I have personally stepped away from volunteering as a crisis counselor on the Crisis Text Line (CTL) platform. I offer my perspective here in the hopes that other crisis counselors might join me. From all the evidence I've seen in the behavior of CTL management, I fear the only way to get their attention and foster meaningful change is by engaging in civil disobedience by refusing to volunteer so that it materially impacts CTL's ability to achieve its goals.
And believe me, I get it—the thought of not helping someone in need when they are reaching out is painful. I trained for this specifically because I want to help people through their moments of crisis. I myself have lived experience; I myself have checked the first three boxes of the ladder-up risk assessment at my lowest point in my life. I now have the skills and the conduit to help people no different than me, save a further moment in time. To actively choose not to do so is not a decision I arrived at lightly.
CTL management know that we are empathetic. They know that we want to help texters. And they know that—despite all the Sturm und Drang that has roiled the organization over the past seven weeks—their KPIs (key performance indicators) have never looked better. The pandemic prompted a surge of crisis counselors on the platform. New cohorts were graduating to take real conversations, but also veteran counselors who had lapsed in their service were inspired to dust off those skills and step up to help with the deluge of new texters reaching out due to COVID-19.
It has come so sharply into focus for me that the rot within CTL’s management did not begin and end with Nancy Lublin. She was merely the scapegoat which the board and remaining upper management conveniently used in a thinly-veiled attempt to absolve themselves of the responsibility of the chronic racism and toxic workplace environment that has plagued (and still continues to plague) CTL from the beginning; indeed, the template for this toxic team tenor was imported verbatim from DoSomething.
With each passing day and nothing of substance to show, it is clear that no one remaining wants to be held accountable for past and present transgressions; and even worse, there is no mature management willing to enforce such accountability. They’ve made vague promises to do better, have responded to “How can we trust you?” with “Don’t worry; trust us!”, have feinted at feedback forums, only to have them turn into didactic, condescending lectures or canceled altogether at the last minute.
It is clearly a culture of fear and survival, where people will say and do whatever to protect themselves from the consequences of their actions or even—and especially—their inaction in the face of corruption. The board knew about all this over two years ago. They took superficial and ultimately impotent “action,” and they never followed up to see if it worked—an act of willful ignorance. These people already failed the organization in a fundamental and profound way. And now we are expected to believe these clearly-incompetents are the ones to lead us out of the mess they failed to clean up the first time around?
Here are the current members of Crisis Text Line’s board of directors who were also present when the now-infamous March 2018 memo outlining racism and other toxic workplace behaviors. They must be held accountable:
- Danah Boyd
- Dena Trujillo (perplexingly now the interim CEO)
- DJ Patil
- Elizabeth Cutler
- Jeff Lawson
- Rob Stavis
Barring any external influence, it is obvious inertia will win the day. So it is up to us to exert that external influence and make Crisis Text Line as great as the board purports now; as great as it should be. I see three vectors of influence:
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Donors and Partners—if the people underwriting this enterprise and associating with you lose faith and the funding dries up, that will necessarily force either change or closure.
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PR—undeniable public reporting got Nancy fired, but the board scapegoated her and the press moved on. A resurgence of unflattering press will further shake the tree and let loose the bad fruit.
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Crisis counselors—this is where you come in, my friends. If the unpaid backbone of their operation dries up and they can no longer fulfill the fundamental purpose for their existence, change will come.
Let me validate you 100%: not helping texters when you are able is painful. But teachers not teaching blameless students because school districts aren’t treating them with due respect is painful; refusing to be drafted to fight in an unjust war and being punished for it is painful; showing up for a peaceful protest in solidarity with all humans—regardless of color—and having police beat you and gas you and shoot you with less-lethal munitions is painful.
I embrace my pain in this moment so that we all may not suffer needlessly onward indefinitely. In support of a cause bigger than myself, in support of an interest in making things better, I choose the painful path.
Thank you for listening.
The racism and toxic workplace environment at Crisis Text Line has been reported on by The Verge, CNN, the NonProfit Times, Mashable, Civicist and Medium; also be sure to read the negative reviews by employees posted on GlassDoor as well as the reports from ex-employees on Twitter.
[If there are any typos in this piece, I’d definitely appreciate you letting me know. 🙏🏼]
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