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First Call for Help tells school board it answered 95,026 crisis calls last year and runs 24/7 local services
Summary
Representatives from First Call for Help briefed the Grand Rapids school board on 24/7 crisis lines, a walk-in crisis center, veteran and adolescent crisis teams, a sharing fund for one-time assistance and transportation partnerships; the agency said it answered 95,026 calls in 2025.
Representatives of First Call for Help told the Grand Rapids Public School District board that the nonprofit operates 24/7 crisis and referral services serving a multi-county area and that last year its centers answered 95,026 calls.
Cree Larson, executive director of First Call for Help, said the organization runs the regional crisis lines and the 988/Text/Chat backup for much of Minnesota and staffs a walk-in crisis center that triages housing, mental-health and other emergencies. "Everything that First Call does is at no cost to a family," Larson said, describing in-house navigators available around the clock to help with MNsure applications, vouchers and emergency needs.
Why it matters: school staff and board members asked for specifics about the agency's school response because the district refers students and families in crisis to community partners. Larson said the agency's adolescent crisis response team (ACRT) aims to dispatch to schools within about 15 minutes to assess safety, meet with staff and support families.
First Call described several concrete services the board might use: a 211 resource-and-referral database with roughly 30,000 entries, coordinated entry screening for households at risk of homelessness, a community "sharing fund" for one-time emergencies (utility bills, repairs) with rapid weekly decisions, and partnerships that include housing a veterans medical-transport van and running a veteran crisis response program.
Larson gave several operational figures to the board: First Call employs about 124 paid staff, operates a roughly $7.2 million annual budget funded by a blend of insurance billing, contracts, grants and local donations, and maintains crisis-beds at a partner facility offering up to 10 days of no-cost stabilization for adults.
Board members pressed on training and staffing. Larson said screeners undergo intensive HIPAA and crisis-intervention training followed by shadowing before independent phone work; volunteers are used for nonclinical tasks such as packing materials and community outreach.
Board members thanked the presenters and noted the agency's rapid-response role in local schools and for veterans. The board did not take action; Larson said First Call would continue coordinating with school staff on referrals and deployment of the adolescent crisis team.
