Paying hope forward through Support Calls: Lauren’s story
“Sometimes the mission of an organization clicks with you.”
That’s how Lauren, one of the supporters who offers a listening ear to a peer through our Support Calls program, describes encountering HeartSupport at Warped Tour Long Beach in 2025.
“My sister and I were chatting with a volunteer while we got temporary tattoos, and we learned what the organization does. Immediately, I wanted to participate,” Lauren remembers.
That was in July 2025, and Lauren and her sister were there to see favorite bands they’ve loved for years: Sublime, All American Rejects, Rise Against, and Bowling for Soup. But she connected with HeartSupport on a level that transcended their shared presence at the day-long festival.
She says, “At Warped Tour, we were just walking around exploring. They had the wall up. It looked really interesting. It’s a very approachable setup, and I think we find the things that we’re meant to. I think it was just a very nice kismet. I’m not a religious person, really, but I do think the universe nudges you in the right direction.”
Shortly after learning about HeartSupport at Warped, Lauren followed that nudge and took the training to provide peer mentorship through Support Calls. She’s very reassuring about how easy it is to get on board.
“The training to be a supporter is very straightforward. Everyone comes as they are,” Lauren says.
By the end of August, she’d been matched with a peer to support. They began meeting for an hour every week via Discord, talking about life, struggles, and victories.
Meanwhile, Lauren was added to the Discord group for everyone else providing support through the program. She quickly found that she was part of a bigger community than she’d imagined. That became especially crucial when a mass shooting in her hometown of Austin left Lauren reeling.
“I had quite a few feelings after. I have some PTSD from other things in my life, and I felt that coming back up,” she explains.
Lauren already has a strong support system, and she has done her own healing work. Still, she was blown away by how the HeartSupport community bolstered her strength and her hope in the midst of such an activating time.
“I reached out to the community in the supporter’s space, like ‘Hey, I‘m not sure if this is the right place to be reaching out. This is what happened. If anyone else has been through something similar, I’d love if you could share.’ And wow, people were really kind in their responses,” she says in amazement. “I got lists with numbered strategies of things people have done and dealt with. It blew me away, the kindness of strangers who are all in the same community. People care. It’s a beautiful thing.”
And at the same time, Lauren has found her life enriched by the relationship she has with her peer. Over the span of eight months, Lauren has been inspired by the growth and change she’s seen through their weekly touchpoints.
She says, “I’ve heard my peer sound more confident over time. I know a lot of that comes from the work that they do on themselves. It’s just really incredible to experience that with them and be able to hold space for whatever it is that they’re going through. At first, I really wondered if I was making any difference at all. The thing we all have to remind ourselves of sometimes is that people aren’t going to keep doing something like that if it’s not helping them in some way. Even if it is just having a person that they know is there and cares about them, that can really go a long way.”
Lauren references a statistic that HeartSupport has documented through tracking our Support Calls program: participants show a 17% increase in self-efficacy, which means they are more able to take confident, regulated steps forward in their lives.
“We know it’s helping, having a number that you can actually repeat and point to,” Lauren says earnestly. “Maybe that’s not an exact figure in our case, but for my peer and me, on an individual level, it doesn’t matter what the numbers are as long as my peer feels supported.”
As that expressed sense of confidence grows, it’s clear that Lauren’s peer does in fact feel supported. Something as simple as having another person willingly, consistently showing up for you can be life-changing. And in turn, showing up for someone else can be just as impactful.
“Talking to my peer has helped put certain things in my own life into perspective too,” Lauren is quick to acknowledge. “I’ve told her that I just, time and again, am blown away by how resilient she is. I tell her even when she’s struggling with something, that resilience comes through. It’s something that not everyone is able to do.”
This is part of why we’re prioritizing growing to 125 Support Call matches in 2026: we know that every match actually impacts two people, not just the one receiving support.
Lauren describes the growing HeartSupport community “a big chaotic family where you don’t know everyone, but it’s wonderful.” That kind of rare experience can be priceless. If you want to be a part of it, either to get or receive support, you can go to heartsupport.com/get-support. However you choose to get involved, the experience is guaranteed to change you.
“When you are holding space for someone, a lot of times it isn’t something you can fix,” Lauren says. “You can hold space, you can share your experience and perspective if they’re open to that, but you don’t need to be anybody special to participate. You don’t have to be some kind of expert. You just have to care.”
Because people like Lauren care, the music scene is healing: one call at a time.
