By Michael Boriero
Secours-Amitié Estrie (SAE), a community organization that offers an anonymous, confidential, and free general-purpose telephone listening service to the Eastern Townships, has asked the population in the region to help them raise $20,000 for a new fundraising campaign.
According to Mylène Vincent, SAE listening services coordinator, the funds will go to training and recruitment of volunteers. The organization wants to ensure it can continue to provide a quality service, as it deals with a higher demand since the start of the pandemic.
“It varies a lot, but we noticed an increase in the number of calls, about 200 more calls per month. The people who have been calling in the past year are people who are lonely,” Vincent told The Record in a phone interview.
In a press release, SAE noted that many people in the region experienced a spike in distress levels, and it is becoming problematic. Between April 2020 and March 2021, the organization received 10,847 calls, an increase of 22 per cent compared to last year.
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