“We give the kids a sense of a world where things can be different”. Natalia Galechyan and the “1211” project
Hi! You are reading the short textual version of the first season of the podcast “We’ll figure it out”, where we talk to and about people and projects working for social change.
In this text we introduce you to the project “1221”. It is a psychological support chat room for teenagers from 12 to 21 years old. The project helps teenagers feel that there is someone who is on their side and is ready to support them. For the psychologists working with teenagers in chat rooms there are no important and unimportant topics. Natalia Galechyan, the founder of “1221”, the director of the “Spasibo” (Thank You) chain of charity stores and co-founder of the “Normalnoye Mesto” (An Ok Place) inclusive center, speaks on the problems teenagers encounter and the help they need.
“Standing under a cliff and catching children falling off it.”
How did the name “1221” come about? We have this running joke that one day I just looked at my watch and said: “Well, 12:21 is time to create a project.” Actually, the name refers to the age of our potential clients – from 12 to 21 years old. I used to volunteer for a similar project and I saw how much demand there was for this kind of help. Even before we launched the chat room, we launched a website that only had email. And immediately we got requests, even though we didn’t advertise anywhere. Over the first 4 months since the start of the project we have already received more than 2,500 requests.
When I think of our mission, I immediately recall a riddle. A monster stands on the edge of a cliff and throws children from the cliff into the river. What will you do – fight with the monster, catch the children from below, or try to make sure that the monster doesn’t get his hands on the other children in the first place? There is no right answer here. In fact, you have to do all of that: fight the monster, catch the children and make sure that the monster doesn’t catch them. But for now we are standing below the cliff and catching the falling kids.
The goal of the chat room is to help teens to feel better right now. And there are no important or unimportant topics for us. As a global distant goal, we surely want the world to be safer and generally a better place for teens, actually we want chat rooms like ours to eventually become unnecessary.
“Chat room is an instrument that is understandable and familiar to any teenager”.
Why a chat room and not a hotline, for example? There are topics that are difficult for children to discuss verbally, even anonymously. Writing is much easier. It’s especially hard to talk about sexualized violence out loud.
In order to get to a psychologist, you need to make a lot of extra effort, which is often hard for teenagers. One should find a psychologist, schedule a meeting, visit the doctor and last but not least – find money to pay for the appointment. Another important thing is that the chat room is an understandable and familiar tool for teenagers. They all text each other daily, they don’t call each other on the phone.
The goal is to make people feel safe. That is why we chose anonymity.
It is this anonymity that allows our clients to talk openly about things that they cannot discuss face to face. When you are completely anonymous, it also feels completely different.
“The structure has to be reinvented.”
Now we have four main departments in our structure. The first and the main one is the psychological aid unit, where 11 full-time employees and 23 volunteers work. In addition, we constantly cooperate with the “Novye Shagi” (New Steps) and “Tebe Poveryat” (You will be Believed) foundations, and we take specialized training. We now manage to reply to 80% of the requests in the chat room.
There is a fundraising and PR department, a coordination and strategy department, and an administrative and financial unit. Quite unexpectedly, both for me and for the team, we have grown rapidly. Therefore, the management structure that worked for the first six months is not very suitable now. We need to reinvent it.
There is a volunteer section on the website so anyone can join us. You submit an application, go through an interview, then go through training. The training is actually super solid and we are proud of it. First you attend group training, then individual, then supervisory. It takes a minimum of two months.
“Listen, formulate, realize its a problem and search for solution together.”
People turn to us with different requests, including feelings and conditions. Very often they experience fears and anxiety. It could also be a lack of meaning- of studies, of oneself, of this world in general. Fear of communication, fear for the future, fear that “nobody needs me”, “nobody will ever love me”. People also apply with some strong feelings caused by traumatic events.
So how can we help in these kinds of situations? Well, first, we provide the sense of acceptance, by letting them know: you are actually ok, whatever you are feeling is normal. The communication itself is non-judgmental, it’s very therapeutic.
We can help reflect the feelings, name them, verbalize them, and thus reduce the intensity of the experience. We also can be supportive, just be there for each other, especially in a situation of loss.
One of the important things we do is help get rid of the fear of visiting a psychologist or psychiatrist. If we realize that it is a serious matter that is not suitable for the support chat, we ask our clients to visit specialists and to inform their parents. We explain that this is a real problem.
For example, if we realize that we are dealing with a case of bullying at school, we first and foremost let the kid know that bullying is not normal or acceptable. However, this is a problem you certainly can’t solve on your own. You can’t deal with bullying on your own. We suggest the child informs parents. If there’s no support from parents, we think about who at school can help. We can also refer the child to the Travli net (No Bullying) Project. In the case of sexualized violence, we also collaborate with Tebe Poveryat (You Will Be Believed) Foundation or Sestry (Sisters) Center. This is also very helpful.
“The thing about teenagers is that they believe and want a lot of things.”
It’s commonly believed that teenagers are so “rough around the edges,” reserved, complicated. And partially, of course, they are, it is quite typical for this period of life. But this supposed introversion of the teenager or their “roughness” does not justify anything. They are not simply reserved because they are teenagers, but because there is something they can’t cope with. It’s absolutely wrong to think “oh, they are so isolated and aren’t really in touch with me because they are teenages”. Maybe they are reserved because they are being bullied at school. Or God forbid, they experienced sexual violence. Or they don’t communicate because they can’t cope with their thoughts at all.
No, that’s not what adolescence is about. Their adolescent traits are manifested really in how they do believe in a lot of things and want a lot of things. There’s a lot of energy and they’re very flexible and very smart. They’re adults and they’re not adults yet simultaneously and they’re terribly interesting. I think it’s the most difficult period on the one hand, but on the other it’s very bright and important.
I am absolutely convinced that if a child has a space where they are accepted, it is enough for them to develop inner strength to believe in themselves and to find the resources to cope with this life. All we can give him is the strength to cope and move forward. We give kids a sense of a different space and a sense of a world where things can be different. We help them get their faith in the world back.
