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The Upper Room Crisis Hotline recently named Terry Smith as its new executive director.
Between 1969 and 1973, Smith was a navigator on a Navy destroyer ,guiding it across open seas to fulfill its mission.
Later, Smith worked as a special education teacher and principal for students with moderate and severe disabilities. For 14 years, Smith served as the executive director of Proviso Area for Exceptional Children for 14 years.
Smith began working with The Upper Room, a faith-based hotline serving people in the Catholic tradition, after his retirement in 2017.
His Doctor of Psychology degree, Master of Arts in special education, and Bachelor Arts in psychology gave him a relevant foundation for the specialized training designed by The Upper Room’s founder Sister Mary Frances Seeley.
Seeley, an internationally recognized expert in suicide prevention and the psychology of helping suicidal and desperate callers, created a 69-hour training program designed to prepare volunteers to handle every kind of call.
“I was very impressed with the depth of Sister’s program,” Smith said in a news release. “She somehow managed to convert psychological and Christian principles into simple real-world issues that volunteers could effectively use to help people.”
Founded by Seeley in 2008, the Upper Room Crisis Hotline has become an international service helping callers from Africa, Europe, Canada, South America, and all parts of the United States.
“The Upper Room Crisis Hotline is a place where people can find support, prayer, reflection, and guidance,” Seeley said in a news release. “It is a place they can experience the love of Christ.”
According to the hotline's website, Seeley is the founder of the Will County Crisis Hotline and Upper Room Catholic Hotlines and has 50 years of hotline experience and consulting.
Seeley also has a doctorate in law, policy and society. She is currently celebrating 50 years of hotline experience and consulting.
About The Upper Room Crisis Hotline
According to The Upper Room Crisis Hotline's website, all volunteers on the line are "prepared for service by an eight-week course in communication skills, relationship issues, suicide prevention, addictions and occult, along with role playing and personal screening."
According to a 2017 Herald-News' story, programs over the years have included sunshine calls (to reassure, assist and encourage priests, deacons and religious people who live alone or in small groups, are retired from active ministry, are isolated from their peers, or are dealing with health issues) and priests on call, for callers who only wished to speak to a priest.
The inspiration for The Upper Room Crisis Hotline name was based on the upper room, where Jesus washed the feet of his apostles as a model for their own ministry, Christians met to pray and the Holy Spirit first descended upon the believers waiting in that room, according to the 2017 story.
The Upper Room Crisis Hotline's board of directors (according to its website) include Smith, Seeley, Robert J. Baron (Will County judge and attorney), Philip J. Barone, Jeff Budz (president/principal, Joliet Catholic Academy), Charles Beutel (vice president emeritus, University of St. Francis), Mel A. Gray, Jr. (attorney), Jean Haas (director of marketing and development for the hotline), John Leach, Rev. James Lennon, Marjorie Marion, Michael Murray, Val Rand, Michael Rittoff and Michael Vinciguerra (president emeritus, University of St. Francis).
For more information, visit catholichotline.org or call 1-888-808-8724, 24 hrs a day, seven days a week.