Volunteering During a Pandemic- C. Powell

During the month of November, I continued my work with the Crisis Textline.  Due to the upcoming holidays, there are usually spikes in the number of texters that use the text-line and the added impacts of COVID-19 this year means that there will likely be even higher numbers of people texting in due to the higher stress levels and impacts that living through a pandemic can have on a person. I conducted most of my volunteer hours after Thanksgiving and I saw extremely high numbers of people waiting to speak to a crisis counselor, along with extensive waiting times.  Most of my time this month was helping people come up with coping mechanisms or plans to deal with feelings of loneliness or relationship issues that are exacerbated at the moment due to the holiday season and social isolation caused by COVID-19.  This has become one of my favorite volunteer activities because it truly helps me learn how to assist someone in creating their own solutions rather than me just sayi...

This month I opted to continue my work with the Crisis Textline and completed another four hours of volunteer work with this organization. As a reminder from my post from September, the Crisis Textline is an organization that works to provide aid to those that feel like they are in crisis.  This organization defines a crisis as anything that our texter feels is a crisis, this allows us to work with people going through a wide range of difficulties in life.  This month I worked with people who were going through a topic that I had yet to work with anyone on yet. The impacts of living in a pandemic. Although people across the world have felt the impacts of COVID-19 it was a different experience to try and help someone cope with a situation where isolation is a key part of remaining healthy. I was able to relate to this texter on a different level then I have with many other texters, sure I have related to those who also experience anxiety and depression, but there were always fa...