One year of pandemic response at Distress Centre Calgary This is part one in our multi-part series exploring Distress Centre’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, one year after we first activated our business continuity plan and went remote for the safety of our staff and volunteers. It hasn’t been an easy journey; we’ve encountered many challenges and 2021 continues to challenge...
Image: Teen Line volunteer Christmas party in 2000. In 2005 the Distress Centre’s youth program was named one of the best youth volunteer programs in the city by Volunteer Calgary's Youth Council. Nevertheless, with the many advances in technology that came mid-decade, the teen lines needed an upgrade. In cooperation with Calgary Urban Vibe, a website...
Image: Teen Line volunteers in 1996. The Teen Line was still going strong in 1990/91 with a new 264-TEEN phone number and almost 5000 calls being answered by 28 volunteers (average age 18.5). Public education delivered by staff and volunteers included youth and parent presentations, as well as school and mall displays. Krista Moroz, former Teen Line...
With its roots as a Drug Information Centre, Distress Centre has always had addiction support as a mandate. In September of 1990, as part of the desired expansion of services, there was a return to the use of young recovering addicts via the start-up of a new Youth Drug Line (YDL). As Jeanette noted, drug...
Image: Dakota Douglas, Crisis Team Lead, working remotely from home. As the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic became undeniable in March, the Distress Centre leadership team and Board had a decision to make. For the safety and health of our volunteers and staff, we decided to completely close our office on March 17th, 2020. Behind the scenes,...
Pictured: The Distress Centre team at Outrun the Stigma 2019. This year marked the 7th annual Outrun the Stigma, a walk/run in support of mental health awareness with a mission to decrease the stigma surrounding mental illness. The event, which took place on October 6th, raised over $24,000 for our ConnecTeen youth program. In total, Outrun...
Distress Centre has responded to over 38,000 crisis calls, chats, texts and emails so far in 2019 (as of June 30th). Here are two stories highlighting the skill and compassion of our volunteers as they support a caller and a texter through crisis. Arnav Arnav called Distress Centre at 11:45 on a Thursday night. He told the volunteer...
This year marked the 6th annual Outrun the Stigma, a walk/run in support of mental health awareness with a mission to decrease the stigma surrounding mental illness. The event, which took place on October 21st, raised $94,650 for our ConnecTeen youth program. The total raised this year exceeds that of all previous years combined, and...
On Sunday, February 18, 2018, the Calgary Hitmen faced the Saskatoon Blades at the Scotiabank Saddledome. The Hitmen unfortunately lost 1-5 against the Blades, but thousands of fans still enjoyed a great game and had a chance to learn about Calgary’s youth peer support service, ConnecTeen. ConnecTeen provides confidential peer support to Calgary teens by phone,...
On Sunday, February 18th at 2pm, join us as the Calgary Hitmen take on the Saskatoon Blades, in support of ConnecTeen - Distress Centre's youth peer support program. Teen peer support by phone, text, chat and email. When you purchase your tickets not only will you receive a discounted rate of $12 per ticket, but $2...
