LANSING — A volunteer-run crisis intervention center has apparently taken its last call after operating for more than five decades in the Lansing area.
The nonprofit Listening Ear Incorporated announced it would wind down operations and stop taking calls after July 15 − 56 years to the day after it took its first call, according to an automatic message that played at the hotline number on Wednesday, July 9 and Thursday, July 10.
No one answered calls made by the State Journal before the line automatically disconnected, and there was no option to leave a message. The doors at the organization’s longtime office on East Michigan Avenue at South Francis Avenue were locked on July 10. No cars were in the parking lot, and two partially filled black plastic garbage bags lay in the middle of the lot.
“This decision comes after thoughtful reflection and deep gratitude for the generations of volunteers, staff, callers, and supporters who have made The Ear what it is: a place of connection, empathy, and hope,” the organization said in a social media message. “We’re incredibly proud of the impact we’ve had and the lives we’ve touched — and we want to thank every single one of you who helped create and carry forward this legacy.”
The group referred people who need support to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (dial 988) or the Michigan Peer Warmline, (888) 773-7753.
The Listening Ear Crisis Center had been operating since 1969, when it was founded in East Lansing, and offered free crisis support and counseling, including for survivors of sexual assault. Nearly a decade ago, it was shunned by its nonprofit community peers for simultaneously employing three registered sex offenders and was kicked out of a countywide task force serving sex assault victims.
Prior to the June 2016 reports about sex offenders in the State Journal, the group didn’t do background checks on volunteers because it wanted to accept people for who they are, not who they were, Listening Ear officials said at the time. It later implemented background checks.
Tax records indicated the group’s fundraising was negatively impacted by the scandal, but the organization persevered.
Listening Ear was listed in good standing on the state’s online business registry. Officials for the nonprofit did not immediately respond to a message from the State Journal sent through the group’s Facebook page on July 9.
There are a dozen companies in Michigan that use Listening Ear as a moniker, many of them nonprofits, the state registry indicated. A Listening Ear Crisis Center that operates hotlines in northern lower Michigan is not affiliated with the Lansing center, according to someone who answered the phone at one of the hotline numbers on July 10.
The man who was manning the hotline said the Lansing group warned his nonprofit it might receive a higher call volume because the Lansing Listening Ear was closing.
Contact Ken Palmer at kpalmer@lsj.com. Follow him on X @KBPalm_lsj
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Long-time Lansing non-profit crisis center calls it quits
Reporting by Ken Palmer, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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