Agency - 2-1-1 Hotline

2-1-1 Hotline is a 24-hour general counseling, crisis intervention, and information and referral line. We are dedicated to helping people access the help that they need.

Description:
The volunteer and paid staff of 2-1-1 Hotline work to empower each and every caller. By helping people help themselves, we help callers to find the skills to manage and cope with life stresses. By keeping the community resource database up to date, we can link callers to appropriate resources.

The 2-1-1 Hotline also answer calls for Charleston Department of Social Services (Protective Services) after-hours, Berkeley Community Mental Health after-hours, Darkness To Light and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

Our newest pilot initiative helps to staff the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline's crisis chat portal. This training is offered in addition to our phone counseling training.

History:
2-1-1 Hotline has a long history in the Charleston, Dorchester and Berkeley county area. The hotline has been around since 1970, created by a group of volunteers who wanted to offer emotional support and a bridge to resources to those in crisis.

Trident United Way's 2-1-1 Hotline is now accessible by simply dialing 2-1-1. By adopting this simple number, we reduce the stigma of reaching out for help and offer a centralized community resource database option.

Contact person: Philip Smith, Volunteer Manager, (phone), (email)

Address:

P.O. Box 63305 N. Charleston, SC 29419

Miscellaneous Information

General information about volunteer opportunities
	Phone counselor - help us staff the hotline and chat Administrative support - help us with a variety of office tasks. This can be database maintenance, data entry, general typing and filing, training, social events, social media, recruitment, outreach, etc.
Training/orientation
	Training for the phones and chat is held 3 times a year. The training consists of classroom training covering general counseling skills and crisis intervention skills. Once the classroom training is completed, trainees move on to the phone room training where they learn the phone and computer system, policies and procedures, etc.
Minimum age to volunteer
	Minimum age to volunteer is 18.
Volunteer requirements
	none.