Saving Lives. This project provides 30 suicide prevention and mental health resource events in conjunction with campus and music festivals across the United States. These upbeat events, staged in unique settings allow us to "reach people where they are". This nontraditional approach to suicide prevention de-stigmatizes talk about mental health by providing one-on-one peer support interactions, mental health resource kits, all in a environment that allows true, meaningful connection.
America is in the midst of a well-documented mental health crisis. When in crisis, many people are unaware of the support available to them. Instead, they often wind up in emergency rooms, prisons, or even morgues. The suicide rate is currently higher than it has been in nearly 20 years, our nation's prisons are packed, and addiction has reached epidemic proportions. Suicide rates are up 30 percent since 1999.
Our mission is to connect people, especially youth, suffering from depression, anxiety and addiction to help and to begin the early connection to these resources in creative and memorable ways. Our work will revolve around bringing lifelines to people in crisis right where they are. It is often in a shared love of music and community that people are able to find connection.
Social Impact: We strive to improve quality of life for persons and communities with a decrease in suicides, reduction of personal, family and community crisis, and increase public safety with a by-product of decreased emergency room boarding and inappropriate incarceration . We envision a world in which suicides, emergency rooms visits and incarcerations, are reduced as the stigma attached to mental health is eliminated. A world where young lives are saved, and communities are healthy.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
