From a Barbershop to a Community Pillar

Our story begins not in an office, but in a barbershop. In 1965, Reverend Phil Lyon, a barber and minister in Northside Berkeley, began operating a suicide hotline from his shop on Euclid Avenue. He worked from a simple but profound philosophy: that neighbors can help neighbors through concerned, compassionate listening.

One of those neighbors was Ron Tauber, a Ph.D. student who was in the shop when Phil took a a call on his wall-mounted pay phone from someone who was suicidal. Phil told him he had started a volunteer line in the basement of a nearby church, and Ron began to volunteer.

Growing Our Commitment

On February 21, 1966, this volunteer effort was officially incorporated as a nonprofit: Suicide Prevention of Alameda County. With an early board that included the Alameda County Coroner and the Chief of Mental Health, the agency secured the first-ever mental health contract for a community-based organization in Alameda County. Ron Tauber, that early volunteer, was hired as Executive Director in 1971 and served in that role until 1999.

Evolving to Meet Our Communities’ Needs

The agency quickly grew to address more of the spectrum of community needs beyond immediate crisis intervention. We recognized that support was needed for all of life's challenges, including loneliness, depression, and grief.

To reflect this expanding work, we launched several new programs:

• 1977: Established a unique treatment group for survivors of suicide attempts.

• 1982: Founded a grief counseling program to provide therapy for the bereaved, particularly those grieving sudden or traumatic deaths.

• 1993: Launched an in-home counseling program to serve homebound older adults, with a special emphasis on low-income and minority elders.

To better reflect this broad range of services, we officially changed our name to Crisis Support Services of Alameda County (CSS) in 1995.

An Anchor in Times of Crisis

Since 1966, CSS has served as an essential resource during major community-wide crises, including the Loma Prieta Earthquake and the Berkeley/Oakland Hills Fire. Certified by the American Association of Suicidology and headquartered in Oakland since 2002, we continue to honor our founding principle of compassionate, neighbor-to-neighbor support for all of Alameda County.