abadía schley

I started the I'm Glad You Stayed Project a month after my best friend, Dylan, took his life. I was the last person to speak to him and when he reached out to me that night, I didn’t know the proper steps to get him help. Because of that, it took a few minutes longer than it should have to get him help. I was, obviously, very heartbroken and lost and wanted to make sure that no one else was ever in the situation I was in by not knowing what steps to take to help their loved one. I made a pamphlet with step by step suggestions on how to help a friend or family member and walked around my entire high school of thousands of students and handed them out to each classroom. I had been in one psychiatric hospital before making the pamphlet and a week after passing them out to my school, I went to a second one, so I had gained tools to help cope, not only with the loss and survivors guilt, but also ways I could help people even more! 

Dylan was a swimmer so we use the quote “Just Keep Swimming” on our bracelets with the suicide lifeline, 988, on them. We send and give out all of our resources free of charge so that no matter your financial circumstances, or ability to communicate your struggles to family, you are able to get the life saving information you may need.