The Alachua County Crisis Center is recruiting volunteers to answer its local crisis hotline with an eight-week training course scheduled to start on Sept. 20.

Training is over 80 hours during the eight-week course and volunteers will learn crisis intervention and suicide prevention skills, which will prepare them to answer the crisis lines.

“We are currently recruiting volunteers to answer our local crisis hotline, as well as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (988),” said Sarah Slimak, a clinical community specialist with Alachua County, in an email.

The free training is conducted online. For more information about the training, click here. Training starts on Saturday, Sept. 20, and to get involved, submit the online application found here. The first session will be on Sept. 20, followed by eight weeks of courses running from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, along with two four-hour sessions that can be flexibly scheduled around the volunteer’s availability.

For more information, contact Kevin Sosa at 352-264-6781 or ksosa@alachuacounty.us.