Since young people in distress are more likely to turn to peers than adults, training is critical to equip YouthLine volunteers to do what they do safely — both for themselves and the callers, said Emily Moser, YouthLine’s programming manager.

YouthLine volunteers go through a three-hour orientation and 55 hours of training where they listen as their peers take calls. SafeTALK (Suicide Alertness for Everyone) training helps them recognize thoughts of suicide. And more experienced volunteers go through Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training, or ASIST, which prepares them to intervene during a moment of crisis.

YouthLine asks teenagers to commit to one three-and-a-half-hour shift per week for at least a year. Many of these volunteers sign up for extra shifts, and stay for several years.

“I started volunteering at YouthLine because I felt like a lot of my friends were coming to me with these really intense issues and I felt powerless to help them,” said Katarina Grealish, 17. She said she has built the confidence she was looking for to help others, and can relate to the young people who call in, without downplaying what they are going through.

“Teenagers have a lot of black and white thinking,” Ms. Grealish said. “And so it can be really hard to have an adult, who has more of the gray area thinking, point out the gray area.”

Volunteers know what it means to be a teenager in 2019 and they are trained to meet callers where they are. When callers say, for example, that they failed a test and now they will never go to college, volunteers can listen, let the callers express their feelings and relate — instead of immediately responding that everything will be O.K.

There is always a clinician with a master’s degree in the room, supervising activity from a standing desk. To coach the volunteers, these experts listen to calls and review texts, chats and emails using an internal messaging service. They remind the volunteers of best practices that are part of their training and share ideas for how to move the conversation along. Volunteers learn to suggest that callers talk to an adult whom they trust, like a parent, counselor or neighbor. The YouthLine has to report to child protective services or emergency services if they speak with anyone who is being abused or in danger, but Ms. Moser said they rarely have to do so.