campaign in collaboration with the Nicole Schiffman Foundation in which teens can watch webisodes about young people and the issues they face growing up on Long Island. Every Friday night, the organization operates a community coffee house in Bellmore for gay and lesbian youth where they mix entertainment with HIV protection in a highly-supervised setting.

Today, LICC is besieged with its own funding problems. "Our funding has decreased," said Leonard. "It puts us terribly in jeopardy. Our private donations decreased as well."

Only some of the funding from Nassau County was restored.

To help with funding and promote its services, LICC held a walk-a-thon in Long Beach this past fall. On Oct. 25 the first Let's Walk, Let's Talk: Stepping Together to Prevent Suicide walk was held on the Long Beach Boardwalk. Over 200 walkers spent the day walking in which over $12,000 was raised for critical suicide counseling services provided by LICC, through online fundraising as well as day-of support.

"We hope to do another walk next year in Long Beach," said Leonard, "and a new walk in Glen Cove as well. It helps to de-stigmatize suicide and raise awareness of our services."

LICC is located at 2740 Martin Ave. in Bellmore. For more information, call 826-0244 or visit www.licconline.org.