Running head: AGENCY PAPER CONTACT LIFELINE

Agency Paper ContactLifeline

Stephanie Davis
Wilmington University

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Mission

The mission of ContactLifeline is to keep people alive and sage, to help them through
crises, and to connect them with relevant community resources. In addition to this mission
statement, the vision of ContactLifeline is a world free of sexual violence, and suicide, a world
that promotes healthy self-care and healthy relationships, and a world that offers a connection for
people to seek help and resources.
Demographic Information
In relation to the clients who are served with this organization, there is a varied
population. ContactLifeline offers sexual assault services to survivors as well as crisis response
services for individuals who are experiencing a wide variety of crisis including suicide
intervention.
There is not a lot of data that talks about the income demographic of those who use the
services of ContactLifeline. This is due to the anonymous nature of the organization. However,
there are ways that this can be assessed through the crisis calls if the volunteer is able to pick up
through the conversation. For example, a caller may say that they are homeless or unemployed
and that is checked off in the iCarol system.
Policies and Procedures
There are a lot of policies and procedures that volunteers need to be aware of to properly
work with the clients of ContactLifeline. While all volunteers are trained in even the little
policies, there are policies which are prioritized higher.
The first of the higher policies is what is considered the golden rule. This is that thou
shalt not give advice. It is important that when the volunteers and staff are dealing with the
clients who are calling the crisis line, or the sexual assault victims that they are not giving advice

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on what that person should do. Instead, the volunteers are given tools that would turn the advice
into open ended questions that would enable the caller to make the decisions that are right for
them.
Another policy that is important is to maintain confidentiality at all times. In a state that
is as small as Delaware people often can piece together who is being talked about. For that
reason all volunteers are required to sign a confidentiality statement at the start of their training
that anything they hear in the organization will remain confidential. This ensures that
ContactLifeline; which has been around for over 40 years, maintains their trusted status within
the community. Playing with confidentiality, only volunteers and staff are normally allowed to
be in the building. It is discouraged for listeners to have any visitors and those not related to
ContactLifeline are not allowed in the phone room and the phone room door remains closed at all
times.
Structure

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The structure of ContactLifeline is there is a Board of Directors, the Executive Director,

Sexual Assault Network of Delaware (SAND) Coordinator, Volunteer Coordinator, Sexual
Assault After Care Counselor and the Sexual Assault Victim Advocate Coordinator. The
Executive Director also sits of the Board of Directors.
There are two office locations in Delaware. One is located in Brandywine, New Castle
County and one office is located in Milford which services Kent and Sussex County. The New
Castle County office does not handle sexual assault response and the Milford office does not
handle crisis phone lines primarily.
Governance
The Executive Director (ED) is the primary overseer of the daily operations within the
organization. Each section reports to the ED as to the status of their section and any issues
that may need to be addressed.
The Volunteer Coordinator and the Sexual Assault Network of Delaware Coordinator
(SAND) work in conjunction with each other to screen and train new crisis line volunteers in
New Castle County. The Sexual Assault Response Victim Advocate Coordinator and the Sexual
Assault after Care Counselor work in conjunction with each other to screen the sexual assault
volunteers in Kent and Sussex County.
Funding
The primary funding source for ContactLifeline are grants received from banks and other
organizations. There are many challenges faced with this process. ContactLifeline deals not
only sexual assault, but primarily other crisis situations. However, there are very limited grants
that are distributed dealing with suicide intervention. To help with this process, whenever any
call can be linked to sexual assault it is annotated in iCarol for reporting purposes. Many of the

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callers who reach out to ContactLifeline experienced sexual assault at some point in their life. If
it is discussed at all in the call then it is annotated.
Relationship to other Agencies
ContactLifeline works with a lot of outside agencies. Some of the agencies have an
official Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in which ContactLifeline is required to answer
their crisis phone calls and make referrals. One of these organizations are the Survivors of Abuse
in Recovery (SOAR). Another organization which has a MOU with ContactLifeline is the
National Suicide Prevention Line (NSPL). With the NSPL callers will first be routed to a line in
their local area based on area code from phone they are calling. If there is no answer on that line
it is rerouted to the next line. The purpose of this is so that a caller in crisis is never routed to
voicemail.
ContactLifeline also has partnerships with organizations that do not have official MOUs
for crisis services, though there are MOUs to outline the partnership. These organizations
include the Delaware National Guard, Dover Air Force Base, the local law enforcement, the
Domestic Violence Coalition and the Sexual Assault Network of Delaware.

Strengths, Trends & Challenges

As with any organization, there are strengths and challenges that can be found with
ContactLifeline. Some of these are unique to the type of organization that ContactLifeline is, a
crisis intervention provider. Some of these can be found within many non-crisis organizations.
A strength that ContactLifeline has is that it has serviced Delaware for over 40 years.
This adds a level of continuity to the community. In that time there has been a lot of transitions

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to the services provided, but there has always been a base. The longevity of the organization
allows for a lot of trust in those seeking services.
Another strength of ContactLifeline is that they work with a lot of other community
organizations. As is seen with a lot of Human Services organizations, funding and resources can
become limited. Building a good partnership allows for all organizations to maximize their
resources to provide clients the best services possible.
A challenge that ContactLifeline is often presented with is maintaining a good volunteer
base. Recently a volunteer from the very first training class retired at the age of 93 after having
served over 40 years with ContactLifeline. This is not an occurrence that happens often.
Instead, it is hard to maintain volunteers who start the training class. An example is the last
training class started with 14 volunteers and ended with only seven. The reason for this can vary.
Sometimes people find that they have personal issues they need to deal with before they can help
other people with their issues. Other times it is scheduling conflicts.
Interns Role
The role of the intern at ContactLifeline seems to vary based on the skills and
background of the individual intern. Interns are used to not only complete four crisis line shifts
or a total of 16 hours each month, but also in an administrative role.
As an intern I came into the organization with a lot of experience dealing with sexual
assault victims as well as suicide intervention I have been used to assist with a lot of planning for
Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) in April. I have also been used to research awards for
volunteers who have been with ContactLifeline for a long period of time.
As an intern I am also used to assist with the training class of new volunteers. I had
previously volunteered as a Sexual Assault Response volunteer I had completed the required

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organization training. Using my previous organization experience as well as my experience from

being a National Guard Sexual Assault Victim Advocate Coordinator I was able to assist with the
training. This primarily was to assess how the volunteers were progressing with their role
playing.
Other interns at the undergraduate level are not required to do much, if any,
administrative work within the organization. They are able to get the majority of the hours
complete on the crisis line. However, the opportunity is also extended to these interns to allow
them to participate in community engagement activities.

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Reference

ContactLifeline www.contactlifeline.org