CommUnity to lay off 100 after losing national contract, but local services won’t change

An Iowa City nonprofit will lay off about 100 employees — many who live out of state — after losing a contract to provide backup chat and text support for the national 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

CommUnity Crisis Services and Food Bank still will answer chat and text messages to the 988 Lifeline from Iowans and serve as a backup for Iowa phone calls made to the hotline. CommUnity’s other services, including the food bank and Mobile Crisis Response Program, also will not be affected, CEO Sarah Nelson said Monday.

“The result of these layoffs and loss of this contract will have no impact on Iowans,” she said. “This is not going to disrupt local services.”

Starting in July 2022, the phone number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline was cut to three digits — 988 — to make it easier for people to connect with help. When a person with an Iowa area code calls, they are routed to Foundation 2, in Cedar Rapids, or CommUnity.

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CommUnity was awarded a one-year, $6.5 million contract in 2022 to serve as a backup provider for chat and text messages to the national Lifeline. CommUnity used the money to ramp up from 88 employees to 272 part-time and full-time employees who worked remotely from 10 states, Nelson said.

Vibrant Emotional Health, a New York company hired by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to administer 988, told CommUnity earlier this month their contract would not be renewed.

“It was very unexpected for us that we would not be getting that contract,” Nelson said. “We are a center that is in good standing with Vibrant. We have high-quality scores.”

CommUnity has appealed the decision, but if it's not reversed this week, the layoffs will take affect Friday, she said. The nonprofit told affected employees Sept. 15 and has been working to help them get jobs elsewhere.

CommUnity was founded in 1970 as a crisis hotline after two University of Iowa students struggled to find assistance when their roommate tried to end her life.

In addition to the 988 Lifeline, CommUnity provides a food bank open six days a week, a Mobile Crisis Response Program that dispatches mental health counselors to homes, schools, businesses or public spaces, and a Financial Support Program, which provides temporary aid for things like rent, gas and clothing.

Between July 2022 and July 2023, more than 31,000 Iowans contacted 988 by phone, text or chat to seek mental health support, up from about 12,000 calls a year in past years. The boost was due, in part, to the ease of having the same three-digit number available from anywhere in the United States, providers said.

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