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When a Glenview couple lost their 14-year-old daughter Erika to
adolescent depression, they turned her suffering into hope for
other families, and Erika's Lighthouse was born. The
organization creates upper elementary, middle school and high
school mental health, depression and suicide awareness programs
so educators, families, and teens can create safe spaces to
learn about mental health.
“Last year, Erika’s Lighthouse impacted over 725,000 students
around the world,” Executive Director Brandon Combs said. “We’re
currently in just over 2,400 schools with about 1,000 of those
schools are in the state of Illinois, and we also do a
significant amount of work with Chicago Public Schools.”
Comb’s organization, which celebrated its 20th anniversary this
year, has kicked off the “Give Voice to Suicide Prevention”
campaign, which is focused on the importance of having mental
health education for students.
“Really helping youth early in the school year, in particular,
for suicide prevention week, focused on the idea of giving voice
to something, so a lot of it is to themselves,” said Combs.
“Give voice to education, give voice to help seeking, give voice
to positivity.”
The Illinois Department of Public Health says on average every
five hours and 41 minutes someone dies by suicide in this state.
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can reach out to
the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988. There are seven
call centers in Illinois that answer 988.
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