Jen James is a prominent voice in the field of mental health services and advocacy. She is also CYF's first-ever Virtual Counselor, who provides mental health services to CYF students remotely over Skype. Jen first began her CYF counseling experience when she and her family visited CYF for several weeks last summer with her husband, Kevin, and two sons, Zander and Gibby. After quickly forming a dynamic connection with the students, Jen offered to continue her offer her counseling services in a long-term, remote setting.
While Jen has been so influential in the lives of our students at CYF, she has also been influential in the lives of individuals across the US and beyond. We are honored to share that Jen James received the Voices Of The Year Courage Award for her work at Crisis Text Line and as author of My Life As a Survivor! She was honored alongside extremely influential women of today including the four founders of the Women's March, Tarana Burke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Chelsea Clinton, and so many others.
Jen is a founding supervisor at Crisis Text Line, a suicide prevention text line that provides around the clock service. She has held many prominent roles with the organization, including creating the volunteer curriculum & training, hiring & training the original supervision team, and serving as the voice of the community. Essentially, Jen is the heart of Crisis Text Line and the spine of its philosophy. Before this, Jen also created the first Chat and Text Crisis service available in Michigan. She is certified in Trauma informed care, Living works-Applied Suicide Intervention Skill Training, Critical Incident Stress Management, CPI-Nonviolent Crisis Intervention and CPR/FIRSTAID/AED. Her areas of expertise, due to lived experience, include crisis intervention, bullying, anxiety, depression, and facilitating trainings on self harm.
We are so proud and impressed by the work and courage that Jen has displayed in so many different outlets, and extremely excited to have her working with CYF. Communicating remotely with the CYF students is a new endeavor that has been extremely beneficial for the student's mental health, and a continued example of how technology can expand the resources available to children at Life Vision Academy.
BlogHer posted a quick video congratulating Jen on her outstanding work: Click here to watch!
