Community Guidelines: Share Your Story
This online submission form allows you to share a part of your life story that could be relatable to people who have similar real-life experiences or are interested to learn from yours.
What types of stories can I submit here?
We invite you to share a meaningful story of hope, encouragement, gratitude or growth related to your mental health and well-being, including your past experience connecting with Kids Help Phone (KHP). These stories are intended to inspire others to engage with KHP and KHP Foundation by accessing services or giving support. We encourage you to share whatever would be most meaningful for you.
How might my story be used?
KHP and KHP Foundation may display, reproduce, broadcast, or distribute your story on our websites, social media, emails, printed materials, at events or with the media. This helps us publicize, promote or educate others about KHP and its programs, services and activities.
What guidelines do I need to follow?
As you consider sharing your story, we ask that you uphold the following guidelines:
Demonstrate respect for everyone.
Sharing your story can take courage. We ask that you take into consideration other people / experiences when sharing your content as well.
- Please don’t share content that expresses / promotes racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism or any kind of discrimination.
- Don’t share any potentially harmful written content, images or videos (i.e. nudity, pornography, depictions of violence or substance use, etc.).
- We also ask you not to use any explicit language (e.g. swear words).
We’re all learners and may make mistakes. Our team will email you to recommend edits when they notice disrespectful or harmful content in your submission. They may offer you suggestions about how you can make your content more respectful for everyone.
Put your own safety first.
It’s OK to challenge yourself to share tough things, but please don’t feel pressure to share anything before you feel ready to. Sharing your story can be a great way to connect, learn and more, but there are some safety considerations to keep in mind.
Protect your privacy and everyone else’s.
As content submitted here may be shared publicly, we encourage you to be mindful of what personal details you might be sharing.
- Consider how sharing personal or identifying details in the content of your submission (i.e. names, age, location, school / workplace, phone number, social media handle, etc.) might break your anonymity or anyone else’s if you’d prefer to remain anonymous.
- Share only from your own experiences / perspectives and don’t share someone else’s story without their permission.
- We also ask that you don’t share any videos / images / identifying information of anyone without their consent. Because you are the one providing consent when you submit your content, we don’t have consent to publish any videos / images / identifying information of other individuals. Consider changing people’s names if you’re sharing a personal story to protect everyone’s privacy.
Help support everyone’s well-being.
We ask that you don’t provide instructions on how to hurt / harm yourself or other people within your submission.
We’d like to share harm-reduction and helpful behaviours instead. Your submission could share ways to make thoughts, actions or activities like suicidal ideation, self-harm, disordered eating, drug use, sex work, etc. less harmful.
We also ask that you avoid explicit details of a violent or sexual nature that may be upsetting for yourself or others, and that you don’t mention specific measurements for things like personal weights, calories or BMI.
You can visit our Peer-to-Peer Community for more tips for safer sharing about topics like self-harm and suicide (and if you’re a young person, explore how you can also connect with other young people about your experiences).
Help maintain and share accurate and relevant information.
This opportunity is for you to share your story and experiences!
- We’d like to keep this space free of external ads and solicitations.
- Please don’t share any third-party information including links to events, surveys, brands, social media handles, etc.
- We also request that you respect intellectual property and only share content that you created yourself.
- Please don’t copy someone else’s written or visual content and submit it as your own. This is known as copyright infringement or plagiarism.
Get support if you’re in crisis.
If you need help now, you’re not alone. Kids Help Phone’s e-mental health services are open 24/7 to offer support. If you’re a young person, we encourage you to connect with KHP by calling 1-800-668-6868, texting 686868 or messaging online. If you’re an adult, you can contact KHP by texting 741741. If you’re experiencing thoughts of suicide, you can get help 24/7 by calling or texting 988 to access 9-8-8: Suicide Crisis Helpine. If you / someone else is in immediate danger, contact 911 or the emergency / community services nearest your area.
The Share Your Story web forms and email address are not monitored 24/7, and we can’t provide crisis support over web forms or email.
If you submit something to the Share Your Story submission form that suggests you need more help (i.e. that leads us to believe you or someone else may be in danger), our moderators will email you during their working hours to share ways you can connect for support. We may also be required to disclose the information / content you submit to an external agency, usually a local child welfare agency or, less commonly, the police, if we think that you or others may be in danger. This is called the “duty to report.” For more information on KHP’s duty to report, you can review our privacy policy.
We also want to let you know that KHP reviews all Share Your Story submissions. If your submission doesn’t meet these community guidelines, we’ll suggest edits. We’re grateful to everyone willing to share their story. While we value every submission, only select stories may be shared by KHP through our public-facing channels.
