News and Updates from CrisisLink

Spotlight on: 2009: A Look Ahead
Celebrating 40 years: A Message from CrisisLink's Executive Director

Dear Friends,

Happy New Year! 2009 marks CrisisLink's 40th year of service, and now is a time of both challenge and promise for our community and our nation.

As 2009 begins, CrisisLink is doing more than ever to help those in need-our 24/7 Crisis Hotline calls have increased an astonishing +95% these past five years. With your generous support, CrisisLink has expanded to provide 360o services focused on prevention, intervention, and postvention (services for those who have lost a loved one to suicide). Now CrisisLink is on the front lines in this economic crisis, and we're answering more suicide calls than ever in our 40 year history with these calls up +77% over last year.

But we have a lot more in store for 2009.

This month, CrisisLink is launching a major new public awareness campaign-the Friend Campaign-to promote awareness of the 1-800-273-TALK hotline answered by crisis centers like CrisisLink nationwide. We're collaborating on this campaign with the band the Low Stars, who will release their new CD and begin a national tour this spring. To kick-off this campaign, I'm excited to announce CrisisLink has been selected as an official charity of the sold-out All American Inaugural Ball. While the Ball is sold out, I hope you will join us and the Low Stars for some of our other Inaugural events!

Not only are we celebrating our 40th Anniversary in 2009, we are also celebrating the 1st Anniversary of 2-1-1 VIRGINIA in the Northern Region. On February 11th -2/11 of course!-we're hosting a breakfast to highlight how innovative cross-sector and regional collaboration can help stretch and strengthen the safety net to meet dramatically increasing needs here in Northern Virginia.

And on April 22nd, we're planning a grand celebration of CrisisLink's 40th Anniversary and CrisisLink's Volunteers at our 5th Annual Gala and Auction, LinkUp & Listen. LinkUp & Listen will be more than a celebration-it will be a 40 year volunteer reunion and important fundraiser to raise vital funding for CrisisLink's life saving programs, from our 24/7 Crisis Hotlines to our Tara Sirmans HOPE postvention program, Community Training, and 2-1-1 VIRGINIA.

But most importantly, in 2009, we are celebrating You. Without the dedicated and generous support of our volunteers, donors, and community partners for these past 40 years, we wouldn't be celebrating anything else. For four decades, CrisisLink's volunteers have been saving lives and preventing tragedies, and as we've evolved from a grassroots organization to one with more than 100 highly-trained volunteers and over 20 staff, our volunteers are still at the heart of CrisisLink.

It's the spirit and commitment of these thousands of volunteers, donors, and partners over 40 years that have made CrisisLink what it is today, and that will keep us going in the challenging times ahead. With your help, we can keep saving lives, preventing tragedies, and empowering people to help themselves every day.

Thank you for everything you do to keep the faith and keep us going!

Sincerely,
Carol Loftur-Thun
Executive Director