https://www.facebook.com/twfoundationinc/posts/2342548339309278
Wesley Chapel’s TW Foundation has expanded its mission of ending suicide beyond youth and teens. On Christmas Eve, the nonprofit announced that the prevention services it offers will now extend to veterans and first responders.
Todd Woodfill originally founded TW Foundation to reduce the rate of suicides among young people. The youth motivational speaker, life coach and mentor, who’s also a former firefighter and Air Force veteran, told Bay News 9 that his outreach to first responders and veterans will be a little different.
“Connecting with them, understanding that my background is very similar to theirs,” Woodfill said. “I’ve had some of the same low points. I’ve walked away from the same incidents. I served in Iraq, so I saw some of the same conditions.”
So far, TW Foundation has joined forces with the Army, Department of Veteran Affairs, National Association of Police Organizations and a couple of other first responder groups.
It will develop programs and presentations that’re designed to keep former and active-duty military personnel, police officers, emergency medical technicians and fire personnel from taking their own lives.
“Suicide overall has decreased in the past 3 years, yet there are three segments of the population that have had the rates rise at an alarming rate…youth, veterans, and first responders,” reads the nonprofit’s announcement from earlier this week. “We are now encompassing all of these groups and will work with the same diligence we have in the past.”
This article appears in Dec 27, 2018 – Jan 3, 2019.