KPU instructor leads student-operated helpline for prisoners

Kwantlen Polytechnic University criminology instructor Alana Abramson has created an initiative to provide support to prisoners through a free community helpline.

​Abramson hired 12 post-secondary students as call-takers for the initiative, with five being from KPU. The helpline operates on weekends and offers free, non-stigmatizing support to prisoners throughout British Columbia.

The community helpline is an added resource to help free up legal and therapeutic professionals to focus on their areas of expertise.  

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, a federal research-funding agency, helped fund the initiative by giving a $182,719 College and Community Social Innovation Fund grant.

A majority of the funding from the research council is going towards paying student call-takers, a program manager, and a course release for Abramson, so she can focus on evaluating and analyzing the data collected from the helpline.

The grant also allowed the initiative to give honoraria to community advisors, Abramson says. 

“They’re all people with lived experience of incarceration, and we pass every single decision we make by them because we really believe in the phrase … ‘Nothing about us, without us.’”

Abramson says the motivation to create the community helpline initiative was to make sure incarcerated people had more emotional and social support provided to them — something that has been a need for many years.

“Folks living [in prison] have a lot of trauma and are being traumatized in ongoing ways inside,” Abramson says. “What is being offered in prison is quite limited.”

Mehreen Mundi, a KPU psychology graduate and call-taker for the helpline, heard about the initiative from her practicum instructor, Kev Kokoska. She says her interest in the prison system was sparked by Kokoska and fellow KPU psychology instructor Evan Lopes. With guidance from both instructors, Mundi felt confident in applying for the call-taker position.

“It felt like a great opportunity,” Mundi says.

She says a major success of the helpline is being able to have the opportunity to support incarcerated people. However, witnessing the lack of basic resources for those in need is difficult, she says, adding that the challenges and successes of the helpline are intertwined.

“For many people … those basic freedoms are actually luxuries,” Mundi says. “It feels like a real privilege to support people in those moments. It’s given me a deeper appreciation of the small moments that I used to take for granted.”

Abramson says the training process for the helpline has been transformative for students like Mundi. Students have gotten the opportunity to learn from incarcerated people through witnessing their living conditions firsthand. She adds the training process has given students the empathy needed to support prisoners over the phone.

“We wanted [students] that authentically believed in transformative justice and holding the human dignity of prisoners in high regard,” Abramson says.

She adds the feedback from callers has been positive, but with the helpline only open on weekends, callers have requested the line be open on weekdays as well.

“It’s different for a community person to support them, compared to a paid professional, particularly in a system where everything they say is being written down and can sometimes be constructed to be used against them,” Abramson says.

“Having a non-judgmental, compassionate ear on the other end and knowing that the call is [between the caller and student call-taker] means a lot,” she says.

Mundi is one of those compassionate ears on the other end, learning how to become a better, more thoughtful person for those who need it. 

“I’ve learned [about] the profound impact of being fully present … and the healing power of non-judgmental listening, which helps people feel heard, valued, and understood.”

The helpline has a grant period that will run until December 2026. The goal is to continue operations and find a non-profit organization to take over the initiative once the grant concludes next year, Abramson says.

She adds that there are plans to train more call-takers and finalize a training manual for other organizations to use if they are going to start a helpline.

“We just really want to challenge that stigma and recognize that these are fathers, mothers, sisters … people who are loved. We want to demonstrate that the community is there for them and they will be welcomed back.”