HeartLine Presents Audrey Hatley Award

Heritage Hall Middle School student body

It was our pleasure on October 27th and 28th to visit Heritage Hall Middle School.  We had the rare treat of presenting seven HELP presentations simultaneously to seventh and eighth graders on the 27th and awarding Heritage Hall Middle School with the Audrey Hatley Award on the 28th.  Heritage Hall received the award for incorporating HeartLine’s HELP initiative into its seventh and eighth grade curriculum last year.  See the link for a gallery of photographs from the presentation.

Audrey Hatley Award Presentation 2011 Photo Gallery

A History of the Audrey Hatley Award

Each year, HeartLine recognizes a school that has placed special emphasis on health and safety education.  Recipients incorporate any of a number of public safety initiatives, such as suicide prevention and awareness, mental health education, depression screenings, substance abuse awareness, and school violence awareness, into their overall curriculum. The award is named for Audrey Hatley, a fourteen-year-old girl who took her own life. Audrey Hatley’s story is a reminder of the importance of understanding and taking action on the warning signs of depression and suicide.

HELP–the Healthy Education for Life Program

HELP, HeartLine’s Healthy Education for Life Program, provides free, interactive training to increase awareness and empower students to prevent bullying and suicide among peers. Since its inception in 1997, HELP has reached over 41,000 students in the Oklahoma City metro area with its in-class presentations and seminars. HELP learning opportunities focus on dispelling the negative stigma of getting help for mental illness and suicidal tendencies, understanding the warning signs of suicide in peers, and learning how to take action so that at-risk students are identified and receive the help they need. ASK-LISTEN-TELL is the cornerstone of HELP and is a simple and easily remembered model that students can employ if they suspect a peer is depressed or suicidal.

In 2008, HeartLine’s HELP initiative was recognized by the American Association of Suicidology Best Practices Registry for suicide prevention. The initiative includes a 20-minute video, role playing activities, an interactive story board activity, and the cornerstone of HELP: the Ask-Listen-Tell model. HELP presentations also include a brief evaluation in which students have the opportunity to self identify as being at risk for depression or suicide.

For more information about HeartLine’s HELP initiative, please contact Lisa Harper, Director of Suicide Prevention and Outreach Programs at lharper@heartlineoklahoma.org or by phone at 405.840.9396 x114.

OCCF visits HeartLine board

(l-r) OCCF Representative Gayle Farley, HeartLine Board President Joe Hight, and HeartLine Interim Executive Director (External Affairs) Clint Williams

At its last regular meeting on September 20th, 2011, the Board of Directors of HeartLine was honored with a visit from Gayle Farley from the Oklahoma City Community Foundation.  Gayle gave a brief report on the state of the foundation and presented HeartLine with its annual endowment disbursement check.  We are greateful to the foundation for all it does to support the Oklahoma City non-profit community and are privledged to be able to partner with OCCF on a number of projects.  At the moment, we are working on a capacity building project made possible by OCCF.  Included in this project are a complete website redesign, an integration of our two donor management software programs, and funding to facilitate a strategic planning session.  Thanks again to the Oklahoma City Community Foundation!

HeartLine Receives Oklahoma County Bar Association’s Liberty Bell Award

On Monday, May 2nd, 2011, HeartLine, Inc. was named the 2011 recipient of the Liberty Bell Award by the Young Lawyers Division of the Oklahoma County Bar Association. The award was bestowed at the OCBA’s annual Law Day Luncheon and is given to non-lawyers or lay organizations that have promoted or supported the legal system. HeartLine was selected in large part due to its referral of 2-1-1 helpline callers seeking legal services. Through HeartLine’s 2-1-1 helpline, callers seeking legal services are referred to Legal Aid, the Oklahoma Bar Association, the Senior Law Resource Center, and other sliding scale legal service organizations.

“We are honored to be recognized by the Oklahoma County Bar Association with this prestigious award,” said Tom Taylor, Executive Director & CEO of HeartLine, “and we admire the work of the OCBA’s Young Lawyers Division, especially concerning public service projects and community partnerships that help provide legal resources for all people.”

The Young Lawyers Division of the Oklahoma County Bar Association provides an avenue for Oklahoma’s young lawyers to work on bar-related and public service-related projects. The work of the YLD is carried out through the combined efforts of the officers, board of directors, committee chairpersons, and members. All members of the Oklahoma Bar Association in good standing who where first admitted to the practice of law 10 years ago or less are automatically YLD members.

HeartLine, Inc. has been serving Oklahoma since 1971 and provides suicide prevention outreach programs, compassionate listening, and crisis intervention services. Call specialists are available around the clock answering HeartLine’s various helplines, including: 2-1-1, the 24/7 helpline 848-CARE, the Oklahoma Problem Gambling Helpline 1-800-522-4700, and two national suicide prevention lines, 1-800-SUICIDE and 1-800-273-TALK. For more information about HeartLine and how to get connected as a volunteer or community partner, contact HeartLine at 405.840.9396 or visit http://www.heartlineoklahoma.org/.

HeartLine, Inc. receives ESCCO’s Excellence in Non-profit Management Award

(l-r) Donna Rinehart-Keever, Tom Taylor, Phil Norton, and Bill Phillips

On March 31st, 2011, the Executive Service Corps of Central Oklahoma (ESCCO) recognized HeartLine, Inc. as the recipient of its annual Harry Perry Award for Excellence in Non-Profit Management. ESCCO is a group made up of retired professionals who volunteer their time and talents as business management consultants to non-profit agencies, government entities, and school districts.

Nomination criteria included completion of an ESCCO consulting project within the past three years and demonstration of excellence in non-profit management by positively acting on one or more recommendations, achieving enhanced capacity for mission accomplishment, and exhibiting capability for sustained successful operations.

Tom Taylor, Executive Director and CEO of HeartLine, Inc. stated, “It is a great honor to be recognized for excellence in non-profit management by such a well-respected organization. The ESCCO consultants who assisted us with our project gave us many excellent suggestions for improvement. As a matter of fact, I credit the HeartLine Board of Directors and the implementation of ESCCO’s suggestions as the major reasons for our success.”

Donna Rinehart-Keever and Tom Taylor, II

HeartLine, Inc. is the fifth recipient of the Harry A. Perry Award, named in honor of the late Harry A. Perry II, an executive of Fleming Cos, who was a founding member of ESCCO and chairman for two years. Previous winners include Goodwill Industries, Inc., the Oklahoma History Center, the Oklahoma City Boathouse Foundation, and NewView Oklahoma.

The Executive Service Corps of Central Oklahoma began in 1995 when community leaders Bill Phillips, Bernie Ille, John Belt, Harry Perry, Nancy Payne Ellis and Marilyn Meyers sought to professionally help non-profits solve business problems. For more information on ESCCO, visit their website at http://www.escco-online.org.

HeartLine, Inc. has been serving Oklahoma since 1971, and provides suicide prevention outreach programs, listening and crisis intervention services. HeartLine’s call specialists are available around the clock answering various helplines including 2-1-1, the 24/7 helpline 848-CARE, the Oklahoma Problem Gambling Helpline 1-800-522-4700, and two national suicide prevention lines 1-800-SUICIDE and 1-800-273-TALK. For more information about HeartLine and how to get connected as a volunteer or community partner, contact HeartLine at 405.840.9396 or visit http://www.heartlineoklahoma.org.

Members of the HeartLine board and staff at the ESCCO award ceremony