ALONGSIDE ANDREW OVER THE YEARS

We are thrilled to partner with Erika’s Lighthouse for a second time awarding them our 2022 Grant to build up their Teen Empowerment Club.  By creating an Erika’s Lighthouse Teen Communication Platform, they will be able to reach out to more school so they can provide materials and support to the clubs.  These clubs are depression, mental health education and advocacy clubs that allow students to organize and lead mental health initiatives in their schools to reduce stigma.  Clubs meet either weekly or monthly to sponsor Actions into Awareness Activities.  This program is unique and effective because the students lead the charge in changing the mental health conversation.  By designing this new platform Erika’s Lighthouse will interact and share ideas, create a new Teen Club Page to access resources, host a forum/social site for Teen Clubs, create a separate login for teens that will seamlessly integrate into their database, track user resource downloads so they can better support sponsors, clubs, and members and streamline communication to promote new clubs and better activated existing clubs. 

The Andrew Applegate Foundation is proud to become partners, financially supporting Nami Chicago with our 2022 Merit Grant of $25,000.  With our support Nami Chicago will create a new program for schools using their comprehensive holistic approach. NAMI Chicago’s School Wellness Program guides schools in the design of a customized blueprint and operating plan that builds wellness into a school’s culture, philosophies, and corporate practices. Emphasis is placed on leading with compassion, normalizing the conversation around mental health, modeling wellness and self-care, and a visible commitment to crushing stigma and negative stereotypes. At the same time, each operating plan is unique, a reflection of the school’s vision and values and driven by data that considers the mental health needs of the student population and local community. NAMI Chicago positions schools for implementation by aligning the needs of administrative leadership, staff, and students, and incorporating wellness at the prevention, intervention and postvention touchpoints. We are excited at the cultural changes this innovation will create in the K-12 paradigm and the children that will be impacted. 

We are proud to partner with the Kedzie Center who was able to hire a full time therapist to support the mental health needs of the North River community. The Clinician will be assigned to work with youth and their families, support school-based services, and provide youth mental health first aid in our community. Youth are particularly important to the Kedzie Center this year because many of them have been isolated and apart from their usual support structures. We look forward to being able to re-engage them this summer. This grant would also allowed them to respond to the increased demand for services, to avert a waiting list for services, and prevent any lapse of care that may occur during the summer when our student clinicians end their training year.

We are so excited to share that we have chosen Elyssa’s Mission for our 2018 Grant. In memory of Elyssa, her parents started a foundation to educate students, staff and parents on how best to recognize and educate teens at risk. Currently they are in over 200 school in the Chicagoland area bringing the Signs of Suicide programs to students.

With our $60,000 Grant, Elyssa’s Mission is going to create and staff an 8 week support group for schools that have been impacted by suicide. When Andrew died there was no safe place or help at school for his friends. They struggled with their grief and understanding Andrew’s illness. This program will help friends process their grief while they learn about mental illness. We know that Andrew is proud that we are helping teens who have lost a friend to suicide.

The Andrew Applegate Foundation is proud to announce our 2017 grant recipient: Community Counseling Centers of Chicago (C4). C4 is the largest nonprofit mental health care provider in the state of Illinois. With three centers across the city, C4 provides mental health services to thousands of low income children, adults and families per year.  C4 was the first organization in Illinois to provide a Mental Health First Aid course but due to financial setbacks three years ago, the program was eliminated.  We are thrilled that our $40,000 grant will financially support C4 in bringing back this amazing program.

Mental Health First Aid is a nationally recognized program that teaches participants the risk factors and warning signs of mental health concerns such as anxiety, depression, bipolar disease, eating disorder and addictions. C4’s Mental Health First Aid program will provide free courses for teachers, first responders, and businesses, teaching people how to support those suffering from mental health crises.

Thank you to all of our friends and family that have supported the Andrew Applegate Foundation! With your support, we have enabled C4 to provide much needed training to leaders in our schools, communities, and businesses.

Thanks to the amazing generosity of our friends and family, The Alongside Andrew Foundation raised over $25,000 in 2016. The Board looked into many wonderful organizations and decided to award our first grant of $25,000 to Erika’s Lighthouse.  This amazing organization focuses their efforts on teen depression and suicide prevention by educating, encouraging good mental health, and breaking down the stigma that surrounds mental illness. 

Erika's Lighthouse has worked with 124 schools in 92 communities across the country. Their curriculum has been distributed to over 60,000 teens and nearly 3,000 adults. Through teen clubs and awareness campaigns, Erika's Lighthouse brings teens together to combat the stigma associated with mental illness and educate their peers on depression and suicide prevention.    

Erika’s Lighthouse supports schools by providing depression, mental health, and suicide materials and videos free of charge.  Currently they are in the process of updating their materials and creating a new video for high school health classes. The organization has done a wonderful job presenting real teens sharing their real struggles with mental illness and suicidal thoughts.  Above all, their message is hope.  Our grant will enable them to complete the production of their new video and distribute it to schools across the country. Best of all, Erika’s Lighthouse will dedicate the video to Andrew!