Youth Connect: Three years helping East End teens

OLA of Eastern Long Island’s Youth Connect program celebrates three years of service for East End adolescents this year. 

It can be difficult to navigate society as a young person — figuring out who to sit with at lunch, keeping up with coursework and dealing with any troubles at home. Sprinkle in social media algorithms that tell teens who to idolize and artificial intelligence chatbots posed to become a preferred method of emotional regulation, it all can get so dystopian your head begins to spin. 

Some of these topics break no new ground on the trials and tribulations of growing up; we all have to figure out how to live in the world after all, with its everchanging landscapes. 

This is where Youth Connect comes in. They don’t have all of the answers for teens, but they provide something AI can’t: a living, breathing person on the other end of the phone, willing and qualified to lend an ear to those in crisis. 

The program, run by a team of six counselors with OLA of Eastern Long Island, is a free, bilingual, prevention-focused crisis counseling program for all East End adolescents — regardless of their ethnicity — seeking mental and emotional support. 

Launched in 2022, the program provides immediate assistance in Spanish or English through a confidential, anonymous helpline that teens can call or text to speak with a trained crisis counselor. It operates on a daily basis from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Counselors, like Jessica Tovar, lend an ear to the myriad issues that teens experience in their daily lives, be it interpersonal problems, family arguments, social troubles or academic problems. The anonymous line helps kids attain an accessible counselor free of charge, which Ms. Tovar feels is an important resource for local adolescents. 

“They think that a lot of people kind of tend to brush them off and think that their emotions aren’t valid or that whatever they’re going through isn’t big enough to be heard,” Ms. Tovar said. “And I think a lot of teens have expressed those kinds of feelings. So, to be that listening person in those lonely kind of moments is very important for them.”

The program received $50,000 in the 2026 state budget for the second consecutive year to help continue its services on the East End. Youth Connect’s yearly budget is $700,000 and is supplemented by other private donations and grants, OLA president Minerva Perez said.

Counselors also visit schools throughout the year to do presentations and workshops for students to make sure they know Youth Connect is an accessible resource for them. 

“I really hope that all teens on the East End know that they have access to us and that number one, we’re judgement free and here to listen to them,” Ms. Tovar said.