Nonprofit crisis line supports marginalized people wary of police intervention

When Vanessa Green answers calls to Call Blackline, her responses vary widely. Some people need referrals to trusted nonprofits for emergency resources. Others just need to vent to someone who understands their experience, and Green is happy to fill that role.“We don’t give an opinion,” Green, who helped create Call Blackline in 2014, told The Advocate in an interview. “We’re there to affirm their experiences navigating racism and white supremacy and anti-immigration in this country.”Call Blackline is a nonprofit crisis line that seeks to fill gaps in emergency services for people who may have had adverse experiences with police and government crisis programs, including immigrants, queer people and people of color, especially Black people. Green said police violence against these communities makes it harder for them to seek help when crisis occurs, particularly during mental health or personal safety emergencies.“Police are not the vehicle to be used when somebody’s having a mental health crisis. They just are not equipped,” Green said. When making referrals, Call Blackline promises not to direct callers to government-run hotlines, aiming to reduce fears of police involvement.Related: The Trump administration is excluding The Trevor Project from the 988 service it helped create“Any other numbers we give out, we actually get to make sure that they are not going to call the police on folks who are traumatized,” she said.The crisis line was founded in 2014 and gained nonprofit status in 2017, Green said. Since then, the nonprofit has answered numerous calls from people in distress, using an “unapologetic Black, LGBTQ and Black Femme lens,” according to its mission statement.Between 2021 and 2022, Call Blackline fielded more than 5,700 calls and made nearly 1,700 referrals to support services, according to survey results posted to the nonprofit’s website.The survey also found that many callers are people of color or members of the LGBTQ+ comm