Realizing Mission
Inspire’s mission is to help young Americans lead happier lives.
Inspire takes a strength-based, public health approach to its work with a focus on mental health promotion and the prevention of high risk behavior, with a particular interest in suicide prevention. Inspire USA Foundation is part of an international network which includes Australia, where Inspire began, and the Inspire Ireland Foundation.
What is reachout.com?
Inspire launched reachout.com in March 2010. Reach Out is an online mental health information and support service designed to help 16-24 year olds get through tough times. Reach Out integrates youth generated, expert-reviewed information and real life stories with opportunities to connect with others in a supportive, safe environment. It is based on a highly successful, Australian program that has been operating for 12 years and is recognized by 1 out of 2 young people in this target age group. Working alongside others, Reach Out has contributed to a halving of the youth suicide in Australia in a decade. Read more about Reach Out.
“We Can Help Us” campaign
On March 31, 2010, In collaboration with the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the Ad Council and DDB, the Inspire USA Foundation launched a public service advertising (PSA) campaign designed to reduce the incidence of suicide and suicide attempts among teens in the U.S. The call to action for teens is to reachout.com where they can hear stories from other teens that have faced similar tough times and navigated them successfully where they can hear stories from other teens that have faced similar tough times and navigated them successfully.
The “We Can Help Us” campaign provides an opportunity to generate hope among teens who are going through a tough time across the United States. The campaign will be comprised of television, radio, print and interactive PSAs, as well as in-school and mall posters, directed at 13 to 17 year-olds. The PSAs seek to convey that teens are not alone in their struggles with emotional and mental health problems. View the We Can Help Us campaign
On reachout.com, the We Can Help Us landing page invites people going through a tough time to find hope in the stories on the media wall
Mental health outcomes for teens and young adults
Inspire is committed to conducting ongoing research to assess the effects of Reach Out.
Increased mental health literacy, increased help-seeking behavior, and stigma reduction are proximal outcomes of interest. Longer term, Inspire hopes that out efforts, integrated with those of others, will impact rates of suicide and other high risk behaviors and that we will contribute to an evolving evidence base about how technology can be used to promote healthy behavior. Inspire will also collect data about user demographics, market penetration, and youth perceptions of the Reach Out website.
