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Annual Grant

The Dave Nee Foundation provides a yearly grant to a deserving organization whose mission aligns with ours in serving to support those with depression and/or prevent suicide. Below you may review the past year’s recipients of the Annual Dave Nee Foundation grant; we applaud all their hard work in the various communities they serve.

We are now soliciting applications for our 2013 grant. To apply for this grant, please download the grant application here. Once completed, please submit the application by email to Stephanie Arcella at [email protected] or mail it to the Dave Nee Foundation, P.O. Box 231487, New York, NY 10023. The deadline to submit applications for our 2013 grant is July 31, 2013.

Past Grant Recipients
2012 Grants - Screening for Mental Health, Inc., and The Child Guidance Center of Southern Connecticut

Screening for Mental Health, Inc.

Through their Friends for Life: SOS Signs of Suicide Prevention Program, Screening for Mental Health, Inc. trains high school students to recognize the signs of depression and suicidality, and empowers them to intervene when confronted with a friend who is exhibiting these symptoms. The program engages parents, school staff, and community-based providers as partners in youth suicide prevention and educates them as natural gatekeepers in ensuring youth safety. Particularly compelling is the finding that students who had participated in the SOS program sought help for themselves and their friends nearly 60% more often than those who had not. The Dave Nee Foundation is proud to support their work with a grant that will enable them to reach 10 more high schools with their life-saving program.

The Child Guidance Center of Southern Connecticut

The Child Guidance Center of Southern Connecticut’s Emergency Mobile Psychiatric Services—Crisis Intervention program provides immediate mental health assessment and crisis stabilization services for children and adolescents experiencing serious psychiatric symptoms or severe reactions to a traumatic event. The CGC makes clinicians available to children and adolescents 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in their homes, schools or communities. Last year, the CGC served over 400 suicidal children, none of whom committed suicide. Moreover, of the children who completed the CGC’s crisis treatment program, 87% realized improvements in their mental health and saw their crises stabilized. The Dave Nee Foundation is pleased to support the Child Guidance Center of Southern Connecticut’s Emergency Mobile Psychiatric Services—Crisis Intervention program with a grant that will help ensure that when a child is struggling, help is assured without delay.

2011 Grant - The American Association of Suicidology, Washington, DC

The American Association of Suicidology (AAS) was founded by clinical psychologist Edwin S. Shneidman, Ph.D., in 1968 after he and other world-renowned scholars determined the need for a national organization devoted to research, education, and practice in "suicidology," and advancing suicide prevention. The goal of the AAS is to understand and prevent suicide. The organization works to accomplish this goal by promoting research, providing public awareness and education programs, and training professionals and volunteers. In addition, AAS serves as a national clearinghouse for information on suicide. The Foundation's grant money is being used to educate and inform attorneys across the country on recognizing the signs and symptoms of depression and suicidal ideation in clients and colleagues. To this end, AAS will be conducting a webinar training for attorneys through the American Bar Association (inclusive of CLE credits) and an evaluation of participating attorneys afterward to gauge their ability to recognize signs and symptoms of depression in their practice and work environment.

2010 Grant – Friends Helping Friends of Manasquan, New Jersey

In the wake of eight suicides in the Manasquan community, Friends Helping Friends (FSF) was founded by students wishing to put a stop to the epidemic taking their friends from them. FHF, working with the network of community stakeholders that has been established in response to the current episode of suicide contagion, created a Teen Center. The Teen Center is a place where teenagers can gather and, in addition to having a place of their own, also have counseling services available. The Foundation’s grant money was used to complete several goals that FHF set for the Teen Center, including obtaining computers to allow for tutoring and after school programs and sponsoring free counseling sessions. For more information visit www.friendshelpingfriendsmhs.com.

2009 Grant – Families for Depression Awareness

Families for Depression Awareness is a national nonprofit organization that helps families and friends recognize and cope with depressive disorders to get people well and prevent suicides. The organization provides education, outreach, and advocacy to support families. Families for Depression Awareness is made up of families who have lost a family member to suicide or have watched a loved one suffer with depression, with little knowledge about how to help. For more information, visit www.familyaware.org.

2008 Grant #2 – Emergency Mobile Crisis Services

In 2008, we provided a separate grant to the Emergency Mobile Crisis Services, a division of the Child Guidance Center of Southern Connecticut that, for over 20 years, has provided immediate mental health assessment and crisis stabilization services, with a special focus on suicide prevention, for children and adolescents experiencing serious psychiatric symptoms and severe reactions to traumatic events. For more information, visit www.childguidancect.org.

2008 Grant #1 – SPAN USA

We provided a grant to SPAN USA, an organization dedicated to preventing suicide through public education and awareness, community action and federal, state and local grassroots advocacy. The grant is helping SPAN USA to raise awareness about College Campus Suicide Prevention on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites. The grant will also help SPAN USA to disseminate information about the funds available to college campuses for suicide prevention under the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act (GLSMA). For more information, visit www.spanusa.org.

2007 Grant – Active Minds

In 2007, we provided our annual grant to Active Minds, a not-for-profit peer-to-peer organization dedicated to the mental health of college students. Through this grant, Active Minds was able to open thirty new college chapters, start its first high school chapter, develop an internship program and start a new program entitled Send Silence Packing. As part of this program, on April 24, 2008, Active Minds displayed 1,100 backpacks on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., representing the 1,100 college students who die by suicide each year. This powerful display is traveling to different sites around the country. For more information, visit www.activeminds.org.

2006 Grant – Columbia University’s Teenscreen Program

In 2006, we provided our inaugural grant to Columbia University’s Teenscreen Program, a national mental health and suicide risk screening program. Our grant permitted TeenScreen to expand its efforts to additional communities, resulting in the establishment of several local TeenScreen programs that then went on to screen thousands of teens. With the help of the Foundation, TeenScreen came ever closer to reaching its goal of making voluntary mental health check-ups available to all American teens. For more information, visit www.teenscreen.org.