by Michelle Willson, Feature/Entertainment Editor
One day while working in the theatre on October 3, an email notification popped up on Junior Peyton Lucas’s phone that caught his attention. It simply read “Congratulations”. Upon further inspection, it was from The Trevor Project, an American non-profit organization founded in 1998 focused on suicide prevention efforts among LGBTQ+ youth.
Payton had applied to be apart of the program months prior and was told he was on a waiting list. He quickly told everyone he was working with and sent a screen shot of the email to the NWOSU Gay-Straight Alliance group chat where he received congratulations from his fellow club members.
“I applied for the Trevor Project because I wanted another opportunity to volunteer and I saw they were looking for volunteers for this new opportunity that you could literally do from anywhere. I figured I should go ahead and apply for it since its something I eventually want to do with my career.”
Lucas is currently going through 40 hours of virtual training to be a TrevorChat/TrevorText volunteer.
Lucas said he has done eight modules so far. It consists of harm reduction as well as specific like self-harm, bullying and child abuse.
“Instead of having to call the hotline, they can just text or chat online and talk that way.”
The Trevor Project website states that virtual training including webinar lectures, roleplays, and monitored shifts. Throughout this training, volunteers will learn about gender identity, suicidology, risk factors for LGBTQ young people, and Trevor’s Crisis Support Model to prepare them to speak with youth in crisis.
May 4 is the due date of his last training it will be a monitored shift. Where he will interact with someone but be watched to make sure he is saying the right things.
“I’m extremely excited and happy that I can be apart of this wonderful thing they are doing,” Lucas said. “They are doing a lot of good work and I am proud to be a part of it.”
Lucas said that he hopes that he not only gets career experience but also he wants to make a difference in a lot of young people’s lives.
“This is something that I have experienced once before and I want to help other people who are going through similar things that I went through,” Lucas said. “I want to help them deal with it and make it though as okay as possible.”