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 The
InSite: What is Youthline?
Adrian: Youthline is a referral service for young
people. [It's] a program where teens call in and if
they need help for something we can refer them to a place to
go or for someone to talk to. Instead of calling ... and
hearing an older person's voice, they talk to
us [teens].
Jason: Youthline is a youth employment/youth
empowerment program. It is fully run by the youth (16-22
years olds) who we employ. They are extremely dynamic and
well trained. And they are there to provide this really
remarkable service for the youth in San Francisco.
Youthline
is a youth empowerment program.
It is fully run by youth...
TI: How did you get involved, Adrian?
Adrian: My cousin used to work for the agency and
he told me about Youthline.
TI: And it sounded like something you wanted to
do?
Adrian: Not at first! Then as I went through it
and saw what it was, I enjoyed it more and more. I thought,
"Okay! This is also my way of giving back!" You know?
TI: When your friends are in trouble, are you the
person they come to for help?
Adrian: Sometimes. Yes. Not every single problem
but a lot of things, my friends will come and speak to me.
They'll ask my opinion, but I won't always give my opinion.
I'll kind of make them answer their own questions. And then
they'll feel like, "Okay! I helped myself."
TI: Did you learn that at Youthline?
Adrian: Yes. We try to help people make their own
decisions.
We
try to help people make their own decisions.
TI: So when someone calls and says "I'm in this
situation, what should I do?" What do you say to
them?
Adrian: I say, "What do you think you
should do? What are your thoughts on it? What's
been running through your mind?"
TI: [laughing] Well I don't know, man! That's
why I called you!
Adrian: [laughing] I mean you can tell
them. You can make a decision. And I help
them.
 TI:
I'm sure there's a lot of training Youthline Listeners
have to go through. Did part of the training include "role
play" stuff so you could practice what you would do in an
emergency situation?
Adrian: Oh yes! We did a couple of crisis role
plays... suicide.
TI: Suppose someone calls up and says "I feel like
crap. Life isn't worth living and I'm going to kill myself."
What did you practice in your training so that you'd know
what to say in case you ever really got a phone call like
that?
Adrian: First we'd ask them if they had a plan
about killing themselves. And why would they want to kill
themselves? Then we have to talk them down and make them
think "Why?" We'd be asking them why they
would but in their head it would be turning
around slowly. "Well, okay. Maybe I don't want
to do this. Maybe I don't need to do this." And
then after we finish talking to them we ask if they would
like to speak to somebody else because we're not an agency
that can give advice. We don't have the schooling for that,
so we refer people to other places [adult staffed
agencies].
TI: If someone is depressed enough to actually be
thinking of suicide I'm sure it is difficult to get through
to them. But what if that person's on drugs? Doesn't that
make things a lot harder?
Adrian: Yes! You have to say something that will
get that person's attention and keep them focused on you. I
haven't been put in that situation yet, so I don't know...
but I would think that a person on drugs
would probably need something to take their attention.
Because whatever they've taking is probably making a voice
inside their head telling them to do it [killing
themselves] more and more. 'Cause drugs are strong and
maybe it will amp up this feeling. "But wait a minute!
There's this other voice inside of me telling me I
don't want to do it. So what do I do? Do I kill
myself or do I [make the] call?" The person who
[really] doesn't want to kill him/herself is going
to call and be talked down.
So
what do I do?
Do I kill myself or do I [make the ]
call?.
TI: This is very important work you are doing. You
must be really proud.
Adrian: Yes, I am very proud of myself.
TI: Can you tell me more about the Youthline training?
Jason: We invited .... agencies that had expertise
in the area of child abuse, sexual abuse,
gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender issues and questioning
youth issues, suicide. Any type of... crisis call we might
get. And we invited them... to come in and help us with the
training.
Adrian: There was this group called Lyric. They
came here and spoke to us about the gay
and lesbian communities. They were just making us open
minded to other people's problems and differences and not to
prejudge them... so when we hear something on the phone that
we might not agree with we'll keep it to ourselves.
TI: Before you went through this training, did you
consider yourself to be a judgmental person?
Adrian: Yes!
TI: So that must be a hard thing to do, to change
one's attitude.
 Adrian:
Yes, because you're kinda used to going one way and then
it's like, all of a sudden you've gotta pull back and
respect others.
TI: People's attitudes often come from their friends.
So if you personally have gone through this attitude change
and you still have the same friends but their attitudes
haven't changed, what does that do to the
friendship?
Adrian: Really nothing. Because the friends I hold
are my true friends. And just because I don't have an
attitude with somebody that doesn't mean that they dislike
me because this [other] person is gay and I'm cool
with that person. They are my friends. And if a
person is your friend, no matter who you know, they are
going to like you. They're not my friend in the first place
if they don't like me because I'm cool with a gay person.
That's just their sexuality. But friends can
always be friends. You don't have to have a
sexual relationship to be friends with a gay person.
But
friends can always be friends. You don't have to have a
sexual relationship to be friends with a gay
person.
TI: I'm really glad to hear you say that, Adrian. It's
a really good message.
TI: How many hours a week do you work?
Adrian: I work about 12-14 hours a week.
TI: What kind of phone calls do you get?
Adrian: Right now we get a lot of informational
calls. And we have been getting a lot of Spanish
[speaking] calls. Because the Spanish News came in
here. And that kinda helped too. I've gotten a lot of
Spanish [speaking] callers but I had to pass them on
[to other Youthline listeners] because I don't speak
Spanish very well. As the organization gets older the calls
will get harder. Right now we are being boosted so we have
to be pumped for people to understand that it's okay to call
here. People will call after a while. But when something is
new, it doesn't seem to hit right away.
TI: How do people even know about this phone number to
call?
Jason: We launched a huge media campaign. There's
25 posters in the bus shelters around town. There's 10
billboards going up in the next couple of days. There's over
a thousand signs inside buses. There's 50... signs going on
the outside of the buses. And, our own grass-roots outreach
campaign includes t-shirts, plastic info-cards that has
information about Youthline and how to call. We also have
pens and things that we hand out when we go to schools and
community events.
Adrian: A lot of people who know about us are
building up the courage to call.
TI: What kind of change has working with Youthline
made in your personal life, Adrian?
Adrian: It's made me a little more open minded to
certain other people's opinions and to be not so bull-headed
about it. Like "If it's my opinion it's
my opinion and I really don't care what you have
to say! I don't want to listen to it." But now I will listen
because the more you listen, the more information you get.
This training has helped me to realize that if I listen and
not respond so quickly I will understand and I'll be better
to ask better questions and help more people.
TI: Have people around you noticed this change in
you?
Adrian: My mother has and two of my closest
friends have. They're like "Woah! Not so much in your
attitude anymore."
Jason: When you put the power to run things...
when you trust youth enough to take the initiative and take
the leadership role in their community and to support and
empower each other, dynamic and powerful things happen! And
that's the kind of program that Youthline is.
When
you trust youth enough to take the initiative and take
the leadership role in their community and to support
and empower each other, dynamic and powerful things
happen!
Youthline's
hotline: 1-888-977-3399
Visit their website
at: www.chalk.org
For more information write to:
info@chalk.org
Write to Jason: singer@chalk.org
Write to Adrian: adrian-youthline@chalk.org
Other contact info:
CHALK
P.O. Box 192481
San Francisco, CA 941119-2481
Phone: 415-538-8580
Fax: 415-538-8581
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