Word: phonefriend
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Dates: during 1993-1993
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This growing phenomenon, euphemistically called "self-care," has given rise to efforts by churches, schools and parent groups to extend a lifeline to kids who are -- and feel -- isolated. In the vicinity of Glendale, California, kids like the frightened boy under the bed can telephone PhoneFriend...
Staffed by volunteers at Glendale Adventist hospital, PhoneFriend is run out of the chaplain's office on a budget of $5,000 a year, raised by donations. The service reaches out weekdays from 3 to 5 p.m. to kids streaming home from schools in nearby middle- and upper-income communities, including Burbank and Pasadena. This year PhoneFriend expects to take 15,000 calls, assuming there are no national or local emergencies (calls more than doubled during the Gulf War and Los Angeles riots). About 80% will be from bored and lonely children aiming to trade jokes with the volunteers...
...exact count of the number of services for latchkey kids, but there are about 300 chapters of PhoneFriend, according to Helen Meahl, who helped found the first such "warm line" 10 years ago in State College, Pennsylvania. For $22, Meahl and her local chapter of the American Association of University Women distribute a guide to groups that wish to create such a service...
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