Volunteer mediators help those in debt...

With the way the economy is going for many, finding yourself in debt and not knowing what to do is not that uncommon anymore. Interesting article in Newsweek on this very topic. A small part of the article:

It takes about 10 minutes for Diane (not her actual name) to tell her story outside a Manhattan court room. Her husband was diagnosed with Stage III cancer three years ago and treatments left the couple with $60,000 in medical bills. Unable to work through his illness, her husband lost his job and the adjustable rate on their refinanced mortgage shot up. Now, the collection agencies and the credit companies are demanding their money. "I'm sorry to hear this," says Jeff Thompson, a 30-year-old New York City police officer. "It sounds like you've been through a lot."

Thompson isn't about to arrest Diane, he's showing up in court to try to help her navigate a way out of deep debt. Thompson works as volunteer mediator with Safe Horizon, a New York nonprofit that's perhaps best known for its work with victims of violent crimes. While that is the group's main mission, it has recently branched out to help those who have become casualties of the economy, by mediating cases between consumers and their creditors. Since the program launched in 2007, it has helped settle 500 cases, putting a dent in the 20,438 credit-card cases that the state court has seen in the last seven months. Safe Horizon, and the handful of groups that run similar programs throughout the country, don't expect its workload to ease up anytime soon. American households now have an average of 13 credit cards, accounting for $1 trillion in debt. And even the Obama administration's new credit-card legislation—part of which takes effect Thursday—isn't expected to immediately ease consumer debt.