What to expect when you contact us

Chat live with an advocate. We use an internal messaging system specifically for teens and young adults who need to contact a advocate — it is not a public chat room or a general messaging service like WhatsApp or Messenger.

Text loveis to 22522 (non-case sensitive). You’ll receive a reply from a advocate asking you for your question. Text us your comment or question and we’ll get right back to you.

If your situation is serious or urgent, we recommend calling or chatting us instead. Always remember to delete the conversation after you finish so no one else sees what you discussed.

Message and data rates apply for our text services. Read our privacy policy and text STOP to 22522 to unsubscribe.

Speak to an advocate by calling 866.331.9474. When you first call, we’ll ask if you’re in a safe place to talk. Once you are, we’ll encourage you to explain your situation and work with you to come up with solutions that fit your specific needs.

If we suggest something you don’t think will work, don’t be afraid to let us know.

But keep in mind that we do serve as a crisis line and that we want to make sure our advocates are always available for people in emergency situations.

Try to get in touch with us when you have a stable service connection and can focus your time and attention on the conversation — our advocates will always offer the same.

Note: our live chats will timeout if they’re inactive for too long. Try not to chat when you’re doing something else or will need to step away from the computer.

The more we know, the better prepared we’ll be to give you informed responses, but it’s up to you to decide what you want to tell us. As advocates, we’re here to listen to what you’re going through, help you explore your options, and give you tips for staying safe.

Some of the questions we get a lot are:

• “What do I do now?”
• “Is this abuse?”
• “How can I get them to stop?”
• “Will they ever change?”

Try to elaborate on yes/no answers when possible and ask for clarification if something we say is confusing. If you’re using our live chat service, consider how you’re typing what you say; using lots of uppercase letters or symbols may be difficult for us to read. We also ask that you use respectful language throughout the conversation. (Our advocates are real people, just like you.)

After you and your advocate come up with ideas for your situation, we’ll go over them with you one more time and offer to connect you to a local resource.

Remember: we’re here to help you.

If you do, it’ll help us understand your situation and better improve our services; your responses could also help inform public policy to protect survivors of domestic violence and relationship abuse.