Crisis Text Line and its partners around the world have trained over 100,000 volunteers to date. In a recent large-scale study on volunteer impact, we found that the benefits of volunteering as a crisis counselor go far beyond the positive effect on the lives of our texters.

We live in a world where every other person you know will face a mental health challenge at some point in their lives. That’s billions of people struggling and in need of support. 

The harsh reality is that we don’t have enough mental health workers, and that traditional systems simply cannot train and grow the workforce fast enough to meet today’s demand.

The challenge before us is monumental.

We are facing an urgent need for innovative solutions to ensure that every individual has access to the mental health support they deserve.

Over the past decade, Crisis Text Line, in the US, and our partners: Kids Help Phone in Canada, Shout in the U.K, and spunout in Ireland have been using text messaging to support over 6 million people in a broad range of mental health and emotional crises over the course of 14 million conversations. 

To do this, we have trained over 100,000 volunteers collectively to support people. Volunteers do so from the comfort of their homes, using computers to support people in their darkest moments. 

We now know that the impact of our crisis volunteer experience goes far beyond supporting texters directly on our platform. 

We recently partnered with our international affiliates to survey over 3,100 of our remote crisis volunteers in four different countries. What we learned far exceeded our expectations. We  discovered that the experience of training and serving as an online crisis volunteer not only helps texters, but profoundly impacts our volunteers and the people around them – in their families, workplaces and communities.  

Key Insights:

1. Our volunteers prevent crises in their own communities. For every crisis our volunteers support on the platform, we’ve learned that they prevent at least one in their own communities – because they have the skills to recognize and de-escalate crises among their friends, families, and coworkers. By being equipped to handle these tough situations, they’re creating a ripple effect of care and support that extends into their everyday lives.
2. Our volunteers are shaping the future of the mental health workforce. Half of our volunteers say that volunteering has inspired them to change careers. And, half of our volunteers say that volunteering helped them secure employment or gain admission to educational programs. Their dedication to helping others is not only transforming lives but also opening doors to new opportunitiesIn the mental health industry.
3. Our volunteers believe that their training and the experience of helping other people in crisis improves their own well-being. They feel better equipped to take care of their own mental health. They find it easier to form new connections and deepen existing relationships with friends, families, and coworkers. 

We’ve never wanted to be just a revolving door of a mental health emergency room. We are committed to being part of the solution. This study has proven to us that our volunteers are contributing to this vision, not only through their support of texters on the platform, but also in their everyday lives.