Riverhead Nonprofit Helpline Debuts

After more than 40 years of providing crucial aid to individuals in distress, Riverhead-based nonprofit RISE Life Services is expanding its services to include a helpline for those facing struggles.

In every community, there are individuals facing serious challenges—disabilities, mental health struggles, homelessness, addiction. But RISE is dedicated to making sure struggling individuals receive the support they need in order to reach their full potential. The program has now launched a helpline with the sole purpose of making sure anyone in need of help is receiving the personalized support they require.

“What the helpline does is, it gives everyone a specific number to call into,” says Admission and Intake Director Darryl Johnson. “Before, they’d just call RISE, and we have so many different departments and people working for us, sometimes it’s hard to connect people to the correct resource. So the helpline connects you to the right resources and team members so that we’re facilitating that conversation with you from day one, as soon as you call.”

When RISE first started out in 1980, the organization was dedicated to providing support to those with developmental disabilities, both mental and physical. Since then, it has grown to aid anyone who is in need of support.

“Our motto is that we’re here to help all people of all abilities,” Johnson says. “Even though we focus on individuals with mental illness or developmental disabilities, there are a lot of people that have other challenges. Sometimes it’s just, ‘I lost my job, I lost my housing. What else is out there for me?’ So we help people of all abilities, not just those who were diagnosed with a disability.”

RISE’s services include residential services, crisis intervention, recreation therapy, psychological evaluations and much more. If an individual is in need of a service that RISE doesn’t offer, it will use partnerships with numerous hospitals, clinics and businesses in order to put that individual in contact with whoever can provide the service the individual requires.

If you or a loved one is in need of information or support, you can use the helpline 855-RISE-LIFE or visit the website at riselifeservices.org.