This year’s freshman class at Garfield High School became the “founding class” of a new mental health initiative as the Vincent Foundation hosted its first speaker event.
Formed by the Vincent family to honor 1997 graduate Dan Vincent, the foundation’s mission is to raise awareness, provide resources, and encourage open conversations around mental health. Brothers Adam and Paul Vincent, along with their parents, David and Cindy, returned to their alma mater to introduce the project to students.
Adam Vincent explained that the foundation was born out of their brother’s experience. “We started our foundation in memory of our brother Dan, who graduated in ’97. He struggled with a mental health episode in high school. We want to start a foundation in his memory to raise awareness about mental health and anybody struggling with it,” he said. “It can be a hard thing for you individually, whether it’s personally or somebody in your family, a friend, or classmate. We just want to raise awareness about that, encourage people, educate people on how they can help, how they can deal with it themselves, or encourage others.”
Paul Vincent added that when Dan was a student, resources were far less available. “Our brother was stricken with a mental health issue. There wasn’t that much education back then in 1995-96 or so,” he said. “So we just wanted to provide another resource. This ties in with, you know, some of the anxiety of being a young person these days. You feel like you've got to rush into everything. We’ve been kicking around ideas on what we want to do, some things we want to do in honor of our brother… it took us about 13 years or so, but here we are finally.”
The family introduced Pittsburgh-based author and advocate Jordan Corcoran, founder of Listen, Lucy. Corcoran, who was diagnosed at 19 with generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder, travels nationwide sharing her story and practical ways to manage stress. She began the assembly with icebreakers, telling the students, “We’re going to talk about some heavy things today, but I want to start on a very uplifting and positive note.”
She asked each student to name two beautiful things they had seen that day. Her own examples were her two young children, Griffin and Ruby. The answers from the freshmen ranged from “my two friends” and “the sunshine” to “my bed” and “sleeping in the sun.” When she asked for three things they were grateful for, students named “school,” “lifting-crew,” and “rain.” Corcoran laughed with them and encouraged their openness: “See, it took two ice breakers to get you guys opening up and I feel very happy about that now.”
From there, Corcoran moved into her presentation, addressing misconceptions about mental illness. “Only 3% of people with a mental health condition carry out violent crimes, and people with mental health conditions are actually 10 times more likely to be victims of violent crimes,” she said. She also shared how stigma once kept her from seeking help until therapy gave her clarity. “That diagnosis was so liberating to me. There was nothing wrong with me. There was something different about me.”
The program invited students to share their perspectives. Three volunteers — Emma, Joey and Ryan — spoke about challenges teens face. Emma told her classmates, “Not having anybody to talk to and just feeling like you’re alone and that there’s nobody out there for you.” Joey added, “The environment plays a big role… like now lives are like perfect. We all have our own struggles with family, work, school, finances. And it can be very challenging.” When asked what message they would send to a peer going through a hard time, Emma answered, “It’s OK to not be OK and it is absolutely OK to ask for help and to reach out to your peers and stuff. And just for them to remind you that you are loved.”
Later, students shared their “superpowers.” Lucy said hers was “probably my personality.” Kylie offered “being able to relate what people go through.” Paisley added, “I think like my superpower is my testimony because some of you guys know what I’ve been through. But for me to just share my testimony about how like… I got into my faith and just how I got stronger and I stood on top of my anxiety and I crushed it.”
Corcoran also underscored the scale of the issue with facts from the National Alliance on Mental Illness. “One in four people have a diagnosable mental illness,” she told the students. She added that “suicide is the second leading cause of death in young people between the ages of 10 and 14.” She emphasized the fallout from the pandemic as well: “Kids ages 12 to 17, one in six, experienced a major depressive episode. Three million had serious thoughts of suicide. Thirty-one percent increased in mental health related emergency department visits among U.S. adults 18 to 25. One in three experience a mental illness, one in 10 experienced a serious mental illness and 3.8 million had serious thoughts of suicide.”
Her message was clear: “It is no longer, if you are struggling. It is when you are struggling. It is important for us to realize how to deal with life.”
The assembly closed with a unifying moment. To mark World Suicide Prevention Day, students and staff came together for a group video, shouting Listen, Lucy’s motto: “Keep going.”
Since 2013, Corcoran has built Listen, Lucy into a multi-platform effort that includes books, writing workshops and a documentary series called the “Acceptance Movement.” Her works include Listen, Lucy Volume 1, Write It Out, and children’s titles such as Little Lucy and the Little Butterflies and Little Lucy Bullies. Each, she said, is designed to promote kindness, acceptance and practical tools for mental health.
Corcoran closed her talk with encouragement: “Asking for help does not mean you have failed. Asking for help does not mean you are weak or that you did something wrong… Please know that you deserve to be happy and healthy simply because you exist.”