2022 was a monumental year for Hope for the Day. Educations in schools, event set-ups at festivals and partnerships with businesses all added up to a year full of making an impact through proactive suicide prevention.

Numbers alone can’t sum up our year, but here’s a look at how the stats stacked up.

We educated 3,380 people about mental health and proactive suicide prevention. To make that happen, our educators spent 162.5 hours teaching.

We expanded our education offerings to include The Things We Don’t Say E-Learning program and The Things We Don’t Say | Part 2. E-Learning launched in April 2022 and so far 211 people have learned about mental health at their own pace. Since its launch in February, 90 people have participated in the highly interactive The Things We Don’t Say | Part 2 and practiced how to have tough conversations in their communities.

These numbers are more than just statistics to Director of Education Allison Herman. They represent tangible change — each one is another person who is equipped to provide peer-to-peer support.

“I continue to be impressed by our impact and the personal stories I hear every day.” Herman said. “Everyone’s experience is different, and having a supportive person who knows what to do next can make all the difference!”

This year, we had the honor of receiving the Community Partnerships Grant from the Illinois State Board of Education (I.S.B.E.). Through this grant we’ve educated 1,185 students and 114 faculty, staff and families. We’ve held 32 educations with 18 different schools across the Chicago area.

For Education Coordinator Kira Berkoff, working on assembling the framework for the I.S.B.E. educations has been her favorite project.

“I love being able to track the impact that we've had in the greater Chicagoland area and physically see just how many lives we've been able to touch,” Berkoff said.

Of all our education sessions, 82 were held digitally and 58 were in-person. Those in-person educations are especially notable as this year we saw much of the world get back to social gatherings. This meant that we had the opportunity to get back to our roots, according to Marketing & Events Director Becca Milligan.

“The events team kind of challenged ourselves, after the wild past two years we had, to get back out into the community that gave us our start,” Milligan said.

We spent much of this year hitting the road to meet people where they’re at. In all we attended 54 outreach events in 6 different states.

10 of those events were large-scale events that included festivals such as Lollapalooza, Summerfest, and Furnace Fest. At those 10 events alone we connected with over 45,000 people. For Milligan, that was her biggest win of the year.

“That's 45,000 people who personally heard from another individual that they are not alone in anything they're going through, and that's why we do what we do,” Milligan said.

Between events, educations, and mailing out resources, over 121,000 physical resources were distributed this year.

But, we couldn’t do it alone. This year we welcomed 258 new volunteers who are passionate about breaking the stigma around mental health and suicide.

Our community supported our mission not only by volunteering but by hosting donating or hosting fundraisers. Over 11,500 individuals donated to Hope for the Day in 2022, with 344 people holding fundraisers through facebook and an additional 541 holding fundraisers by streaming live on Twitch.

Partnerships with streamers has been a large project in 2022. It’s also been a favorite of Manager of Partnerships and Development Tyler Wagner.

“It has been really rewarding meeting and talking to so many streamers and content creators from all over the world, who are passionate about mental health and bringing resources to their communities,” Wagner said.

We fostered 56 partnerships throughout the year including with Delta Dental, LingPerfect and Mother’s Ruin. These partners have helped spread the message of hope, create proactive workplaces, and reach new communities across the U.S.

Our National Suicide Prevention Action Month Proclamation (N.S.P.A.M.P.) also connected us to new communities. 22 counties and municipalities in 11 different states adopted the proclamation in 2022. That accumulated to 3,680,865 people that we reached by governments recognizing the importance of mental health and proactive suicide prevention.

For Development Coordinator Bev Schwartz, this is no small feat and the future looks bright.

“With a lot of changes in 2022 we were still able to talk to and reach a lot of people, and there's only room to grow,” Schwartz said.

The N.S.P.A.M.P. allowed us to connect with people across the country, and our coffee shop Sip of Hope allows us to chat with those in our own backyard.

Sip of Hope, Hope for the Day’s coffee shop located in Chicago’s Logan Square sold 5,600 bags of coffee this year — that's approximately the weight of a rhino. Throughout the year, coffee lovers ordered 17,311 lattes and 242,000 ounces of iced coffee.

Whether you are one of those who stopped by the shop to pick up a coffee, said hi to us at a festival, attended one of our education sessions, or simply liked a post of ours on social media, thank you for your support. Hope for the Day couldn’t exist without you. We are in this together.