2,000 Volunteers Later, Middle Earth Peer Assistance Program Celebrates 50 Years

The Middle Earth Peer Assistance Program, headquartered in the new Health & Counseling Services building, takes more than 1,000 calls to its hotline every year. Photo, taken in January at the opening of the new health center, by Brian Busher.

ALBANY, N.Y. (Oct. 20, 2020) – As UAlbany’s nationally recognized Middle Earth Peer Assistance Program celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, the program reflects on the thousands of students it has supported since it was launched by one student looking to help his peers.

Lou Ringe ’71 was an undergraduate sociology and psychology student when he founded “Crisis 5300” in 1970. His idea, later renamed Middle Earth, was straightforward – set up a hotline staffed by trained student volunteers who can provide peer assistance and referral services to individuals experiencing substance misuse and mental health-related challenges. The idea was based on the concept that, in many cases, students are more comfortable speaking to one of their peers rather than a professional in a clinical setting.

Fifty years later, Middle Earth has trained nearly 2,000 undergraduate student volunteers and responds to more than 1,000 calls to the hotline every year. This year, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Middle Earth students are reaching out by phone to all of their fellow undergraduate students at UAlbany to check-in on their wellbeing and, if needed, connect them with vital campus services. They are also hosting virtual “hangout spaces” for their peers over Zoom and are assembling gift bags for students in quarantine and isolation.

Supervised by M. Dolores Cimini, a licensed psychologist and director of the Center for Behavioral Health Promotion and Applied Research, the primary focus of the award-winning Middle Earth program is on supporting the academic success and well-being of UAlbany students. Volunteers are trained by licensed psychologist from the Center for Behavioral Health Promotion and Applied Research and Counseling and Psychological Services through a series of academic credit-bearing courses offered through the School of Education.

“Studies have indicated clearly that when college students are in distress, the first individuals they often reach out to are their peers,” said Cimini. “It is for this reason that we have made the training and supervision of our undergraduate students at Middle Earth a top priority. Our peer assistants are a vital link to professional counseling and student support services for our students in distress, perhaps now more than ever.”

Middle Earth volunteers also host programs and educational events throughout the year, including the Annual Sexuality Month series each February, as well as assisting with community service projects and fundraisers for suicide prevention, such as the UAlbany Out of the Darkness Walk to Prevent Suicide that supports the work of American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Ringe, now a clinical psychologist and internationally known mental health consultant, is still a friend to Middle Earth and rejoined the organization to deliver keynote remarks at its 50th anniversary celebration on Saturday, October 3rd. He spoke about the similarities and differences between the current COVID-19 pandemic and the campus unrest across the nation in the late 1960’s associated with the Vietnam War, racial tensions, and the drug crisis.

The Middle Earth program, funded in part by the Student Association, has been recognized as a Model Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention Program by the U.S. Department of Education and as an Exemplary Substance Abuse Prevention Program by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Research on the effectiveness of the program has been conducted with funding support from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the U.S. Department of Education.

Students looking to speak with someone at Middle Earth can call (518) 442-5777 Monday through Friday 1 p.m. to 12 a.m. and 24 hours a day on weekends when UAlbany classes are in session. 

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