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Community DC Suzie Bartel Ryan Bartel Foundation · Community D.C.

0:01
Speaker 1: Good morning, and welcome to another edition of Community DC.
0:04
Speaker 1: I'm your host Dennis Glasgow. This morning, we welcome to
0:07
Speaker 1: the program for the first time co founder and president
0:09
Speaker 1: Susie Bartel. The Ryan Bartell Foundation is a youth suicide
0:13
Speaker 1: prevention nonprofit that builds resilience and mental health awareness through
0:17
Speaker 1: community outreach and the fort Program. Founded in twenty fourteen,
0:21
Speaker 1: it offers free safe spaces for teens using evidence based
0:25
Speaker 1: workshops in mindfulness and expressive arts to foster connection, self esteem,
0:30
Speaker 1: and coping skills. Susie will show Ryan's story and what
0:33
Speaker 1: incredible things the foundation has provided the last decade for
0:36
Speaker 1: families in the region. As a reminder, if you or
0:39
Speaker 1: anyone that is having a mental health crisis, please call
0:42
Speaker 1: the nine eight eight Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Help is
0:45
Speaker 1: available twenty four to seven. Here's my conversation with Susie.
0:48
Speaker 1: I hope you find it as inspiring as I did.
0:50
Speaker 2: Good morning, Susie, Good morning, Dennis. How are you.
0:53
Speaker 1: I'm well and welcome to the program. I'm glad that
0:55
Speaker 1: we could feature you and the Ryan Bartell Foundation. And
0:59
Speaker 1: you know, I get an opportunity to talk to so
1:01
Speaker 1: many nonprofits, but you're a special one and it's a
1:03
Speaker 1: special story, and I certainly didn't do the foundation any
1:07
Speaker 1: justice in my intros, so I know our listeners want
1:10
Speaker 1: to hear exactly about Ryan and the foundation, the history
1:13
Speaker 1: why you started it, and we're going to get into
1:15
Speaker 1: some really great things that the foundation has done over
1:17
Speaker 1: the last decade and with you and your team and
1:20
Speaker 1: your family. But please share the story because it really
1:23
Speaker 1: is heartwarming. I know that every time we share stories
1:26
Speaker 1: like this, people say it's a tough one. But you
1:29
Speaker 1: know what I've always learned in my lifetime and I'm
1:32
Speaker 1: sure you have with yours and your family, Susie, that
1:34
Speaker 1: where there's tragedies, some amazing things can come out of them,
1:38
Speaker 1: and they really have. So please share a story.
1:40
Speaker 2: Of course.
1:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, So thank you first of all for having me.
1:43
Speaker 3: I'm really honored to be here. So really the story
1:47
Speaker 3: is about Ryan. He's really the driver behind this, hence
1:50
Speaker 3: the name in the foundation. Ryan was our oldest son
1:55
Speaker 3: who died by suicide at the age of seventeen in
1:58
Speaker 3: twenty fourteen. He was actually just starting off in his
2:03
Speaker 3: senior year of high school and he had really struggled
2:07
Speaker 3: throughout his life with trying to figure out.
2:10
Speaker 2: Who he was.
2:12
Speaker 3: He had I think there's a term called twice exceptional.
2:17
Speaker 3: These are kids that are very smart, they have a
2:21
Speaker 3: high IQ, but he comes with a lot of other challenges.
2:25
Speaker 3: Typically they are learning challenges, and then sometimes they're exhibited
2:29
Speaker 3: in some physical challenges like sensitivities with allergies and things
2:35
Speaker 3: like that. So he really struggled from an early age
2:40
Speaker 3: just not feeling like he could fit in. And as kids,
2:46
Speaker 3: the way kids behaved, they're often cruel, right, he probably
2:51
Speaker 3: behaved differently.
2:52
Speaker 2: He had difficulty.
2:53
Speaker 3: Connecting and making friends, and kids started bullying him really
2:59
Speaker 3: in late elementary school, I would say, and it continued
3:04
Speaker 3: throughout middle school and into high school. But then all
3:07
Speaker 3: of a sudden, when he was in high school, I
3:09
Speaker 3: think high schools here are really large communities of you know,
3:13
Speaker 3: sixteen hundred, two thousand people. So you moved from a
3:18
Speaker 3: very small setting in elementary school where you maybe only
3:21
Speaker 3: have classrooms of twenty kids, and then all of a sudden,
3:24
Speaker 3: you're in this massive building with a lot of people.
3:29
Speaker 3: I think you realized at that point that there were
3:32
Speaker 3: a lot of other kids who were like him, and
3:35
Speaker 3: he started reaching out to a lot of random friends
3:40
Speaker 3: who came from all walks of life. You could never
3:43
Speaker 3: put them all together in one room because that would
3:46
Speaker 3: never have worked. But he was like the nucleus of
3:49
Speaker 3: all their friendships and they really turned to him for
3:54
Speaker 3: advice support when they were going through difficulties. And this
4:00
Speaker 3: was something that I wasn't even cognizant of until afterwards.
4:06
Speaker 3: So we saw him really going through his tenures being
4:10
Speaker 3: very very lonely and often very isolated, trying to find
4:16
Speaker 3: his way, and he was depressed. He went back and
4:22
Speaker 3: forth between depression. He was seeing a therapist at one point,
4:27
Speaker 3: he was also on medication, and then towards the end
4:32
Speaker 3: in that final year, he refused to take any meds.
4:35
Speaker 2: He felt really that he just had a lot.
4:39
Speaker 3: Of side effects and he wasn't comfortable at any more
4:43
Speaker 3: doing that, And I think it was a little bit
4:46
Speaker 3: of a danger because he started really diving deep into
4:50
Speaker 3: a worse depression than previously. And then there were a
4:54
Speaker 3: number of multiple factors that all kind of collided around
4:58
Speaker 3: the same timeframe caused him to basically end his life.
5:03
Speaker 3: So that was in October of twenty fourteen. That was
5:09
Speaker 3: obviously a pivotal moment for us, completely changed our lives,
5:15
Speaker 3: and as any parent who has lost a child, it's
5:19
Speaker 3: not only devastating, but I think when they take their
5:22
Speaker 3: own life, it's a different type of experience because you
5:28
Speaker 3: feel this enormous guilt that you should have done something differently.
5:33
Speaker 3: You know, where did you fail and what should you
5:38
Speaker 3: have changed in the way that you raised him? And
5:42
Speaker 3: what was interesting about that is that my saving grace
5:47
Speaker 3: was his friends.
5:50
Speaker 2: We had a lot of his.
5:51
Speaker 3: Friends who came to see us afterwards, and it was
5:53
Speaker 3: through their stories that I learned about him developing these
5:57
Speaker 3: friendships where he was the support mechanism for a lot
6:01
Speaker 3: of them, and a lot of them felt lost without him.
6:06
Speaker 2: And suicide has this sort of reppel effect.
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Speaker 3: It doesn't just impact the families that are closest to them,
6:13
Speaker 3: but it really has this Reppele effect across all the
6:18
Speaker 3: friends and friends or friends and eventually into the whole community.
6:22
Speaker 3: It just continues to really expand and has a deep
6:27
Speaker 3: impact in general, which is pretty much what we saw
6:31
Speaker 3: happening here, and we're based here in Loudon County, Virginia.
6:38
Speaker 3: We had gone I think as a community of experiencing
6:43
Speaker 3: under nine, under eighteen nineteen years of age kids who
6:49
Speaker 3: were dying by suicide, maybe one or two a year,
6:53
Speaker 3: and all of a sudden, it just exploded. We were
6:57
Speaker 3: experiencing up to I think six a year soon after that,
7:02
Speaker 3: and because of all the stories I was hearing from
7:06
Speaker 3: a lot of their friends, of his friends, I realized
7:10
Speaker 3: that something had to be done. And one of the
7:14
Speaker 3: things that I really felt was meaningful to me, something
7:19
Speaker 3: that gave me purpose, was that, you know, I'm a
7:22
Speaker 3: bit of a personality wise, I'm a doer.
7:25
Speaker 2: I want to go out and fix things.
7:27
Speaker 3: So I just felt I needed to do something and
7:30
Speaker 3: I didn't know what that was. And it started off
7:34
Speaker 3: very much as a grassroots effort. I went back to
7:37
Speaker 3: Ryan's high school. I talked to the principal and the
7:41
Speaker 3: counselors who work there, and I said, I'm not really
7:44
Speaker 3: sure what the solution.
7:45
Speaker 2: Is here, but.
7:48
Speaker 3: I come from a marketing background, and the one thing
7:51
Speaker 3: you learn in marketing is that you have to listen
7:53
Speaker 3: to the people that you're serving in order to understand
7:56
Speaker 3: their needs.
7:58
Speaker 2: I said, why don't we do a focus group.
8:00
Speaker 3: Let's bring kids together who have experienced sadness, depression, anxiety,
8:07
Speaker 3: whatever it may be, and just hear what they have
8:11
Speaker 3: to say, and I've run many focus groups in my career,
8:15
Speaker 3: so that's pretty much what I did. And I have
8:19
Speaker 3: to say that that was a turning point. You know,
8:22
Speaker 3: we heard all of a sudden, these kids had a
8:25
Speaker 3: platform where they could express themselves. They were allowed to
8:29
Speaker 3: talk openly and freely about how they felt about the
8:33
Speaker 3: school environment, whether they felt supported or not, difficulties they
8:39
Speaker 3: were having at.
8:40
Speaker 2: Home, and so on.
8:42
Speaker 3: And we decided, with the school support, to create a
8:47
Speaker 3: club to really support Team mental Health. And it was
8:52
Speaker 3: driven totally by the students, and I was really just
8:56
Speaker 3: acting as a support mechanism, trying to encourage them and
9:00
Speaker 3: giving them access to channels that I was familiar with,
9:06
Speaker 3: and I felt like there is something here.
9:10
Speaker 2: So that first year, which was in twenty.
9:14
Speaker 3: Fifteen, this was exactly one year after Ryan had died,
9:17
Speaker 3: that club really took off and they turned that high
9:21
Speaker 3: school into a movement. They staged a big community event
9:27
Speaker 3: the following spring, they did a walk and community members
9:31
Speaker 3: would come and join us, and before I knew it,
9:36
Speaker 3: I think within two years we had seven schools starting
9:40
Speaker 3: their own clubs. I knew instinctively that we needed some
9:46
Speaker 3: sort of framework by which all of these kids could
9:49
Speaker 3: actually learn how to speak to one another in a
9:52
Speaker 3: safe way, because it's very easy.
9:55
Speaker 2: You know, if you have a lot of them who
9:57
Speaker 2: are in a bad.
9:59
Speaker 3: Mental health date, they can impact each other negatively, and
10:03
Speaker 3: that's actually very dangerous. So I started searching for a
10:10
Speaker 3: program that we could bring in to train them to
10:13
Speaker 3: conduct these movements in a safe way.
10:17
Speaker 2: And the most important thing.
10:19
Speaker 3: For me at the time was it had been a
10:22
Speaker 3: very much a peer led movement at that point, and
10:25
Speaker 3: I didn't want to lose that because it's about empowering
10:28
Speaker 3: them and giving them the ability to talk to one another.
10:33
Speaker 3: I think one of the biggest learnings that I'd had
10:36
Speaker 3: was that kids don't really turn to their parents when
10:39
Speaker 3: they're struggling. They talk to their friends first. So it's
10:44
Speaker 3: absolutely critical that they need to learn how to be
10:48
Speaker 3: a friend to somebody right, how to support somebody who
10:51
Speaker 3: might be struggling. And with a little bit of research,
10:55
Speaker 3: I came across this training program called Sources of Strength,
11:00
Speaker 3: and once I realized, wow, this is a complete fit
11:05
Speaker 3: with my approach to this whole problem.
11:09
Speaker 2: And Sources of Strength have been around for a while
11:11
Speaker 2: and there are an evidence led.
11:13
Speaker 3: Training program focusing on empowering appeer lied movement inside school
11:20
Speaker 3: systems to create campaigns that really focus more on building
11:26
Speaker 3: resilience and helping teens find strengths within themselves that we
11:34
Speaker 3: all have, yet it's sometimes really difficult to identify what
11:38
Speaker 3: they are. So I went to the school system administrators.
11:43
Speaker 3: I got their permission to run a pilot. I raised
11:47
Speaker 3: funding for this training to be brought in for a
11:50
Speaker 3: couple of schools, and we ran it in that first year,
11:54
Speaker 3: and all these other clubs that had been started, they
11:58
Speaker 3: all wanted to the same training program, at which point
12:02
Speaker 3: I had to talk again to the administration and they,
12:07
Speaker 3: essentially Louden County Public Schools took over the whole training
12:11
Speaker 3: program and it became one of their official Tier one
12:16
Speaker 3: behavioral health interventions. What I mean by Tier one is
12:21
Speaker 3: that they over here in the school system, they have
12:24
Speaker 3: different levels. So this program is all about upstream prevention.
12:30
Speaker 3: For a lot of people who don't know what upstream is.
12:32
Speaker 3: It's basically giving kids the tools and the wellness to
12:37
Speaker 3: be able to really cope with challenges before they become
12:43
Speaker 3: a crisis. So we're really engaged in that the school
12:49
Speaker 3: system here in Loudham County has now got it across
12:52
Speaker 3: all middle and high schools. It's about thirty seven different
12:56
Speaker 3: schools and it is actually a national program across the
13:00
Speaker 3: whole country.
13:02
Speaker 2: So that's been very effective.
13:06
Speaker 3: What I really have done since then this back in
13:09
Speaker 3: twenty eighteen. One of the things I realized is that
13:16
Speaker 3: kids need more than just what's happening inside the school.
13:19
Speaker 3: They spend most of their time between home and school,
13:23
Speaker 3: and they need at the point where they're really trying
13:27
Speaker 3: to find themselves, they need somewhere to go when they're
13:30
Speaker 3: not either at home or inside the school system.
13:35
Speaker 2: And again I decided to do a little bit of
13:38
Speaker 2: market research.
13:39
Speaker 3: I did some studies with surveys out in the community
13:44
Speaker 3: to find out, well, if you wanted a community program,
13:49
Speaker 3: what would that look like?
13:51
Speaker 2: And I got great responses and.
13:54
Speaker 3: It really led to the formation of a community around
14:00
Speaker 3: called the Fort. And the Fort is really driven around
14:06
Speaker 3: providing safe spaces for teens where they can go and
14:11
Speaker 3: they can be accepted for who they are, they can
14:14
Speaker 3: just be themselves and they can start experiencing a true
14:18
Speaker 3: sense of belonging. Because I think belonging is a critical
14:23
Speaker 3: protective factor against mental health. You know team mental health
14:29
Speaker 3: is in crisis has been for a long time. Since
14:32
Speaker 3: about twenty ten, we've been having a massive escalation of
14:38
Speaker 3: suicides in the under eighteens. I think it's something like
14:42
Speaker 3: forty five percent increase since twenty ten. That's huge, and
14:49
Speaker 3: that's not even including the number of attempts at self harm.
14:55
Speaker 3: So there is a there's a deep, deep need for
15:00
Speaker 3: solutions to try and prevent this from getting any worse.
15:04
Speaker 3: We're not the only nonprofit working in this space. There's
15:06
Speaker 3: lots of them, but we're very local here in Northern
15:10
Speaker 3: Virginia and we have over the last ten years become
15:13
Speaker 3: a leading provider in community programs. The FORT has really
15:18
Speaker 3: grown to become a pivotal experience for teens who have
15:24
Speaker 3: difficulty really coping in one on one therapeutic sessions where
15:31
Speaker 3: you're really it's therapy, is designed to be about talking,
15:37
Speaker 3: and what's key to the FORT.
15:39
Speaker 2: Is that it's experiential.
15:42
Speaker 3: We do a lot of experiential workshops in there that
15:45
Speaker 3: are designed to provide teens with tools and healthy coping
15:52
Speaker 3: mechanisms by focusing on experiences in expressive arts, working with animals,
16:00
Speaker 3: going out in nature, mindfulness programs, as well as physical movement,
16:07
Speaker 3: because those things combined can be used in so many
16:12
Speaker 3: different ways to really build that protection that you need
16:17
Speaker 3: against difficult and challenging moments.
16:21
Speaker 2: So today, I know this is a long story.
16:26
Speaker 3: Today, after ten years of working in the space, we
16:31
Speaker 3: have created lots of variations of the original thought.
16:35
Speaker 2: It's an experience that we.
16:37
Speaker 3: Typically deliver on a weekend, three hours long, and most
16:41
Speaker 3: kids they come back again and again. But we've also
16:47
Speaker 3: divided it up into something that we're taking directly now
16:50
Speaker 3: into the schools and they are providing individual workshops over
16:57
Speaker 3: a four week series so that it becomes it's a
17:00
Speaker 3: lot more accessible. Not everybody has transportation or the means
17:04
Speaker 3: to get to the fort on the weekend, and so
17:07
Speaker 3: we realize that we have to take our programs to
17:10
Speaker 3: where the kids are, and that's the whole point behind
17:14
Speaker 3: at the Fort at School model. Since the last two
17:20
Speaker 3: years we've also developed some training. So the whole Forught
17:25
Speaker 3: experience is very much built around that sense of belonging
17:31
Speaker 3: that I mentioned. You don't just automatically magically create belonging.
17:37
Speaker 3: It's a skill that has to be learned, and every
17:42
Speaker 3: facilitator who comes to us to help with our workshops,
17:45
Speaker 3: they go through our training first, so we give them
17:49
Speaker 3: mental health literacy skills so they know how to facilitate
17:53
Speaker 3: in a safe way. But on top of that, it's
17:56
Speaker 3: learning the culture behind the Ryan Bartel Foundation, which is
18:01
Speaker 3: to really hone in on acceptance. You know, kids don't
18:05
Speaker 3: feel safe anymore in terms when it comes to being themselves.
18:10
Speaker 3: They have to be free just to explore their own
18:13
Speaker 3: identity and realize who they really are as individuals, and
18:18
Speaker 3: there are not a lot of environments where they can
18:20
Speaker 3: do that. And you know, a lot of them refer to,
18:24
Speaker 3: you know, taking off the mask to be seen for
18:27
Speaker 3: who they really are. And they are so as they're
18:32
Speaker 3: afraid or being judged when they're inside school. So the
18:37
Speaker 3: four provides them with that safety where they can be
18:41
Speaker 3: themselves there's no judgment, and we really ensure that people
18:47
Speaker 3: have the freedom to express themselves and start only by
18:53
Speaker 3: being free. Can you really adopt some of these coping
18:56
Speaker 3: mechanisms that are essential to creating a foundation of resilience
19:02
Speaker 3: that you can deal with that empowers you to deal
19:05
Speaker 3: with life in a healthy way.
19:07
Speaker 1: Right Well, Susie, I want to thank you first of
19:11
Speaker 1: all for sharing Ryan's story, and I'm a parent. I
19:14
Speaker 1: have a twenty three year old daughter who is a
19:15
Speaker 1: filmmaker in Brooklyn, but she's Generation Z and a lot
19:18
Speaker 1: of the signs that you went through and experience ID
19:21
Speaker 1: two with mental wellness and health for my daughter and
19:24
Speaker 1: her peer group. And I've seen the died by suicide
19:27
Speaker 1: in her peer group and it is alarming. I saw
19:29
Speaker 1: the latest stats. And I also work with AFSP and
19:32
Speaker 1: on this show, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and
19:36
Speaker 1: Ellen Shannon has told me that it's staggering right now.
19:39
Speaker 1: The died by suicide and the teen rate between the
19:42
Speaker 1: ages of twelve and seventeen are staggering. And I know
19:45
Speaker 1: you know this and you know the data, but there's
19:49
Speaker 1: a lot to impact. We only have about ten minutes left,
19:50
Speaker 1: so i'd like to do because you know you've talked
19:52
Speaker 1: about the FORT. I know that donations are very important
19:55
Speaker 1: and also volunteering. I would like to ask you about
19:59
Speaker 1: criteria when somebody is able to be a part of
20:02
Speaker 1: the FORT and they check out the website, which we'll
20:04
Speaker 1: give a couple of times here before the interview's over,
20:07
Speaker 1: how does somebody not only get in contact with you,
20:10
Speaker 1: but when the criteria of being a part of the
20:12
Speaker 1: fort or doing any of your programs. What is that
20:14
Speaker 1: for all the parents that are listening out there right now.
20:16
Speaker 3: So the skills that we're looking for, obviously is natural
20:20
Speaker 3: things like compassion and empathy, some experience working with teens.
20:27
Speaker 2: Teens, you know, it's a.
20:28
Speaker 3: Difficult time of your life as you're growing up, right,
20:31
Speaker 3: and not everybody has the skills to be able to
20:34
Speaker 3: know how to talk to teens. So those are the
20:38
Speaker 3: critical foundational skills that we're looking for.
20:41
Speaker 2: But in addition to.
20:42
Speaker 3: That, if they bring any skills, whether it's in yoga
20:46
Speaker 3: or some sort of creative aspect, some art or expressive art,
20:53
Speaker 3: or maybe they are you know, we have physical physical
20:58
Speaker 3: activity teachers, any anybody who has a particular skill. We
21:03
Speaker 3: even have cooking you know, chef chefs who come to us,
21:08
Speaker 3: because because there is there is something for everybody. And
21:12
Speaker 3: what we're what we're doing with our training is we're
21:15
Speaker 3: giving them the tools that they need to be able
21:18
Speaker 3: to facilitate in what they're good at. So we don't
21:21
Speaker 3: really care what skill they have already. We can always
21:25
Speaker 3: create that into a workshop. We provide the messaging that
21:29
Speaker 3: enables that workshop to become effective.
21:32
Speaker 2: So it's not like they're on their own.
21:34
Speaker 3: They're not going to be in a workshop delivering some
21:38
Speaker 3: skills in say cooking, where they don't know how that's
21:42
Speaker 3: going to benefit the team. We're in the in the
21:45
Speaker 3: same room with them, and we're enhancing that experience by
21:49
Speaker 3: providing all the messaging. So everything is built around positive psychology. Right,
21:56
Speaker 3: you can do something that's interactive with your hands, and
21:59
Speaker 3: in the process of doing that and in collaborating with
22:03
Speaker 3: other teens in the same environment, not only are you
22:07
Speaker 3: starting now to realize, oh, I'm good at this, or
22:12
Speaker 3: I can learn to be good at this, you're being
22:15
Speaker 3: exposed to something that you may never have tried before,
22:19
Speaker 3: and there's a growth mindset that happens as a result
22:22
Speaker 3: of that which empowers you. Right do you start feeling
22:25
Speaker 3: good about yourself? It builds your confidence and indirectly, you're
22:30
Speaker 3: finding friendships because you're connecting with the person that you
22:34
Speaker 3: might be working with, and you might find that all
22:37
Speaker 3: of a sudden, you've met people that you would never
22:39
Speaker 3: have talked to before in your life because on the outside,
22:44
Speaker 3: they would not have been somebody that you would approach.
22:47
Speaker 3: And that's the beauty of experiential right. It happens very naturally,
22:51
Speaker 3: it's not a forced experience. So yes, when it comes
22:55
Speaker 3: to volunteers, we're open to any kind of skills that
22:58
Speaker 3: people can bring to the table. Provide this training twice
23:01
Speaker 3: a year. Oh great, we've actually got We've actually got
23:04
Speaker 3: open application throughout February for our spring cohort. Okay, so
23:08
Speaker 3: if anybody has a skill they want to really practice
23:11
Speaker 3: with us, please apply right now. And our programs run
23:17
Speaker 3: every single week, so we're providing them in person during
23:21
Speaker 3: the week on the weekends. All of which all that
23:25
Speaker 3: information is available on our website.
23:27
Speaker 1: Okay, let's talk about being funded. I know that's a
23:29
Speaker 1: big deal and you and your team have done a
23:31
Speaker 1: remarkable job. There's just now one way to donate and
23:34
Speaker 1: give your money and your time. You and your team
23:37
Speaker 1: have been very creative. There are many ways to give.
23:39
Speaker 1: Can you talk about some of them?
23:41
Speaker 3: Of course, you can give in kind. For example, you
23:45
Speaker 3: can provide services without getting paid. That's one way of
23:49
Speaker 3: doing in kind. You can provide goods that are in
23:54
Speaker 3: kind as well, if you don't want to actually part
23:57
Speaker 3: with your money.
23:59
Speaker 2: Goods are always accepted.
24:02
Speaker 3: We do receive occasionally even bequests from people who might
24:08
Speaker 3: have put us in their will. That's another way of
24:11
Speaker 3: doing planning for the future. We also get donations through
24:18
Speaker 3: matching contributions at your place of work, So matching contributions,
24:23
Speaker 3: if you're not familiar with that, you donate one hundred dollars,
24:26
Speaker 3: then the company you work for, if they have that program,
24:29
Speaker 3: they will match it with another one hundred dollars, so
24:32
Speaker 3: it adds volume to the donation. You can donate stocks,
24:38
Speaker 3: so there are so many different ways and opportunities to
24:42
Speaker 3: give if you want to be part of this, and
24:45
Speaker 3: we obviously we rely on donations. We can't survive where
24:50
Speaker 3: a nonprofit, and therefore most of our programs are provided
24:54
Speaker 3: for free or at a very low cost. It's heavily subsidized,
25:00
Speaker 3: all of which is funded by the community.
25:02
Speaker 1: Very good, Well, listen, I'd like to do this. Who's
25:04
Speaker 1: the I wish we had more time, and I do
25:06
Speaker 1: want to visit with you again to see how the
25:09
Speaker 1: foundation is going. But I really appreciate your time, but
25:11
Speaker 1: I would like to get some final thoughts, and not
25:14
Speaker 1: only to recap what we talked about, but as a
25:16
Speaker 1: parent who's been through this, there's a lot of parents
25:19
Speaker 1: listening right now, including myself, and whether they see or
25:23
Speaker 1: hear the signs, and maybe some advice you would like
25:26
Speaker 1: to impart on them. And then also families that have
25:29
Speaker 1: been through this but maybe not been able to take
25:31
Speaker 1: the next step, or they may be worried about something
25:34
Speaker 1: that's happening with a family, or maybe a guardian or
25:36
Speaker 1: somebody that's caring for a young person is maybe feeling
25:40
Speaker 1: something to reach out to you. So I'm going to
25:43
Speaker 1: give the floor to you. You have a couple of minutes, please.
25:46
Speaker 2: Yes, of course, I would say this.
25:50
Speaker 3: Always pay attention to what your teams are doing because
25:53
Speaker 3: their behavior will give you signals whether something is wrong.
25:57
Speaker 3: Don't ignore it, don't put it down to team you know,
26:02
Speaker 3: don't brush it off, don't sweep it under the rug.
26:06
Speaker 3: React And the most important thing is that accept them,
26:10
Speaker 3: don't judge them, because if they come to you with
26:14
Speaker 3: a problem, be open minded, listen to them. Listening is
26:18
Speaker 3: a hard skill for a lot of us. I think
26:21
Speaker 3: parents want to try and fix I was certainly one
26:24
Speaker 3: of those, and sometimes they don't need to be fixed,
26:28
Speaker 3: they just want to be accepted. And being accepted is
26:33
Speaker 3: a huge part of healing so that they can grow
26:38
Speaker 3: and thrive and be themselves. If you are experiencing an emergency,
26:43
Speaker 3: you must absolutely contact either take your child to the
26:47
Speaker 3: er to be assessed, or there are many crisis hotlines.
26:52
Speaker 3: Crisis text Line, for example, will respond to you. They're
26:56
Speaker 3: available twenty four hours a day.
26:59
Speaker 2: And if you are.
27:00
Speaker 3: Looking for in person programming where you can't afford actual therapy,
27:06
Speaker 3: you should be looking in your local community for people
27:09
Speaker 3: like us who are providing in person programs. There are
27:14
Speaker 3: many many nonprofits who are trying to support Team Mental Health.
27:17
Speaker 3: So it really depends on where you live. But we're
27:21
Speaker 3: serving Loudon County and the surrounding area, and we get
27:25
Speaker 3: families who come from Fairfax, from Prince William County, from Maryland,
27:29
Speaker 3: from West Virginia.
27:32
Speaker 2: You know, distance is not a factor here. Take your
27:35
Speaker 2: child to a place where they can belong.
27:38
Speaker 1: Very good. That's no truer words. And I want to
27:41
Speaker 1: thank you for that. I do want you to give
27:43
Speaker 1: the website and you and your team have done a
27:45
Speaker 1: beautiful job with it, not only in the Ryan's memory,
27:48
Speaker 1: but how easy it is to navigate and see all
27:51
Speaker 1: the cool programs you have, the events, the awards and
27:53
Speaker 1: all the news that's going on, and I know that
27:55
Speaker 1: that's its own herculean task of keeping everybody informed and
27:58
Speaker 1: up to date on statistics and and all the wonderful
28:01
Speaker 1: things you're doing. What's the website for everybody, Susie.
28:04
Speaker 2: So it's Ryan Bartelfoundation dot org. Bartel Is felt the
28:09
Speaker 2: A R T. E.
28:11
Speaker 1: L very good. Well, listen. I want to thank you.
28:16
Speaker 1: You certainly have done Ryan's memory justice in the short
28:19
Speaker 1: thirty minutes that we've had, and I appreciate you sharing
28:21
Speaker 1: such a personal story and once again being a parent
28:24
Speaker 1: and a lot of parents listening out there, and me
28:26
Speaker 1: dealing with the subject over the last five years that
28:28
Speaker 1: I've done the show, I just them in awe of
28:32
Speaker 1: parents like you that have had a family tragedy, that
28:35
Speaker 1: have decided that they can go to a next step
28:38
Speaker 1: and help people. You probably have touched thousands of lives
28:43
Speaker 1: that you'll never meet, yet hundreds that you have, and
28:47
Speaker 1: I think that's extraordinary, and I imagine the feedback that
28:50
Speaker 1: you're getting from families, Susie is extraordinary, probably a little
28:54
Speaker 1: overwhelming at times when you get to hear from them
28:57
Speaker 1: and saving lives out there, it must be gratification is
29:02
Speaker 1: not a good word. It's the one I'm coming up
29:04
Speaker 1: with right now. But that you're making a difference out
29:07
Speaker 1: there in Ryan's memory has got to be pretty special.
29:10
Speaker 3: It's the reason I keep going, quite honestly. It's given
29:14
Speaker 3: me purpose, right and that's it's been my saving.
29:17
Speaker 1: Grace right right. Well, listen, thank you so much for
29:20
Speaker 1: your valuable time. Thank you for sharing Ryan's story. I'm
29:24
Speaker 1: very appreciative. Give my best to your family and all
29:25
Speaker 1: the people the foundation. I would love to have you
29:27
Speaker 1: back on the program, and let's give the website just
29:30
Speaker 1: one more time for everybody.
29:31
Speaker 2: Yes, Ryan Bartel Foundation dot org.
29:34
Speaker 1: Very good Susie, thank you so much. Please stay in
29:37
Speaker 1: touch with us and I really appreciate you. I'm glad
29:39
Speaker 1: that we could feature Ryan on Community DC and I
29:41
Speaker 1: really thank you so much.
29:43
Speaker 3: Thank you as well for having me again so much
29:50
Speaker 3: clean notions and make good world a better Please learn
29:56
Speaker 3: more at she can stamps a message roped you by
29:58
Speaker 3: the ad Council and