Marshmallow's HOPE

Suicide is the second leading cause of death in people ages 10-34.  Words like depression and suicide were unfamiliar to me until on September 16, 2018, my 14-year-old son Zachary took his own life. There is a great gap in our mental health system globally especially for our youth. There is a terrible stigma that surrounds mental illness preventing people from reaching out, making them feel like they have to suffer in silence and alone. We need to break the stigma that surrounds mental illness to help stop these silent killers from taking the lives of our youth. With our HERO program, our solution could save lives! By developing a HERO mentor program app, we could impact lives in a positive way around the globe and we could change youth mental health care in a huge way! Our app would give kids a lifeline and providers and insight into mentalhealth.

In 2019, almost 48,000 people died by suicide and an estimated 1.38 million people attempted suicide in the United States.  1 in 4 people have suicidal ideations - Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death, and the 2nd leading cause of death in children, teens, and young adults 10-34. Suicide is the result of an untreated mental illness. Mental illness has a terrible stigma that makes people feel ashamed and often don't reach out because they don't want to be looked at as "crazy" or "unfit." Our country has a great need for mental health services especially for our youth.  In our community, we truly lack services for our youth, and an organization like Marshmallow's HOPE is greatly needed for our these kids as they are the future leaders of America.  We believe that one-on-one mentorship can provide empathy, attention, and encouragement and helping break the stigma against mental illness will bring forth people who may be suicidal and encourage them to ask for help. Our organization is already making an impact locally, (servicing a community of 300K+ people) and our hope is to take our project and help make a greater impact globally. 

Marshmallow's HOPE has developed a one-on-one mentoring program called HERO mentors where we Help our youth 9-19 living with depression, anxiety, suicidal ideations, victims of child abuse, feelings of unworthiness and loneliness.  Our program is designed to Encourage them to set attainable goals towards bettering their mental health, Reach those goals by connecting them to professional mental health services, and Overcome the pain and thoughts of suicide to live a long and healthy life.  We educate parents, and other adults on warning signs and for those with suicidal ideations, we mentor and assist on prioritizing mental health. We offer support groups for parents of children living with an emotional mental illness as we realize that parenting a child who is struggling can be difficult.  By supporting families, we are building a stronger community and helping aid in youth suicide prevention.  We would utilize the app to gage the child's daily mental health, keep them connected to their squad so that if they find themselves in distress, a squad member can give them hope and we can get emergency personnel to them as well as allow providers insight to the child's mental state to better their treatment plan and save lives!

Mental health services and one-on-one mentorship programs for our youth lack in our community and are scarce around the globe.  Our solution serves the youth ages 9-19 who are living with depression, anxiety, suicidal ideations, victims of abuse, and combats thoughts of loneliness and unworthiness. We believe that our youth are the future leaders of America, and we encourage them and offer support to keep them alive, but more importantly, instill the importance of mental health so that they become productive members of society into adulthood.  Healthy minded individuals walking through the path of life is important for our communities! Our organization is making a great impact in the lives of children and young adults, as well as helping change parenting by educating parents on the importance of validating their children's very real feelings. When a child voices that they're sad, or feel unworthy of living, they're not crying out for attention, they're crying out for help! We fight daily to aid in normalizing mental health because we believe that it is just as important as physical health. By educating people in our communities on breaking the stigma that surrounds mental illness, we teach that it's okay to not be okay and it's okay to ask for help. By spending one-on-one quality time with these kids and young adults, we are building trusting relationships and offering support to their very real feelings.  We truly believe that quality time spent with these kids by taking them out and doing activities they enjoy not only builds trust, but allows them to open up and talk about their real feelings.  Often, children, teens, and young adults don't open up to their parents or loved ones for many reasons! They feel like they're a burden, they don't want to cause additional stress on parents, or don't want to make their loved ones feel as if there is something "wrong" with them, or worry them, so they will suffer in silence through these very real feelings of self unworthiness and loneliness until they can't take the pain anymore and it leads them to suicide. By providing a HERO mentor, we give these kids an outlet and are able to get them the help they need, as well as we are able to inform parents of what's really happening in the minds and lives of their children! We have community partners that offer professional mental health services to the kids in our program so that as we mentor and encourage them, we also guide them through professional mental health treatment and establish healthier mindsets.  We hope to be able to take this project nationwide and even globally.  Our Executive Director has given talks via zoom all around the nation and even in a school in Spain!! Additionally, we are trying to obtain funding to assist us in the development of a mobile app for our HERO program, where we would be able to monitor the safety of our HERO program participants.  The app would consist of four components; the first component would be the "squad" component- this is where we would link up our program participants directly to their own "squad" just like in the military! The squad would consist of our program participant, 2 teen peers, and their mentor (4 total people)- this model is used because in a military sqad, "no man is left behind." so if someone is in distress, or dealing with thoughts of suicide, they would be directly linked to the other three squad members who can help them until emergency response can get to them or hope is reinstated. The second component of the app would pinpoint their exact location - there is research that states that when someone is in distress and contemplating suicide, they don't have the ability to overcome impulses, yet studies show that when a person has attempted but survived, they stated that they didn't want to die, but didn't have the ability to process through it, with the app, they can send an alert stating they're feeling down, anxious, and their "squad" would get an alert and they can respond, but the grounding technology would turn on gps locator.  The third component would be data collection.  Everyday, the app would ask our participants four questions to aid in helping our participants to start taking control to bettering their mental health by offering different resources, exercises, daily challenges.  The Data would show what resources people are utilizing and resources they're not utilizing.  The data would provide significant insight to better help our participant. The fourth component would provide clinicians and mental health providers the ability to see their patients dashboard through this app - basically the medical provider would get a "physician's dashboard" and the doctor would be able to look into what's called a PH!29 "Suicide Predictor" - by the daily questions asked, the doctor would be able to see if the patient is in a green, yellow, or red zone and have access to provide or adjust their treatment plan based on how the patient, our participant is doing.  We know of an app that is already developed and has been in clinical trials for 9 months now with these features, however, we need the funding to be able to implement and utilize it for our teen HERO program. The app developer needs an extension and pathways that would need to write the codes to make the app safe for our program participants.  We have the connections with the people that developed this app, Operation Pop Smoke, however, we need to get the funding so that we can implement it and abide by regulations that would make it safe for children utilization.

During the pandemic, feelings of loneliness, depression, and anxiety spiked and we began to hear more and more about suicides in our communities due to isolation.  As someone who lost a child to suicide, I felt compelled to do something to help our youth, thus the birth of Marshmallow's HOPE.  As an organization, we wanted to step up and aid those feeling alone, and struggling with thoughts of suicide.  This challenge aligns with the great need of combating loneliness, stress, depression, and other mental health impacts of disease outbreaks. We are the light in other's darkness. 

I established Marshmallow's HOPE Nonprofit Organization Corp as a 501c3 during the pandemic on September of 2020 and rolled out the HERO Mentors program in January 2021 in Rockford Illinois to aid our youth and help prevent more suicides.  Our small organization is growing and making an impact, but we want to make a greater impact and take our program worldwide.  In the short time that we have been established, we have been able to help 100s of kids in our community living with suicidal ideations, depression, feelings of loneliness and self worth. This project could help us take our project to larger levels of impact and help develop a HERO app. We currently need funds as we are a newer organization and solely rely on donations, SOLVE would give us the ability to grow and make an even greater impact not only in our community, but around the world!!

Our solution is innovative because no other organization offers a one-on-one mentorship program that focuses on helping kids who are living with these mental emotional disorders and no other organization uses a mobile app for the youth to track their participant's mental health progress. The development of a Marshmallow's HOPE HERO mobile app as an extension of our HERO mentor program for the program participants to download and stay connected to their HERO mentors and other kids going through similar struggles would allow participants to stay connected and offer each other hope. Our inspirational daily posts offer encouragement to stay stay alive. Our daily mental health questions and data would allow insight into our participant's daily, monthly, and yearly progression of mental health.  The app would allow likeminded kids in the HERO program to connect to one another and give them the freedom of expression without judgement and instead validate that they're not alone. The app would offer lifelines to the suicide hotline and eventually volunteer counselors could join the HERO movement. Practitioners would have access to the collected data to come up with a customized treatment plan.  The app would offer daily encouragement and different "mental health" daily challenges.  We want to be able to encourage kids and young adults to prioritize mental health and live long, healthy minded lives.  Set them up for success into adulthood and instill positivity, love, and wellness. It would be catalytic in changing the lives of mental health in our youth! 

In person, we currently are serving 55 kids in our community but have saved 100s of kids around our nation through social media and have helped 100s of parents find resources and help for their children around the nation.  Since starting Marshmallow's Hope, I have 5,000 followers on my personal facebook so I use it to advocate for mental health and breaking the stigma, as well as raise awareness.  Through social media we have spoken to hundreds of people who are struggling with mental health and suicidal ideations all across the nation,  and with the financial backing, we could impact thousands of kids around the world!  We have received messages from people in Spain, India, Mexico, and the UK, Zachary's story is driving change through Marshmallow's HOPE and our story was even published in a book called Lost to Darkness; Enlightened by Grace! We've only been operating for 9 months and are already making a great impact, but you can help us serve hundredths of thousandths of kids around the globe! 

We are still perfecting a way to measure our current impact; for now, we take a look at how many kids that we are helping attempted suicide prior to our involvement and tracking new attempts after our involvement.  So far we have 100% success rate of zero attempts.  None of the kids we mentor have self harmed or attempted suicide after our involvement and all had a history of attempted suicide or self-harm. We also notice that the kids we are mentoring are beginning to pay it forward to other kids by sharing their own stories and struggles.  We believe that our movement will have a catalytic positive effect of impact! Once our mobile app is developed, it will be much easier to track data.  We will be able to track daily mental health, daily involvement, what features within the app are being utilized more than others or not at all, and it will give us insight so that we can track mental health progress and assist our participants to  bettering their mental health.  Providers will also be able to track their patient's progression. 

Our team currently consists of four Board of Directors, 1 volunteer, and 2 app developers.  I also have a team of that consists of 5 Licensed Clinical Social Workers, 1 Psychologists, and 1 Chief Psychiatrist. 

Our Executive Director -has first hand experience with teen suicide loss by the loss of her child, first hand account of the lack of mental health resources, understands the devastating effects, has identified the needs of the community through first hand accounts through people reaching out, speaking with the community and understanding their needs. She has familiarized herself with the lacks in the community for mental health, sits on multiple nonprofit mental health boards, worked with legislation to understand what it takes to form a law and bring change to the mental health community, mentors kids one-on-one to understand their needs and how to fulfill the gaps that currently exist in our youth's mental health care.  

Our President is an Engineer by trade, and critically analyzes risk, ideas, and applications.  His brilliant mind and ideas give him the capability to make this organization a success and ensure financial sustainability is achieved for years to come. 

Our Chief Financial Officer is a Risk Analyst by trade, which allows him to carefully analyze inherent risks associated with any situation and how to effectively mitigate those risks  

Two app developers that have already created the app that I have described, however, the app is only currently being utilized and clinically tried on adults only 

I have a Chief Psychiatrist, Psychologist, and Licensed Clinical workers who specialize in children's mental health care and counseling that can provide critical insight to assist us in this project. 

Our current board of directors is diverse and understand the needs of our community and prides themselves on providing the needed services to anyone in need, regardless of race, religion, gender identity, national origin etc...  As our organization grows and we can afford to employ a staff, we will give everyone equal opportunity.  We do not discriminate against others and pride ourself on the fact that we believe we are all created equally.  We are committed to build a team who values respect, dignity, fairness, equality, empathy, compassion, and model our HERO mentors mission which is to HELP, ENCOURAGE, REACH, and OVERCOME! 

SOLVE could truly help our growth by offering financial and technical development to assist us in making our HERO mobile app a reality.  The support would be a HUGE blessing for this organization's growth and help us make a worldwide impact!! Through social media and zoom, our Executive Director has already reached people in India, Mexico, The United Kingdom, Ireland, and Spain and has given virtual talks to educate and help break the stigma to a school in SPAIN!! We know that if we have the financial backing which is our current biggest hurdle, this organization will make a HUGE impact in the lives of people around the world. I want to become a Solver, because mental illness affects 1 in 5 people, and the youth are our future!  No mother should have to miss a child that died by his own hands.  Suicide is a different type of grief and it is preventable. If we just help break the stigma and promote the importance of mental health, we can teach our children that it's okay to not be okay and that they are strong enough to live out their purpose.  As a SOLVER, I would help combat feelings of loneliness and hopelessness and together, we would teach the future leaders of America, our youth, that they don't have to suffer in silence or alone but instead create healthier minds.  We would change mental healthcare around the world by giving doctors insight to their patients daily mental health. World Changing! 

We need financial support, pitching to investors, to assist us in growing to a worldwide level and let youth all over know that we are here to help! 

Obtaining volunteers across the world to mentor kids who need support. 

Obtaining counselor's around the world willing to partner and help support our HERO mentor programs' needs. 

Teaming up with counseling agencies around the globe to support bettering mental health in our youth and help build healthier minds

Legal and regulatory help is much needed.  We are new at this and want to ensure that everyone involved is legally protected and following regulatory rules.  

Monitoring and evaluating our impact is something that we have yet to perfect.  We need help developing plans of monitoring and evaluating our organization's impact. With the application that we have in mind, the data can be monitored, but in the meantime, we don't have a way to monitor our impact other than by gaging how many children we mentor have attempted suicide after our involvement. 

Technology is a must! Although we have app developers able to assist us, we need equipment and other technological 

We would like to partner with SOLVE, and companies like Apple, Google, Android, Samsung, Aaron Quinonez, to develop an incredible mobile app to aid our mental health community and support our vision for our HERO mentors program. We need all of the community partnerships that we can get so that we can be known for reliability, follow through, impact, and making a difference in our youth. 

Health and well being of people!! Suicide is the second leading cause of death amongst our youth and it can be prevented.  Suicide often derives from an untreated mental illness and feelings of loneliness and unworthiness.  Our organization is truly making strides to help better the mental health of many (young and old) but our main focus is our youth as we realize that we can lead them to live long, healthy-minded lives. If we teach them to prioritize their mental health and de-stigmatize mental illness, it will allow people to reach out for help. By combining our one-on-one HERO mentorship program and developing the Marshmallow's HOPE HERO mobile app, we would better the lives of our youth, but also change our mental healthcare system as a whole.  Mentoring our youth will help them feel supported and encouraged them to get the mental health care they need to work towards a healthier mind.  Creating healthy-minded adults. Our program will support and combat feelings of loneliness.  Combining our mentorship program with a HERO app, would change mental healthcare as a whole.  The youth in our program would utilize the HERO app by answering questions and engaging with the app, which would provide data to their mental healthcare providers to gauge their patients, our participants, daily, monthly, and yearly mental health.  By logging into their patients' information, they can see the data that our app would track and set up a more accurate treatment plan geared to improving their mental health. 

During my life, I have overcome domestic violence and have lived through my daughter being a victim of child sexual abuse.  I have lost my child to suicide and know first hand what it is like living with depression, anxiety, and PTSD from the trauma. I raised my three children as a single mother.  In 2020, I published my first book to tell my ugly story, in hopes that it would encourage other woman to find hope through the darkness.  I am a woman who has taken her greatest tragedy, and turned it into my greatest purpose.  My story, is empowerment for women and girls all over the world! It is an example of perseverance, and my goal if we were to win this prize, is that through our HERO mentor program and mobile application, we can continue our mission to break the stigma that surrounds mental illness, so that we can help the youth in our community thrive in life.  Our main focus are children ages 9-19 who live with anxiety, depression, suicidal ideations and victims of abuse.  Most of the girls we work with are victims of child sexual abuse and domestic violence.  We empower girls through our program to help guide and walk alongside them through their darkness to keep moving forward. We help, encourage, reach, and overcome (HERO). As a mother who has overcome the greatest pain of losing a child, and many struggles, I am using my ugly story to empower women and girls worldwide. 

Our mobile app would provide data and insight to mental health care providers through a provider dashboard. It would have a suicide predictor data method so if a child was in "yellow" the provider could address that and take action with their patient accordingly and would be able to change medication, or offer a more intensive treatment plan to help their patient avoid going into a red zone! Our HERO app would give participants the ability to stay connected and reach out for help when in distress or having suicidal ideations. Their squad members can help talk them out of suicide if they get to that point, and our GPS technology would pinpoint the participants location so that we can get emergency services to them if necessary.  The app would be able to track data and would our technology would change the world of mental health care.  Provide a lifeline, give hope, encouragement, and the ability of keeping more people alive, especially our youth! This would change the way that mental health care is tracked and it would be a huge benefit to humanity! In 2019 almost 48,000 people died by suicide.  Through our HERO mentoring program combined with a mobile application, we are instilling hope in people who battle hopelessness. Our HERO mentor program will change humanity and it would be a program of resilience!  This would be a catalyst because the more people that hear of our development, the more people that will reach out to use it!