I spent the summer of my junior year in high school as a volunteer for the Association for Supportive Child Care’s Phone Friend Program.  Phone Friend is a “warm line” program that invites kids ages 5 to 18 years to call in to a friendly volunteer to read books, get homework help, play a game, or to just talk about their day.  Many of the kids I spoke to were home without a parent for a couple of hours and wanted to hear a friendly voice.  Still others just wanted to play silly games or tell me stories after Mom and Dad had already done so for the “nth” time.  Each afternoon that I spent volunteering brought something different and I truly enjoyed my summer manning the Phone Friend lines with my volunteer colleagues.

All these years later, the program still exists and it is bigger and even better than I knew it.  I now sit on the Board of Directors of the parent group, the Association of Supportive Child Care, and I am blessed to be able to contribute my efforts to what I feel is such an amazingly worthy cause.  In this age of dwindling numbers of landline phones and increased computer time for kids, the program is opening up a computer-based format.  Just like the phone-line access, this computer-based format will be open from Monday through Friday, 1:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. for kids 5 to 18.  I highly recommend that clients, friends, teachers, and others encourage their kids to contact Phone Friend.

For more information about the Phone Friend program, please see their very kid-friendly website: http://phonefriend.org.  The computer-based chat format can be accessed at www.phonefriend.org/chat2.html.

 

This blog should be used for informational purposes only. It does not create an attorney-client relationship with any reader and should not be construed as legal advice. If you need legal advice regarding Phone Friend, or other family law issues, please feel free to contact Lindsay A.M. Olivarez at 480.461.5300, log on to udallshumway.com, or contact an attorney in your area. Udall Shumway PLC is located in Mesa, Arizona and is a full service law firm. We assist Individuals, families, businesses, schools and municipalities in Mesa and the Phoenix/East Valley.