Heartline volunteers offer sympathetic ear

Ayne Huelsman began her working life answering phones at a runaway shelter, talking primarily to teens upset with their parents. Lately, she has found herself on the phones again.

Huelsman is a volunteer at Heartline, a United Way partner agency that runs 2-1-1 in Oklahoma. The 2-1-1 hotline is a nonemergency line that serves nine counties.

The roughly 30 volunteers and staff members handle calls ranging from abuse complaints to rent and utility assistance to suicide threats.

Even with her experience, Huelsman could not answer any calls until she went through the same training everyone in the center gets.

"Whether you're call staff or whether you're office staff or whatever, we all have to go through the same training,” said Lynn Whipple, Heartline call specialist coordinator.

The hot-line training, which lasts 13 weeks and is held twice a year, teaches everything from using the computer referral database to teaching active listening. The listening techniques are important because the call specialists have no visual cues to work from when on the telephone.

"One of the things I learned is that sometimes you just need to shut up and let them talk,” Huelsman said, adding that the training has helped her both in and out of the center.

While Huelsman has experience as a social worker, many of the volunteers and staff members came to Heartline in other ways.

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