"Sidewalk Talk hopes to expand to Palo Alto"

"Sidewalk Talk first launched in San Francisco in May. Co-founders Lily Sloane and Traci Ruble, along with 28 trained volunteers, set up chairs and "free listening" signs in various public spaces throughout the city, offering to listen to anyone passing by. Their goal is not to act like a professional offering solutions, but instead empathizing and "trying to relate from a place of purely being in it with them."

"It's all the things that you would want if you were having a bad day," Ruble explained.

Ruble said some people in San Francisco stopped to talk because they might have just received an upsetting text message. Others shared that they had existing depression or other mental illness and were seeking treatment for it...

Since its launch this spring, Sidewalk Talk has continued every other week in San Francisco and also expanded to Los Angeles. Ruble hopes they'll move into Palo Alto, but the organization needs a "city coordinator" to oversee the efforts. This person must be a licensed mental health professional, Ruble said."

http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2015/09/22/sidewalk-talk-hopes-to-expand-to-palo-alto#.VgLzAn1VJko.email