PLAN A RESILIENCE RUN
FOR MENTAL HEALTH & SUICIDE PREVENTION
The Resilience Run is an annual 5k run/walk on campuses and in communities around the world to raise awareness and funds for mental health and suicide prevention. Resilience Rally uses funds raised to help people access the mental health care they need.
Students and athletic departments on campuses can plan a 5k run/walk around the school track for mental health awareness. Resilience Rally will help them plan and execute the run while bringing student-athletes together for an important cause.
The Resilience Run first started in 2019 at UCLA to honor a UCLA rower who lost her life to suicide. Resilience Runs now take place on multiple campuses across the US, Canada, the UK, and New Zealand.
Instead of seeing mental illness as a weakness, we are rallying together to show people that living with a mental illness takes immense resilience. Despite this resilience, suicide is the second leading cause of death for people ages 10-34.
What does it mean to end the stigma?
There is a harsh stigma that exists surrounding suicide. Suicide has a long tradition of being thought of as a criminal act. People who attempt suicide or die by suicide might be wrongly labelled as "attention seeking", "cowards", or "selfish". Those who perpetrate these stigmas avoid, shun, distrust, and stereotype those affected by suicide.
We want to end this hurtful stigma and educate people about suicide. Someone might want to end their life to escape what they feel is an impossible situation, to relieve unbearable thoughts or feelings from mental illness, or to relieve physical pain or incapacity. These individuals are often the most magnetic, bright, selfless, compassionate people you know. It is the pain you do not see that takes their life. Suicide is not selfish, it is devastating.
Together, we can help those who are struggling by creating a world that is more accepting. Allowing people to be vulnerable with their thoughts and emotions will lead to more conversations about mental health, more mental health care professionals and programs, and a society that is compassionate to pain that they cannot see on the outside.
Show your community that no one is alone and we will face mental illness and suicide together, head on.
You are not alone. You are resilient. Let's end the stigma.
We invite you to run or walk 5k with us in-person or virtually to end the stigma.