Interviews with purpose-driven leaders who are dedicated to helping others and making a positive impact in the world.
March 13, 2024
Kari Eckert | Robbie’s Hope
Kari Eckert is the executive director of Robbie’s Hope headquartered in Lakewood, CO. Follow on Facebook and Instagram and learn more at robbies-hope.com.
TELL US, WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU DO?
I’m Kari Eckert, founder and executive director of Robbie’s Hope, and Robbie’s mom. Robbie’s Hope is a youth-serving youth-led nonprofit for suicide prevention. Our mission is to cut the teen suicide rate in half by 2028. We were founded in October of 2018 after my son Robbie died by suicide.
HOW DID YOU GET HERE?
At the time of Robbie’s death, he was 15 years old and our daughter was 19. My husband, Jason, and I were engaged parents but I would not label us as helicopter parents, we didn’t have to be. We didn’t know that Robbie was struggling and his death was quite a shock. Jason and I went to his friends to ask what was going on. We learned that suicide is the leading cause of teenage death in Colorado and that suicide rates had been rapidly increasing, rising 54% between 2015 and 2018. I thought I knew what I needed to be talking to my kids about, I thought I knew what they were learning about at school. Sadly, kids don’t learn a lot about mental health and suicide prevention. Afterward, we learned from his friends that mental health is a really pressing issue for teenagers. They see it in their friends and know it’s a rising concern, but they don’t know what to do about it. That was the catalyst to say, we need to change this situation. Kids deserve better. Parents shouldn’t be walking in our shoes.
Additionally, my husband is a solution-driven, brilliant, business-minded individual. I have a psychology degree and was a funeral director before raising my children. I’ve always been interested in bereavement and grief. I was very aware of what we were stepping into quickly.
Kari Eckert is the executive director of Robbie’s Hope headquartered in Lakewood, CO. Follow on Facebook and Instagram and learn more at robbies-hope.com.
WHAT DO YOU STAND FOR? WHY IS THIS WORK IMPORTANT TO YOU?
I think it’s twofold. Awareness is very, very important for adults, for teachers, for educators, for parents. In particular, a lot of parents would prefer to think that this only happens to other people’s kids, and that only other people’s kids could struggle. If you will, they want to keep the blinders on, or maybe they parent out of fear that this could happen versus being proactive. Then for our youth, I think education is absolutely crucial. Sadly, kids are not being educated about how their brains work. Very few schools nationwide teach kids evidence-based information that can help them. There’s this stigma for awareness and education that we can’t talk about suicide prevention, but we have to talk about it.
WHAT IMPACT ARE YOU MAKING?
We fall under the classification of social-emotional learning for young people. That’s a very difficult area to measure because we’re doing this for the greater good. You can always track it back to an individual. People can be exposed to our tools, resources, or programming but we don’t always know whether they used it. I hate to word use the word faith-based, that we believe in what we’re doing, therefore it works. Of course, we hear stories from individuals, but that’s an area we can’t share because it’s protected information.
One metric we can celebrate is the number of kids who have become involved with our program. We have a nationwide ambassador program to engage kids and provide them with the tools and resources they need to bring change to their community. We have more than 4,000 kids who have been engaged with Robbie’s Hope. That’s a lot of kids going to their schools, going to an important adult, and encouraging conversations in their community. Another metric is a free resource, both in Spanish and English, available in print or as a download on our website. It’s called the “Robbie’s Hope Adult Handbook: A Guide by Teens on How to Talk to Teens.” This resource is very, very different than something written by a Ph.D. This is teen-speak and is very approachable, not threatening. We have distributed 200,000 physical copies and many more downloads.
WHAT (OR WHO) INSPIRES YOU TO DO THIS WORK?
For Jason and I, Robbie is why we stepped into this work. But we stay in this work almost five-and-a-half years later because of the kids we know we are touching, and the kids who get involved with us. Young people are remarkable. They are also incredibly inspiring. They are agents who are driving change. They have solutions. Something that Jason and I have worked hard for and something that I am proud of is that we have never played the victims. We never placed blame. We are about bringing solutions to this issue. That’s where my heart and my passion are, and continue to be. If that ever changes, I won’t be effective in the work. It’s about working right next to kids and teenagers who want to bring this change to their communities.
WHAT’S YOUR VISION, YOUR BIG DREAM FOR THE IMPACT YOU WANT TO MAKE?
Our goal is to cut teen suicide rates in half by 2028, a very lofty, ambitious goal. Most organizations working in prevention aim to cut rates by 20 to 25%. We’re having success in our own county, but there are roadblocks to completing that goal. There are also wins because we’re creating forward movement in other areas. The umbrella of mental health is really big. Suicide prevention is just one of those things. I aspire to get kids to have more meaningful relationships with the adults in their lives, have more confidence, have less depression, have less anxiety, have tools, have resources, and know where to go. One of our messages is it’s okay to not be okay. Kids can believe that. It’s very helpful. We’re not all perfect. We’re humans. We have wins and we have losses. We have good times and we have bad times.
WHAT CHALLENGES ARE YOU FACING?
Sadly, education is one of the challenges. In public education, particularly in the state of Colorado in 2024, we ask a lot of our schools. We don’t provide a lot of resources to get those asks done. Mental health is one more thing that we’re putting on their plate, but we’re not taking anything off of their plate. Sadly the political climate in our state is becoming very divisive. The squeaky wheel wins, and the squeaky wheel does not always support mental health education for children. Some people are very fearful of teaching children about their brain, about depression, about anxiety, or about struggling. That’s tough.
Funding can also be seen as a challenge. My husband and I know that we won’t be able to do this work forever. We want Robbie’s Hope to succeed us, and we’re working hard to ensure that financially, that can happen. Many nonprofits run primarily on grants, which can be very difficult.
WHAT’S ONE THING YOU WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR CAUSE AND/OR THE WORK YOU’RE DOING?
Be vulnerable with your kids. Be real. Lead by example and look at what you’re modeling to your children. When you have an opportunity to have a meaningful conversation with a child or with a teenager, listen. Listen twice as much as you talk.
DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE QUOTE OR WORDS OF INSPIRATION TO SHARE?
The word “hope” for us means “Hold On, Pain Ends.”
HOW CAN OTHERS SUPPORT YOU OR YOUR CAUSE?
My call to action is for adults to educate themselves and find out what is being taught to their children. Ask for their child to be taught about mental health and suicide prevention in school. It can be done. Visit Robbies-Hope.com for more information and free resources.
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