Thriving Harnesses Respect, Inclusion, and Vested Empathy: A crisis text line staffed by people in STEMM with marginalized identities.
THRIVE Lifeline is a grassroots response to COVID-19, organized by experienced crisis managers who personally understand the significance of displacement, isolation, and financial loss, especially for people in STEMM with marginalized identities.
The summer of 2020 was particularly tumultuous for minority students due to a variety of reasons including, but not limited to: racist acts against Asian-Americans; police brutality, protests, and national discussions of systemic racism; removal of healthcare protections for transgender people, and the devastating impact and associated uncertainties of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Amid a crisis of global scale, many marginalized individuals face greater personal crises, including being sent to unsupportive and/or dangerous home environments, greater health risks, job, food, and home insecurity, and the inability to access what may be their only safe community.
THRIVE Lifeline is Trans-led and operated. We are a group of certified suicide interventionists whose identities are marginalized, and who are students and early career professionals trained across the breadth of STEMM fields.
Barplot of the identities of the THRIVE Lifeline team. LGBTQIA+ makes up 95%, women and non-binary makes up 75%, people of color make up 70%, people with disabilities make up 50%, and immigrants make up 15%.
Our backgrounds include familial rejection due to our identities, homelessness, poverty, and working multiple jobs before being able to access and/or while accessing education. Many of us are individuals who have navigated accommodations processes during our academic journeys as a result of neurodivergence, living with disabilities, and/or facing trauma.
THRIVE Lifeline’s mission is to end stigma and close access gaps for underrepresented individuals who seek educational and professional opportunities. Particularly, we believe that equity and inclusion begins with person-centered and whole-human support, including access to crisis intervention, validation, and resources.
We fulfill our mission by:
We envision academic and professional spaces that actively and equitably include everyone, removing stigma and minimizing underrepresentation.
We believe that it is together that we THRIVE.
We need your help in order to keep THRIVE Lifeline as a vital resource! You can help by volunteering, contributing, and sharing.
Please be advised that our text line supports individuals 18+.
If at any time you would like to stop a text-based conversation, please text STOP. Conversations are 100% confidential.
For general support, please reach out to Boys Town National Hotline. Despite the name, this hotline is for people of all genders.
For LGBTQ+ support, please reach out to The Trevor Project.
Copyright © T.H.R.I.V.E. Inc. 2021