CONTACT HELPLINE

Accredited by the International Council for Helplines, CONTACT Helpline has been providing emotional listening warmline services to residents in Pennsylvania (including Central Pennsylvania) and the United States for almost 54. CONTACT Helpline’s mission is “Compassionate listening and vital resource referrals, 24/7”, and its vision is to build a better community one connection at a time. CONTACT Helpline’s origins date back to the Samaritan Movement which began in England in 1953 by a Rector at St. Stephen’s Church who saw the need and created a telephone line (staffed by volunteers) for those seeking comfort in times of distress. The movement spread throughout Britain with the key principles of availability, anonymity, confidentiality, and empathetic listening. The movement came to the United States in the late 1960s with the first CONTACT Helpline in Texas, circa 1967, and CONTACT Helpline in Pennsylvania in 1970. Since then, CONTACT Helpline has provided uninterrupted emotional listening services. In 1978, CONTACT Helpline expanded its core services to include information and referrals to community resources to residents in Dauphin, Cumberland, and Perry Counties. In 2003 information and referral services were expanded to include residents in York, Franklin, and Adams Counties; and in 2011 CONTACT Helpline through a collaborative agreement with PA 211 became the provider of PA 211 services for the South-Central region of Pennsylvania with a primary focus on Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Fulton, Huntington, Juniata, Mifflin, Perry, and York counties. Throughout the years of service provision, CONTACT Helpline has remained committed to providing person-centered, trauma-informed services to assist in empowering families and meeting the emotional health, and human services needs of individuals.