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The Jason Foundation, Inc. History

The Jason Foundation, Inc. (JFI) began October 1, 1997 after the tragic suicide of our current President / CEO's youngest son, Jason at the age of 16. The mission of JFI is to increase awareness and prevention of youth suicide through educational programs. The Jason Foundation seeks to establish a triangle of prevention by providing education to youth, parents and educators / youth workers. Awareness is the first step to prevention, and education empowers everyone to have the knowledge to identify and help at-risk youth. The ultimate goal of The Jason Foundation is to reduce the number of suicides and suicide attempts. This can be accomplished through education and awareness of signs of suicidal ideation and the knowledge of available resources to help. Since its inception, The Jason Foundation has become a national leader in youth suicide awareness and prevention. JFI programs are now used to some degree in all fifty states and several foreign countries.

Several important groups have affiliated with The Jason Foundation to support our mission and efforts of youth suicide prevention.

• JFI has a strong Medical Advisory Board that provides support and guidance as programs are developed. The board includes several noted professionals including Dr. David Satcher, former Surgeon General of the United States.

• The National leader in psychiatric services, Psychiatric Solutions Inc. (PSI) is JFI's National Clinical Affiliate. JFI will open affiliate offices in the majority of PSI's facilities nationally.

• Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer joined JFI in October, 2004 as National Corporate Affiliate.

• JFI's Crisis Hotline Resource Affiliate is the Girls and Boys Town . The Girls and Boys Town National Crisis line has trained counselors who can respond to questions every day of the week, 365 days a year. Over the past decade this line has helped over 7 million callers find help.

• The American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) has affiliated with JFI along with over fifty Division I college football coach ambassadors in their home states.

• USA Wrestling which is made up of over 140,000 members nationally including middle, high school and college wresting promotes awareness and JFI's educational programming.

• As an International Ambassador , the American Taekwondo Association's responsibilities are simply to help make the Nation aware and be supportive of The Jason Foundation and their efforts to prevent suicide.

Without the help of organizations such as the ones listed above, JFI would not be able to educate so many and positively impact so many young lives.