What 19 Million Texts Can Tell You About Crisis In The U.S : Crisis Text Line Fights an Epidemic with Data

Nancy Lublin, CEO of Crisis Text Line, a nonprofit organization that supports individuals through suicidal thoughts, sexual abuse, drug addiction, and more via Twilio SMS, is on a mission to put her organization out of business by providing effective crisis support and data-driven policy solutions. With nearly 20 million texts exchanged so far, the organization measures response time in minutes and seconds, aiming for sub-1.4 minute response times for high-risk individuals. Crisis Text Line uses its records to recall safety planning for users and aggregates anonymized data on crisistrends.org to inform policy makers. The organization's data is helping to identify crisis hotspots across America, such as counties with higher rates of substance abuse or physical abuse. By analyzing these data points, Crisis Text Line aims to influence policy and drive smarter funding and changes in schools and police departments.