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RAINN Prepares to Launch the Web's First Secure Online Hotline
Twelve years after creating the nation's first decentralized national hotline, RAINN is once again about to redefine just how hotlines work. This fall, RAINN will launch the National Sexual Assault Online Hotline, which will be the web's first secure hotline service, offering live help 24 hours a day.
We're creating the Online Hotline in response to user demand for a new way to access services. While calls to the national telephone hotline continue to increase (the hotline provided free, confidential help to 137,039 people in 2005, up 44% in the last three years), research and observation are finding an increased reluctance among young people to use the phone.
Because nearly half of all rape victims are under 18, and fully 80% are under 30, we have no choice but to respond to the growing desire to communicate online instead of by phone. It's the natural — and necessary — evolution of hotline services.
One click will take users from rainn.org to the Online Hotline. There, they will anonymously request help and be connected to a trained volunteer for live, one-on-one support. While there's lots of advanced technology at work behind the scenes, the user's screen will be as clear and intuitive as instant messaging, so there's no learning curve.
The pilot launch of the Online Hotline will begin in May, with a national launch expected in September. For more info, visit rainn.org/programs/online-hotline/.