Just In Time to Save a Life

Ep. 6 - How 988 Connects Arkansas To Life-Saving Help

• Jessica Greenwalt • Episode 6

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Imagine a three-digit lifeline that connects you to a real human who won’t hang up until a safety plan is in place. That’s 988. We sit down with Luke, executive director of the Arkansas Crisis Center, to unpack how this number works, why geo routing matters, and how local partnerships turn calls and texts into real-world support.

We explore the surge in help seekers—especially teens who increasingly choose text and chat—and what that means for training, staffing, and community education. Luke walks us through the six-week preparation for call counselors, the focus on reflective listening and de-escalation, and the tough but vital filters that make sure people are ready to do the work safely. We talk honestly about privacy, when dispatch becomes necessary, and the growing collaboration with law enforcement, firefighters, and EMTs through crisis intervention team training. You’ll also hear how simple awareness tactics—from student IDs to clean billboards—can move thousands to reach out sooner.

Arkansas is scaling support where it’s needed most: rural counties facing isolation and farm stress, and tribal communities seeking culturally informed care. We share updates on AR Teen Connect, a warm line built for youth by youth, designed to catch struggles upstream before they escalate. Along the way, we trade practical resilience tools—exercise, heat and cold exposure, stepping away—to show how coping skills and community care fit together. If you’ve ever wondered whether 988 is real, local, and effective, this conversation offers a clear, grounded yes, plus concrete ways to volunteer, train, sponsor, or simply share the number.

If this moved you, make a difference: share 988 with someone you love, follow the show for more candid conversations, and leave a quick review so others can find these resources. Your voice may be the nudge that saves a life.

If you are in a crisis or feel unsafe, call or text 988 or dial 911 for immediate support. There are people out there who will listen and can help.

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SPEAKER_01:

Hi, I'm Jessica G, and this is the Justin Time Podcast. If you're struggling today, I want you to know this podcast is here for you, but it's not a substitute for professional help. If you're in a crisis or feeling safe, please call or text 988 or dial 911 for immediate support. There are people out there who will listen and can help. On this show, I'll be sharing personal experiences, mindset shifts, talking with key experts, and sharing real tools that help me go from barely surviving to thriving. This is not about quick fixes or one size fits all advice. It's raw, it's honest, it's what worked for me and what I believe can help others too. Let's walk together from darkness to hope. Hello, hello. Welcome back, everybody. Thank you so much for joining the show. Today we have the executive director of the Arkansas Crisis Hotline, Luke C. Thank you so much for joining us.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01:

Awesome. Can you tell us how you got started with the Crisis Center?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, loaded question. I like it.

SPEAKER_01:

Um strong. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I made the jump um just about two years now as the executive director for the Arkansas Crisis Center. Um premier uh experience has been with the nonprofit space, mainly fundraising. He's with the American Cancer Society for about 10 years. So um yeah, just pretty exciting stuff. But uh I felt called to make the move to this organization. I've had my own experiences um with close relatives and people that are near and dear to me. Um and I felt called and uh feel like I can make a difference right here in Arkansas on a day-to-day basis. Um not to go too deep too soon, but lack of a better word, like feel like this organization, like we do shit. Can I cuss? I'm not sure if I can cuss right. Like we we do shit. You know, we're not focused on like building a building or whatever it is. We want to serve help seekers, uh, for lack of a better term.

SPEAKER_01:

So well, that's really awesome. Um, I first heard about 988, I think, I don't know, maybe three or four years ago.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Um you were early, early adapter then.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. When did it get started exactly?

SPEAKER_00:

About three years ago. So it was July 2022. So you're you're must have been early adapter.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I went with AFSP to advocate the state capitol.

SPEAKER_00:

That's right. We love Jacqueline.

SPEAKER_01:

She was on the show. Yep. Shout out to Jaclyn Sharp. Um, so yes, I went with them uh to advocate for more funding. We were looking for geo routing. Um, I think you guys Which is there, which is there.

SPEAKER_00:

We go.

SPEAKER_01:

It is there, yes. Oh my gosh, that's exciting. For those of you who don't know what geo routing is, it's um, for instance, like um is suicide's like the second leading cause of death in college students?

SPEAKER_00:

It's it's second leading cause of death in youth.

SPEAKER_01:

In the youth. Yes. And and don't don't quote me on the statistics, but I know it's a high rate in yeah, yeah, it's a high rate for um for college students too. And my brother Justin, he was in college. And uh 988 didn't exist back then.

SPEAKER_00:

No, they had the national hotline, but it was like a really long number. Yeah, it was that one song that Logic made. It was literally the course was the national suicide hotline. Um, it needs to resonate and like full disclosure, every meeting or presentation that I do that's public facing, yeah. The first thing I ask is, how many of you know what 988 is? And no sub I know you know, no, no follow-up. And I see the hands raise. I would say it's about a third every single time, outside of like our echo chambers. And that is terrible, frankly. Um it's such a short number where it's just like 911. Whenever we were kids, you know, your mom or dad would leave and they would say, if an emergency what happens, you say, call 911, mom. Well, guess what? We need that same notion for our youth right here, right now, frankly.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, absolutely. I think that's amazing. And so geo routing is for like, say, college students out of town, they're struggling and they call that number. Well, now, uh, because geo routing is in place, they get connected with local resources.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly. Right. So, like, so U of A students are even like Bittenville, it's a very transient company.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, because it's on the back of every student ID, right? Yes. And college students.

SPEAKER_00:

College students, and then Bittenville School District has it right on the back. I mean other school district, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I was so happy to see that because I was like, I was a part of that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, except it's funny. My uh I have I have three kids, but my two older ones, they have the student IDs, and uh like Grayson will say, like, what did your dad do? Who I point to his ID and like my dad does that, right? Here I was like, oh, anyway.

SPEAKER_01:

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00:

That's kind of cool.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, and to your point, you know, at first 988 really wasn't out there. Um, people are like trying to figure out what is 988. I haven't heard of 988. Now that it is getting out there, the crisis line is like filling up, it's working. Like, can you um enlighten us on the progress that it's made in the past couple of years? Yeah, I mean I feel like now that people are knowing about it, we need more support.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. The crisis center needs more support. I mean, the Arkansas Crisis Center, we are in desperate need of support um in in the best way possible. Because you know, people look at it when I tell people a a year ago from today, we have tripled our help seekers per month. So every month it's tripled what it was a year over last. And a big part of that has been text and chat.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, but also we do uh calls as well.

SPEAKER_01:

And more people are finding out about it now. It is so they're utilizing it.

SPEAKER_00:

So then we you need more resources. Exactly. So honestly, volunteer base seems to be the shortcut. Yeah, there's funding, but that's super volatile. And we're working really diligent on that, and we can get to that um later for specifics. But honestly, the volunteer base, every single day I get two or three people that want to help and want to reach out. Um, it is a very um heavy service. And a lot of the weight during people's crisis intervention our call counselors bear. And we have to be there to support our called counselors to help the help seeker. You know, it's almost like help the support the supporter if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So I think the biggest shortcut now, um, one is obviously education, but like we need volunteers to help man the line as well. So Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

How does one go about that? Like, do they to become a trained crisis counselor? Yeah, it seems and what qualifications you have for that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So to be an actual staff, the stakes couldn't be any higher. So I almost try to scare people out of it when they apply. Um, because a lot of people do apply when we post the the official jobs for call counselors. Right. Um, I mean, honestly, it is an extensive six-week training process. Okay. Um, there's some classroom time, there's, you know, um apprenticeships, but most importantly, we kind of make the final call with our directors. Like, are they the right fit to provide the best help possible?

SPEAKER_01:

Right. And is it also going to be safe for them? And then can they mentally handle it? Exactly. On somebody that, for instance, like uh myself, um, I lost my brother in 2017 and my dad. And right away, you know, uh you want to find a way to help to make a difference, but you're not really ready. You know what I mean? And so it's like I find I come across a lot of people that, you know, have gone through loss and they want to help, but sometimes I have to say, like, hey, let's wait and let's get you helped first and get you healed and grounded to make sure that you can handle this. And that's what I did. And that's why it took me so long to actually get to this point today to even uh jump on a podcast and talk about it. And you know, it was actually really scary, but um yeah, I I appreciate you sharing that and to interject.

SPEAKER_00:

Like, I think we've had people reach out in that similar situation where it's very raw, and a lot of times, I don't mean to from what we've seen from evidence, is they kind of go into savior mode. Yeah. That's not really what our call counselors do. Right. But for 988, uh the hallmark is safety. Yes, not trying to fix a problem. We are a crisis intervention, yes, and we need to get them the help that they need. So it's almost like a triage.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And uh being a really good person on the line helping somebody is being able to quickly think on your feet, de-escalate, have reflective listening, and find the perfect safety plan for them so that they don't do the inedible.

SPEAKER_01:

And I think the education, does AFSP provide that education or we use a lot of their guidelines, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

AFSP has immense amount of resources that are national organizations.

SPEAKER_01:

And they have a couple different programs. Like I did talk save lives.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that's great. That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_01:

And then there's another one I saw on, I was reading online.

SPEAKER_00:

Project renewed for their schools, which is fantastic. And we're actually partnering with them uh for our long or long strategy, which would be a teen line that's a warm line. Okay. Um, that's called AR Teen Connect. So like 988 is like before that's like 988 when specifically youth reach out. And I'll I want to plug this really quick. Like 70% of everyone that texts us right now and does chats is youth age in the state of Arkansas. Um, the first three weeks of launching, we launched it in February this year.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, yeah. I knew I knew that was new. That's exciting.

SPEAKER_00:

It's amazing. Because before it was going to the national.

SPEAKER_01:

I actually was uh playing around and utilizing it too.

SPEAKER_00:

So so straight up, like it was going to the national backup, which is great. But like we said earlier, like the most important thing is our Kansas answer line. They provide the best care right here internally. Yes. So what we saw is the first three weeks we served more youth than all of 2024 combined. Wow. Um, I hate to put a statistic on it, but this is the statistic, it has gone up 3,300% in youth engagement for 988 right here in our own.

SPEAKER_01:

And that number, so if you text it, you don't text 988, isn't it like 741?

SPEAKER_00:

No, you text 988.

SPEAKER_01:

You do text them.

SPEAKER_00:

You take your phone out, you literally say like hello or hi or anything and do 988. You rank on your the level of one through five, the urgency of your suicidal ideations or your crisis intervention. And then within under 90 seconds, you're right there.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, we could do it right now and be connected, and it's yeah, I was doing it earlier for a friend actually that was going through postpartum depression. And I couldn't remember the the live Jacqueline and I our last episode was about postpartum depression. And she had provided a resource and I could not remember it because it was a long number. So I texted 988 and I said, Hey, I have a friend in need. Can you get me the number so they were probably able to do that? And I have it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

See, triage, man. It's a it's it's pretty much a triage.

SPEAKER_01:

And that is so crucial, it's so important, you know?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Um so yeah, that's great.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's it's been a big resource, and you know, I hate to quote a case study, but the 988 term really seems to land. So, like we're we've been in contact with this place called Comcare in Kansas City. So it's equivalent to kind of us. And we were talking with them, and they did this case study where they flooded the metro area all surrounding the downtown Kansas City area of 988. Super simplistic um billboards, and they saw their um intake go up four figures substantially. So it's one of those things that do resonate. You could put it right here in the background, and they it just it's recognized, frankly. Yes. So for these youth, I mean, the notion's still there. Yeah, it's on the back of their IDs, but you know, we still need to go out there and like be in those schools and educate them and normalize it a little bit.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

And it's come a long way, but we're scratching the circuit. We're scratching the circuit. We gotta teach the teachers, we gotta train the counselors, and yes, we're working diligently. AFSP, us, NAMI, we're working diligently on uh on doing that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, no, I think it's really great work. Um, I was super happy. I mean, that is why I, you know, took time off work, flew to Washington, DC. I was I was, you know, talking to the state representatives um to get funding, more funding for this.

SPEAKER_00:

Did you have a good time too? My uh board president Josh.

SPEAKER_01:

I absolutely loved it. I was like, oh my goodness, this place is amazing.

SPEAKER_00:

You walk in like, whoa, it's in it, yes. Yes, but it's so vital to like talk to lawmakers and like urge them the urgency that we're dealing with. I mean, all of them, Tom, I mean all those guys.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and they're in the no, you know, and so it was it was great. So I I stayed uh connected and I've messaged them back and forth and stay on top of it. Stay on top of it. Yeah, it was it was it was my first time.

SPEAKER_00:

And that's one of the perks like kicking it over to AFSP is that like they have the they tackle it on the national level. Yes. Then they partner so greatly with local nonprofits like us. Yeah, they exactly that handle the line and kick it over to us, and I mean it's fantastic.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Um, so each state has their own crisis center, right? Is that how 988 works?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, that is correct. So how it works is that each state is done a little bit differently. Here in the state of Arkansas, it 988 is a federal uh funded program, not entirely by any means, but yeah the notion it's I know we need more fundamental. Yes, it's through it's through SAMHSA, and then it trickles down through the Department of Health, and we are subgrantees from them. So they are great to work with. Um, it is ran through that. Other states, though, it goes directly from SAMHSA to these centers. So, like Missouri, for example, has multiple centers that go directly through SAMHSA. So it is a little bit different everywhere, so there isn't like a universal thing, but they have trying to do a great job at getting us all together for collaborations and making sure best practices are being upheld. Um, but it they're all just a little bit different too. You know what I mean? So, like for us, we don't just do the 988 call because we're, you know, there's more to be done. There's training, there's education. There's oh yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Speaking of education, I I was reading about you. What was the other and Jacqueline told me she went through this too? It's a it's an intensive um workshop that you went through.

SPEAKER_00:

Assist training.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, what is it called?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's assist. Yeah, it's assist. Um multiple factors. They do host it quite a bit, though. Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

It's trying to um and how that was to like physically help somebody out of the street.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. No, it's it's a great program. Um, it is literally um a pretty big undertaking when you take it. It's it's it's intense.

SPEAKER_01:

I heard it's it's intense, it's very good.

SPEAKER_00:

And honestly, it's multiple organizations have the power to put those on. And honestly, it's it's a it's a collaborative. So, like, for example, we have some of those trainings where someone from AFSP or the VA will put those things on. But it is very commonplace for um suicide prevention. And uh, you know, it is it is massively important. We do have those across the state of Arkansas. It is yeah, asking a lot of someone to give uh two days worth of time to to devote to school time. Yeah. Um, but I mean, for like my staff, for example, everyone takes it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh a lot of school people take it. We actually work with Camp Oregol as well. Their camp counselors take it with us and make sure that it's on the level for reflective listening. And there's a lot of role plays, and I know people hate role plays, but like they're actually really good in the way the training setup is like you don't feel like it's a role play. It's almost like a um um kind of like the breakfast club. Hate to say you kind of get in there and talk about like how to um um deal with crisis and be there with them and sit in it with them. So it's a fantastic service. And uh, you know, but I will say this we do need to meet people where they are. So not everyone can give an entire two days to that.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, and and and I think when I was talking about dragon, it's not right for everybody. And I think at the time that I started with AFSV, it wasn't right for me either.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

But now after reading about it, I was like, maybe it's something I could do now. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

I think that'd be great. But I'm you know, there's other ones that are around. We provide a couple of continuing education classes that are two hours, four hours. We try to mash it to where that person is and willing to domain. But at the same time, there are some principal skills that are essential, like reflective listening, de-escalation, um, lingos that are really important that not the common person knows. Like I learned a lot of them coming on board here. Yeah. Um, that I use on a day. Not the psychology. Yeah, no, I mean, I mean, full disclosure, like I'll I'll just break it down for you. Um I recently lost um actually my kid's grandma. Um, it's it was my mom's grandma a couple weeks ago. It's actually we rescheduled this podcast for that execution scenario. Um and you know, I've learned I was the one who had to break it to my kids because their mom and stepdad had to leave town quickly. And uh it was their first sense of loss, and that is a crisis. Yeah what I mean. You had to hear them and reflect on them, and it's it's a form of grief, and uh a lot of those skills really came in handy, and uh you know it's it helps no matter where you are outside of the crisis intervention world.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and speak thank you for sharing that. Um and sorry for us. Um and speaking of that, um there are different um categories within the crisis hotline. I was looking like there was like drug abuse or drug or alcohol and drug abuse. What can you break down?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, there's there's actual options. So like um there was there um so when you call in now, you press one for a Spanish, two for uh veterans. There was a three. Um they did go away with that this year. That was the LGBT um LGBT line. And then uh certain states have option four, which is tribal members, actually. Okay. Um so tribal members is out of wash, they have one in Washington for sure, but some exciting news. I don't mean to derail really quick, but we are actually trying to get an option four in the state of Arkansas because we actually recently the uh American Indian Center of Arkansas um was actually having their nine a day tribal out of state down in Louisiana, but as of October 1st, we are handling all their uh tribal member 98 calls, which I mean last year there was like over like 531 calls from us from tribal members right here in you know northwest Arkansas. So um it's really important that we um, you know, provide guidance and uh appropriate lingo for those uh those members for sure.

SPEAKER_01:

And you know, it's like even though the the calls are going up, it's to me in my mind, it's like that's a good thing because that means people are actually reaching out to get the help that they need. Yeah, I view it as a good thing. I view it as a good thing. What yeah, it's like what what can people do? And I love that, you know, it's private, it's anonymous.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, um I I I want to say something to that. And this is like we're seeing this more so with the text and chat via youth. Number one thing we always get asked is are you AI? World we live in. Absolutely not. No, right, right. So um, and then number two, are you gonna tell my parents? Oh well. And that's heavy. And I the answer is no, we're not gonna tell your parents. The main thing that we care about is safety. That's our homework. So guess what? There are times where we'll have to do a dispatch because if there's an active or some safety plan cannot be met, we do a dispatch. We try not to because it loses the trust in the line. And right, but at the same time, like not on our watch.

SPEAKER_01:

We have to if somebody is in a crisis and it's escalating, you know, but our we'll call 911.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, absolutely. And not even that, we'll stay in it with them. And then we have directors on call that either with them but also maintain safety. And we always try to get their consent doing that. And like I honestly, me personally, I was on I was director on call last night. I had one in Cross at Arca, I had one in in Arkansas that I had to do, you know. So I yeah, it's a very real thing, and I'm right there in the trenches with everybody as the executive director, and we all take turns being directors on call. And yeah, I'll tell you this there's uh I wouldn't say the word rush, but my heart is just starts fluttering and beating when I get that phone call in the middle of the night, yeah, getting someone help that they need. And yeah, it keeps me close to the mission, and I realize it wow, we we save a life in that moment. Yeah, so it's um the dispatch people are getting better and better at it and realizing who we are and what we are. You know, at first it was a little clunk, like who are you guys? Like even the dispatchers for some of the police departments didn't quite know who we are, but we're starting to get some synergy and some help from the top for law enforcement and having a coalition to get the word out. So it's a whole different, whole different thing for dispatches.

SPEAKER_01:

That's great. That's great. Speaking of law enforcement, is there like specific training that you guys do with law enforcement to help educate them? Yeah, we do because I could I could see that or paramedics or EMTs.

SPEAKER_00:

We do, yeah. We have actually a targeted uh crisis intervention.

SPEAKER_01:

For firefighters, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and we have a couple of those board members on our from the city of Rogers that are on our board. They're awesome. They give us some good perspective. Yeah. Um, shout out Steve, he's awesome. He trains actually the Rogers uh place to market, they're awesome. Um, so what we do this year, we do a continuing education crisis intervention team training. It's a full day, eight hours. Yeah. Um main thing. One place that really found value in it was actually the North Little Rock PD. You know that big bridge on the Arkansas River that goes through downtown? They get those calls. It's like a weekly kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01:

So have they put bridge barriers up there? I I can't attest.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't, I'm not sure. Yeah, I don't want to answer that. I'm not quite sure. No, that's okay. It's good.

SPEAKER_01:

Jacqueline and I were talking about that last time and how you know you want to remove lethal means. And she was telling me, like, even though we don't want to talk about the way in which people die by suicide, she was saying that like the bridge barriers, um, there there was some type of bridge close to Little Rock that they put bridge barriers up to the biggest.

SPEAKER_00:

That is most likely that's the main one. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, reduce the suicide rate by 50% or something. Or 50 or 70%. Don't quote me again.

SPEAKER_00:

No, no, no. I'm not the extra. I mean, look at the Golden Gate Bridge. I mean, that was a yeah, that was a very um it was almost a symbolic one. And now they put those nets and it's it's helped a lot for daily. So um, yeah, I think uh training the law enforcement's huge. Now I hate to say it, like in those rooms when we were training them, I was in, I was in it when we did it. Um, you know, a lot of those people were, you know, they didn't necessarily need it, but it was great to have a refresher. And I mean, much like every other thing, from what they have told me, law enforcement has kind of changed the last few years, if that makes any sense. Okay. They're um there's different approaches that they're really trying to do. Um, you know, more so in the mobile crisis aspect opposed to the other kinds of ways. So it's a it's an exciting time. Um, but yeah, we definitely want to train them and keep them up to and then we also want to learn from them too. Like we want to learn from them. We we we uh reach out to them, and like I said, we have board members that are on our board and we have um MOUs, which are a memorium of understandings with uh police departments, and we gotta have synergy with with each other.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's awesome. Um, what would you say um that you do to kind of protect yourself? Because you seem like an empathic person and you probably are overseeing a lot of different things and people are coming to you and answering all like you're probably answering all their questions. Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. All of that. And I know that can be like even me as a business owner, I get bombarded with a million questions. But um, for me, I'm I, you know, do the nonprofit work, but there's sometimes where I haven't like I'm so overwhelmed I have to like step back and I kind of have that space. How how do you like handle all that stress?

SPEAKER_00:

You're talking to the wrong person. Um I I uh you know man, I find healing in in our growth. You know what I mean? I I'm kind of all in, like I haven't really taken a vacation yet or anything, but I um I really want to focus like with the livelihood in our the the um the scope and well-being of our call counselors, frankly. Because I I I try to make it as easy on them as I possibly can. Does that make sense? But me, I mean, honestly, if I go do some like hardcore kettlebell swings during the day, I feel whatever, uh, make sure to. I mean, I've been on this like fitness journey last three or four months.

SPEAKER_01:

Because it gets heavy.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, yeah, it does. It does. So I'm working trying to do better with that because I, you know, there was a point where you know, my advice was to eat and all that stuff, but like the last few months I've been really diligent on like swinging a kettlebell, going on a run. Yeah, stepping away. Getting outside. Yes. Saunas are freaking great. Um that season. Parker and I were just talking about this on our last podcast.

SPEAKER_01:

We were talking about you do ice baths.

SPEAKER_00:

Just yeah, I do. I love ice.

SPEAKER_01:

It's did you play football in college?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, not in college, but high school. In ice bath. Yeah, high school. But the worst part of the coke land.

SPEAKER_01:

Did you do ice baths?

SPEAKER_00:

No, they did not. So this is my first. It's fun, I have a funny story about that. So, so anyway, so okay, I'm a bigger guy. So, like, make sure if you're doing it with a group of guys taking turns doing the ice bath, the bigger guy goes last because you get all the water out. So, like, I was in Nashville, and like my best friend's in the music industry, and like a few of us were were going to this some place that's kind of like C-suites. Yeah, and like I went second to last, and like I'm straight up in there and I go and I get water all over everyone else, and I hear this lady run down. We got another one. I'm like, ah, crap. So anyway, and I get out and it's like pretty shallow at my bag, guys. So anyway, but it's it's terrible.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I'm gonna be sure to invite you to our next cold plunge event because we had one for just in time. Okay. And um, we had Dr. Justin Turnus like lead the event, and we had the Marine Corps there, we had the Navy there. Is it just a dip in?

SPEAKER_00:

What does that look like? Does it dip in, dip out, or is it like the cold plunge?

SPEAKER_01:

It's a it's like an inflatable thing, and then you jump in, we just like keep filling it up with ice and water. But it was so cool because it was like we can overcome hard things, and we use it as a metaphor. Like, you know, when you're in a suicidal moment or a crisis, it's temporary, just like this cold water.

SPEAKER_00:

And it's a good euphemism. I like it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it was really cool. And so, um, but yeah, we have all the cold punches, so we gotta probably maybe next year we might do the cold punching back.

SPEAKER_00:

Please, I will absolutely do. I love it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, we had all the resources we had on the behavioral health center, AFSP was there, so maybe we can get you out there. But the Marine Corps, they were out there, they were like see so serious about it. It was like five minutes, they kicked it off. I was like, someone's gotta get it.

SPEAKER_00:

Was it five minutes that they do five minutes?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, I think they almost went ten.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, yeah, I think they almost went ten.

SPEAKER_00:

I will say though, like if in if you've done it, I've done it, like you feel kind of euphoric for a while. Yeah, it's amazing. And I've done the thing where like you jump between the sauna and it's it's phenomenal.

SPEAKER_01:

That's awesome. I love I love that you do that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's awesome.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's supposed to reset your nervous system. I guess it's better for guys than it is for girls.

SPEAKER_00:

Does it?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah, it's supposed to reset your nervous system.

SPEAKER_00:

They sit they say not to do the cold plunge uh right after a lift, though, because it messes up.

SPEAKER_01:

You don't want to shrink them off.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, that's exactly what it is.

SPEAKER_01:

Do in the morning before, like Mark Wahlberg. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00:

Same podcast. Anyway, same algorithm. Anyway.

SPEAKER_01:

Exactly. Um okay, so one of the other questions I had for you, I was looking around on the site and I saw that you could buy tickets or there are sponsorships to shows. Can you tell us about that? Because I wasn't really sure.

SPEAKER_00:

We do a couple things. So I'll tell you what we did this year and then the plan for 26. So we actually did a kind of outside the box thing. We could we had this uh fundraiser called The Last Laugh in June, and it was down at JJ's phenomenal show. So it was a it was dark comedy for a cause, and we had Netflix's Beth Stelling come headline. Yeah, um, Austin comic named Hunter Duncan. Dude's hilarious. And then we had a local Austin uh um Arkansas comic that's Shelly Watson, and she does uh uh the Get Low by the Yin Yang twins, but in opera, she's a trained opera singer. Yeah. So that was for the opener, which was That is awesome, and that's where we kind of kicked off our um youth campaign where we're kicking off the AR Crisis uh team line. Um, but it was a phenomenal event. JJ's Live. I think it's Ozark band, it's dip called something different now. Um but it at the time it was JJ's Live.

SPEAKER_01:

So you'd buy a ticket and it supported the crisis line?

SPEAKER_00:

100% us. Yeah, absolutely. So awesome. And I mean, I'll be honest with you, like the comics were phenomenal. It was we should, it was the talent that we had here was phenomenal. So we are currently looking to book another comic. Yeah, but we're actually partnering with the Grove um down in Lowell, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So that's what we're gonna have next year. So Okay, comics out there. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

Please reach out if Suicide Education Prevention is free, reach out to us.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly. So yeah, I'm gonna sign in some DMs, so hopefully we'll get something. Yes, absolutely. Um, so yeah, we'll we'll we're gonna shoot for early 26 on that one. Okay. And then we have the more traditional fundraiser called Challenge for Hope. Okay. Um, so what that is, it's a um, it's gonna be a uh tennis golf tournament that's been around for 35 years, and it's actually recently come back to our um nonprofit, and it's over at Pinnacle right across the street from us, which is great. Yeah. And we're gonna do that in October 26th. Okay. That's more so the corporate sponsorship traditional route. Yep. Um, obviously we have the VIP party and gala and all that good stuff, but um, we have some phenomenal.

SPEAKER_01:

Wait, when is the gala? Where is the gala?

SPEAKER_00:

It will be at Pinnacle, it will be at Pinnacle.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, did so did you when's the first year you guys had that?

SPEAKER_00:

We the it came back to us last year, but it's been it, it's been it used to benefit the uh Boys and Girls Club and the food bank. So it's been around. Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

But originally, I would love to like volunteer and support and help bring awareness to that because um I mean I've been to a ton of galas, but I haven't heard of the Arkansas Crisis Gala yet.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, please, yeah, we're we're working on it. And honestly, we're adding the gala aspect back to it. It used to used to be a part of it. It used to call it Party of the Tents. Yes. Kind of went away, but we're relaunching that aspect back to it. I'm I mean, it's very um it's very useful because not everyone plays golf or tennis. So it kind of includes everybody for all the businesses. So um, but yeah, we have currently some great support with some good partners. Uh I mean, Haribo right next door to your donut. I mean, it's it's phenomenal. So, like General Mills, you know, honorite chairs from Walmart, it's it's fantastic. So but definitely, definitely looking to grow it and there's a lot of room for opportunity. Yeah, we are actually uh currently looking for some additional tennis bros. So we're kind of bringing them in to do the expos and stuff like that. So it's awesome.

SPEAKER_01:

That would be awesome. Maybe Justin Todd, we can collaborate. Yeah, dude, yeah. We wanted to do one, but I feel like it would just make more sense to collaborate with you and AFSP and do something amazing.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and they do a great thing. They do um out of darkness walks, which is like a peer-to-peer.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that was just this last weekend.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, absolutely. That's right. So it's they're doing phenomenal things there. And uh, we always look to collaborate for sure.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, absolutely. Um, okay, so for our listeners, is there anything else that you would like to tell them about the crisis hotline um that you can think of right now?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, there's a couple. things um one really exciting thing that i've not mentioned is that we recently got a uh influx in support by the department of health um it is to focus on the 45 rural counties in the state of Arkansas okay great the word out so every nook and cranny in this state that is desperately in need of our service we have the funding and the resources to get out there and teach them about not just nine and eight not just the text and chat but more so suicide prevention trainings starting with why making it less taboo giving them the resources they desperately need we actually just hired a guy um his name's Dale Fuchs and he's awesome he's from Perth Australia yeah started a couple coffee shops down there uh was actually in the air force here recently here um he's looking to get out there and get in these communities and with us and as a team and yeah get out there and and coach them that's amazing about the rural thing because when I was in the Capitol in Senator Bozeman's office he asked me if I knew anything about the farmer's bill and I didn't know what he was talking about.

SPEAKER_01:

And he had informed me that suicide rate in farmers was actually going up. So he had asked me that question um you know what what is the crisis line doing in the rural parts of Arkansas?

SPEAKER_00:

So that is really great to hear because sorry this isn't last year it was the year before that I went for two years yeah yeah two years ago now yeah so I'm really happy to hear that that yeah that's that that's probably the response from what he was saying is that the additional funding for the support and transportation.

SPEAKER_01:

That is awesome.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes we're excited about that and then uh fall this year so next month or so we're gonna be launching the AR AR Team Connect. So that is like I said that is a non not non-crisis but a warm friendship line line ran for youth by youth via text. So it's ran by youth for youth and it's actually kind of a cool story. It's actually being built built by youth too. So we have a youth board and we've collaborated with like how old? I mean high school high school and college high school okay so they're like deep into AI they're building the platform and the sites and it's going to live in our space and we're immensely excited about it. And it's a continuum of care too. So like once we have a safe plan from these youth and safety's established, you know they may not want to call 988 again or text 988. So this one is like they're friendly but not friends. They're there for them in a way where we tackle it upstream like so what they can reach back out after they've already continued too at the same time so like it's to the same person? It's more so just different. It's it's anonymous for anonymous yeah it's anonymous but it's ran for youth so like I mean like so if someone were to say like man I'm feeling kind of sad today they have someone to reach out to or no one noticed me today. No one said hi they have someone to reach out to or I'm well that's great that those youth members are are getting educated too because then that just keeps spreading well I hate to say it but like it also for the for the person answering the text it teaches resilience and interpersonal communication. So there's skin in the game for both there's people that were helping then the volunteers they're people that are building life skills that that I would be using today for exactly so um but yeah but AFSP was so generous and letting us um letting us kind of um uh utilize shop at their out of darkness walks this last spring. Okay. So we have a pretty good volunteer base and it's it's phenomenal so we're ready to we're getting ready to launch and uh yeah it's gonna be fun.

SPEAKER_01:

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00:

Um what time next year are you having your the gala will be October so you're it's gonna be October yeah so it was August last year. Okay. Uh obviously super hot it's we're we're excited about having it uh in October exactly we're gonna have it like I want to wear a suit and black sweat exactly so we're gonna um we're gonna have that after their LPGA event over at Pentacles okay that is amazing it's gonna be awesome it's gonna be good so but yeah um but at the end of the day my last thing is is just knowing that there is a resource out there yeah it's three digits nine eight dates and we're here 24 hours seven days a week and uh you know we will never hang up the phone unless we feel like safety's been met.

SPEAKER_01:

Awesome well thank you so much Luke we are so happy to have you here and join me appreciate it thank you so much appreciate it if you're struggling remember how you think is how you feel if your feelings feel heavy start by shifting the thought you're not stuck your brain can change so can your story. I'm Jessica G. This is the Justin Time podcast and I'll see you next time. Until then keep going never give up and remember the world is better with you in it whether you believe it or not to help reach others please share this with your friends family and don't forget to like subscribe and donate