Covenant House Nineline

1-800-999-9999

Covenant House Nineline is a 24-hour, toll-free crisis hotline which provides crisis intervention, referral and information services to homeless, runaway and other troubled youth and their families throughout the U.S. With a database of over 26,000 agencies, trained crisis counselors are able to refer callers to help in their own communities.

Nineline telephones have conference call capability which is used to connect young people to their families and to service agencies. Nineline staff also assist young people by arranging transportation home or to a safe shelter, and by providing a message relay service to inform families that their child is safe.

The Nineline handles calls from young people with a broad range of problems. Some have just left home and call from a telephone booth or a friend's house; others have been on the streets for weeks, months or even years. Most calls, however, are from young people who are still at home. Some call because they need help talking to their parents. Others call because they are victims of child abuse or need help dealing with a drug or alcohol problem. The Nineline also receives numerous calls from youths who are contemplating suicide and from youths affected by violence in their communities.

"In the moment I first grasped the reality that Alisha was addicted to drugs - when my mind was left empty of all else but that naked truth - in that moment of pure despair, I thought to myself, 'I must kill her and then myself, for I cannot bear to watch my child die the horrible death of a drug addict.' It was the one moment in my life when all hope abandoned me.

I have since learned that one cannot choose to live without choosing to be hopeful, and that one cannot be hopeful all alone. I can be hopeful that Alisha is going to make it, not only because she is a young woman of enormous courage and determination, but because there are people in her life, like yourself, who are willing to 'love her into well-being'."*

-- a letter from a parent to Covenant House New Orleans

*expression from theologian Beverly Wildung Harrison