Basically....what's the 211??

      Growing up one of the popular catch phrases I used to hear was "What's the for 411?!" People would say that when they entered a room and wanted to know what was currently going on at the moment. It was a popular statement in the 90s, but today I ask you all "What's the 211?"

Well I'll tell you what it is! Big Bend 211 is a 24/7 crisis hotline designed to help people with their immediate problems and putting callers in contact with local resources. Although 211 focuses on crisis stabilization, that is just the beginning of the services that they offer. From housing, counseling, family help, HIV/AIDS awareness, this agency can be considered your one stop shop. Big Bend deals mainly with suicidal calls, however they are trained to handle ALL types of callers and problems people experience. One key factor of Big Bend is that they uphold confidentiality and maintaining a non-judgement attitude. These factors helps ease the uneasiness of callers and promotes honesty from the callers. At-times it may be hard to turn to your family and friends to let them know what you're feeling at the exact moment - dial 211 then. In some cases it might be to late to call someone but there is that need to speak to someone - call 211! For some there might not be a friend or loved one to turn to, so in that case Big Bend would be prefect to call because they not only listen but they also provide resources that can attend to long-term help. Its important to remember that this is a crisis hotline, that means these counselors aren't gong to be your personal counselor, but what they're there for is to listen and to offer additional help if needed. 

Here is a quick video of the Big Bend 211 in the Tallahassee area, the video gives a bit more detail regarding services offered: 

** Although confidentiality is of the upmost importance, there many be cases where the agency is obligated by law to break confidentiality - however in any case where that happens, callers are informed by the counselor.**

What to talk about today?!

     Being a counselor I can argue that I naturally have the tendency to want to help everyone. However I know that to be the best counselor I have to develop a speciality  or specific population that I focus on so that I can be somewhat of an expert in that field. With that being said, I've decided to focus this blog on resources, facts, and counseling techniques proven to be effective for at-risk and/or poverty stricken youth. Although many people might use the terms "at-risk youth" and "low-income youth" interchangeably, there most certainly is a difference. This pdf by Child Trends has done a nice job of adequately defining what an "at-risk" youth is, and what these youth are at risk of developing. In addition, one misconception is that at-risk youth are also youth living in low-income homes yet that is not the case necessarily. This Fact Sheet from the US Department of Health & Human Services shows that youth from low-, middle-, and high-income families have similar likelihood of engaging in risky behavior. All in all, this blog with enlighten you to help that may be available if you ever find yourself having to deal with an at-risk adolescent.

Basically...... I have no experience blogging!

My initial thoughts and feelings after class were a mixture of excitement, annoyance, curiosity, and a bit of anxiousness. First I thought, what exactly is a blog??? Isn't it just like a digital journal? So why not just turn in a journal instead of putting something on the internet where it would be FOREVER?! Anyways, I digress. Returning to the topic at hand, I was experiencing some annoyance with the thought of blogging - mainly cause its blogging. I've never been one to journal daily/weekly/monthly, or keep some form of a "life log"therefore the thought of being forced to journal now did not appeal to me. On the other hand, hearing about some ways we would incorporate technology into counseling did spark a little interest in me. Although actually setting up the accounts might be time consuming, I would be lying if I said that I wasn't a tad bit excited about actually using the various types of social media webpages to my advantage. Recently I've been talking to a couple friends who have interest in becoming entrepreneurs , so I've began learning a couple things about networking and things of the sort. With that being said, my curiosity sparked when I think about things that I can learn this semester that can be applied to me and my entrepreneurs friends. Overall I'm open and willing to learn all that I can in this course. I can say that knowing me, I'll probably end up reformatting my blog again so that it includes my website as well!