Hi everyone!
I've read through the stickied thread about surveys and I believe that what I'm looking for lies outside of those categories.
I'm with a not-for-profit called Crisis Text Line. You guessed it: we're a crisis hotline that operates entirely via text message. And we're huge: we've processed over 6 million texts to date.
I've been assigned the task of determining whether d/Deaf/hard-of-hearing populations would be particularly interested in joining us as crisis counselors. The thinking is that many people with hearing loss do not have the opportunity to work with a typical crisis hotline, but Crisis Text Line is (or will be, when I'm done with it) fully accessible to people who are d/D/HoH (<--- does anyone actually abbreviate it like that or did I just make that up?).
So! I've conducted a handful of interviews and I've gotten some great insights into where I should begin and what improvements definitely need to be made to our training.
What I would love now are:
a.) A sense of what the interest is. How many people here would actually want to be crisis counselors?
b.) Some more specific opinions on the training.
c.) Thoughts on what our competitors in the space are: I know what other hotlines are already doing for users with hearing loss, but what about for the volunteers?
d.) Networking opportunities: If someone here has a connection to a deaf-related organization and wants to be my link, that person would be my hero.
I know I'm asking for a lot of different things and that each one is, in itself, a lot, but any help that anyone here can offer would be just amazing.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Best wishes,
Jared Wolf
I've read through the stickied thread about surveys and I believe that what I'm looking for lies outside of those categories.
I'm with a not-for-profit called Crisis Text Line. You guessed it: we're a crisis hotline that operates entirely via text message. And we're huge: we've processed over 6 million texts to date.
I've been assigned the task of determining whether d/Deaf/hard-of-hearing populations would be particularly interested in joining us as crisis counselors. The thinking is that many people with hearing loss do not have the opportunity to work with a typical crisis hotline, but Crisis Text Line is (or will be, when I'm done with it) fully accessible to people who are d/D/HoH (<--- does anyone actually abbreviate it like that or did I just make that up?).
So! I've conducted a handful of interviews and I've gotten some great insights into where I should begin and what improvements definitely need to be made to our training.
What I would love now are:
a.) A sense of what the interest is. How many people here would actually want to be crisis counselors?
b.) Some more specific opinions on the training.
c.) Thoughts on what our competitors in the space are: I know what other hotlines are already doing for users with hearing loss, but what about for the volunteers?
d.) Networking opportunities: If someone here has a connection to a deaf-related organization and wants to be my link, that person would be my hero.
I know I'm asking for a lot of different things and that each one is, in itself, a lot, but any help that anyone here can offer would be just amazing.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Best wishes,
Jared Wolf