What Community Means to Me: Personal Reflections from American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Volunteers

At the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, we believe in the Power of Community, whether it means bringing people together to validate each other’s shared experiences of loss or struggle, walking together to raise necessary funds and awareness, elevating our culture’s collective understanding through research-based education programs, or creating a grassroots network of advocates to fight for impactful public policy related to suicide and mental health. (The list goes on.)

We asked a handful of our dedicated volunteers to share what the word “community” means to them. 

“The Out of the Darkness Walks have always held a deep meaning for me over the years. It hurts me to think that life can become so overwhelming that someone feels their only option is to leave this world too soon. As someone who has supported a loved one through multiple attempts, it has always been important to me to show up and be present for others who may be struggling, as well as for survivors of suicide loss who carry their own weight of grief. 

This year, my local Out of the Darkness Walk will hold an even more personal significance for me, as I’ve lost a loved one to suicide and am continuing to support another family member who is struggling. Being part of these events gives me a profound sense of community and hope. Supporting attempt survivors and comforting those navigating the loss of someone they love and the complicated emotions that follow are indescribable. This is why the Out of the Darkness Walks mean so much to me.”

 –– Veronica Brown, Louisiana Chapter

“Community has been a source of strength in my journey with AFSP and in my own healing after losing my teenage daughter to suicide. Through AFSP, I found a place where compassion, understanding, and shared experience come together in a way that makes us feel less alone.

I attended AFSP’s Long‑Term Survivors of Suicide Loss Summit, a one-of-its-kind conference for those whose loss was not recent. I was there both as a participant, as a long-term loss survivor myself, as well presenting a special breakout‑session on navigating suicide loss in the Hispanic community.

This experience was a beautiful example of how powerful it is when we create spaces in which every story is welcomed and every voice is valued. In my culture, familismo (a cultural value in Latinx communities that prioritizes family loyalty, closeness, and collective well-being above individual desires), faith, and deep family bonds shape how we grieve. Yet stigma around the topic can make conversations about suicide difficult.

By speaking openly and building connections within AFSP and my own networks, I have worked to open those doors, encourage healing, and help others feel seen. In doing so, I’ve learned that community is something we build together, one connection at a time, with hope at the center.”

–– Jenny Morales, South Carolina Chapter 

“This October 3rd, I'll be participating in my fifth year of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention's Northern Rhode Island Out of the Darkness Walk at Roger Williams Park, continuing to honor the memory of my husband Nate, who we lost on September 2, 2021.

What started as a way to channel my grief has grown into something bigger than me. Along the way, I found a community that has carried me through grief and given me a place to put my love for Nate to work. I walk now not just for Nate, but for myself as a survivor of loss, for my friend Carl, who we lost two years ago, and for the members of my support group and the loved ones they've lost.

That's the community I've found through AFSP: people who understand, who show up for each other, and who turn grief into purpose together.”

–– Keely Taylor, Rhode Island Chapter

“Community is one of the most powerful ways we can turn the pain of suicide loss into purpose. Through AFSP, I’ve learned that community is finding people who understand, listen without judgment, and stand beside one another in grief and hope. There is power in our stories. When we share them, we honor those we’ve lost, help others feel less alone, and give our voices the power to create change.

As an AFSP Policy & Advocacy volunteer, I’ve seen how personal experiences can become catalysts for stronger mental health resources, suicide prevention, and public policies that save lives. The Community Walks also embody that spirit. We walk for those we’ve lost, those who are struggling, and those who need to know they aren’t alone. AFSP has shown me that healing doesn’t mean leaving our loved ones behind –– it means carrying their stories forward together. When we share our stories, walk together, and raise our voices, our grief can become a force for connection, advocacy, and hope.”

–– Carmen Stanger, Idaho Chapter

“On June 1, 2015, my world changed forever when I lost my dear friend Johnnie to suicide. A few months later, I walked in his memory at the AFSP Out of the Darkness Community Walk at Goddard Park in Warwick, Rhode Island. I arrived carrying grief that felt far too heavy for one person, unsure whether I would be able to take even the first step. Yet as I looked around, I saw people who understood without needing an explanation. They knew what it meant to miss someone with your whole heart and still chose to keep moving forward. Since then, my involvement with AFSP has expanded into other areas, such as taking part in State Capitol Day and federal advocacy efforts, and presenting the Talk Saves Lives education program.

That first Walk did not take away my pain, but it gave me something I had not felt since losing Johnnie: the comfort of knowing I was not alone. Year after year, I have returned to walk with his name in my heart. AFSP has taught me that community is not simply something we find –– it is something we build for one another, especially in the moments when hope feels hardest to reach. This community has helped me turn sorrow into service and love into action. As long as I am able, I will keep speaking his name and working toward a world where no one has to face their darkest moment alone.”

–– Missy Ames, Rhode Island Chapter

“Two of my cousins died by suicide –– one of whom was an Air Force Veteran. After their deaths, I was consumed by it. It was all I could think about. In my free time I read about suicide, trying to understand it. It was then that I found out there are an estimated 22 Veteran and Military deaths by suicide each day in this country. It was a number I couldn’t fathom.

As a Veteran myself, I felt compelled to do something about it. This led me to AFSP, and inspired me to create a nonprofit that serves Veterans, Military, and their families regarding suicide prevention called S.A.R. Flag Family, for “Suicide Awareness and Remembrance.” We partner with AFSP for events like the NYC Veterans Day Parade, and AFSP’s Out of the Darkness Campus and Community Walks. I was also part of a team that helped to develop and then implement AFSP’s Talk Saves Lives: Supporting Our Veterans program.

I have dedicated my life to suicide prevention for Veterans and Military. Bringing these various communities together has been powerful. Volunteering for AFSP gives me purpose, and helps to strengthen my resolve to remain steadfast in our mission to save lives and bring hope to those affected by suicide.”
–– Kevin W. Hertell, Long Island Chapter

“For much of my life, I have struggled with what it means to fully embrace who I am. In addition to losing my dad to suicide in 2009, I also struggle with my own lived experience of suicidal thoughts. As a bisexual cisgender woman, I often felt caught between worlds: being misunderstood by straight people while sometimes feeling like I wasn’t “queer enough” to truly belong in LGBTQ+ spaces. Being married to a man has added another layer to that struggle. There can be an assumption that my identity is somehow less real because of who I married, and my bisexual identity.

That struggle is also intertwined with being Asian American and growing up in a high-control religious environment where I learned that certain parts of myself weren’t meant to be validated. I spent years learning how to hide, suppress, or question who I was, rather than celebrate those aspects of myself.

That’s why being a part of developing AFSP’s prevention education program, Pride Pathways: Suicide Prevention for LGBTQ+ Communities and Allies, means so much to me. I so appreciate being able to share my own lived experience to help inform this important new initiative. For the first time, I felt like I didn’t have to explain or defend my identify, but instead, simply show up as myself and be seen. It reminded me how powerful it is to create spaces where people don’t have to choose which parts of themselves they are allowed to bring with them.”

 –– Hannah Hayes, Tampa Bay Chapter

“I found myself participating in an AFSP Out of the Darkness Walk in Sacramento, 13 months after my son Andrew died by suicide in August 2017, while studying for his Ph.D. in Scotland. To this day, I don’t remember how I found my way to AFSP, but I knew I was in the right place when a woman came up to me who was also wearing a white T-shirt. At that particular Walk, we were using colored shirts to indicate our specific, personal connections to this cause. White represented the loss of a child. She gave me the biggest hug. I knew that she knew my pain…words unspoken. I also knew that I had found my place, my community. This was a safe place to grieve. 

I have continued to raise awareness through my Walks fundraising team, Team Andrew, first in California and now in southern Arizona, in memory of my son.

I feel I must do all I can to help bring this topic out of the darkness by having open conversations, in my own community and beyond.”

–– Perri Jones, Arizona Chapter

“Volunteering with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is, for me, about creating community with purpose. After losing my son, Kyle, to suicide, I made a decision that his death would not be the end of his story –– or mine. My “why” is simple: I have to do something. If sharing my story, having a conversation, advocating for change, or bringing people together can help prevent another family from experiencing this loss, then I want to be part of that work.

AFSP has given me a community where loss can be transformed into hope and hope into action. At the same time, I have been able to carry that mission into communities that are already a part of my life, particularly veterans and the motorcycle community. Whether I am supporting someone through the Healing Conversations program, supporting our veterans by joining AFSP’s Veteran Suicide Prevention Learning Collaborative Summer 2026 cohort, advocating locally or nationally, walking with my Out of the Darkness team, or bringing hundreds of riders together to Ride to Fight Suicide, the purpose is the same: connection saves lives.

Losing Kyle taught me to look forward, live each day to the fullest, and serve others. Through AFSP, I have found a community that helps me do exactly that –– and I work to create that same sense of community wherever I go.”

–– Paula Edwards, Central Florida Chapter

In addition to creating community, the funds raised by AFSP's Out of the Darkness Walks make possible everything we do to save lives and bring hope to those affected by suicide. Find a Walk near you today!