Through Beyond The Sidelines Event, Irsay Family Looks To Grow Kicking The Stigma’s Impact On Mental Health Awareness, Treatment

Since launching Kicking The Stigma in 2020, the Irsay family and the Colts have awarded $4.1 million in action grants to 38 Indiana-based nonprofits to support programs focused on mental health and mental illness education, support and advocacy. An example of the impact of those grants: Indiana Youth Group, which provides services to local LGBTQ+ youth, was able to start a free mental health counseling program with the Kicking The Stigma action grant it received.

Kicking The Stigma, too, has committed over $17 million toward expanding mental health treatment, research and awareness locally and nationally. Jackson has been deliberate on which organizations have received and will receive funding with the goal of making the greatest positive impact possible on mental health, since when people come to her and say they want to help, often they don’t know where or how to start.

And through Kicking The Stigma, Jackson has spent countless hours working with mental health experts – she participated in Indiana Lieutenant Governor Suzanne Crouch’s Roundtable on Mental Health and has had extensive conversations with local hospitals – to determine where that long-lasting impact can be made.

“The infrastructure is messy and the infrastructure is broken, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t fix it,” Jackson said. “And I think we feel like we’re able to do some of that heavy lifting work and really talk to a lot of experts, whether that be with the state or with specific hospitals like IU Health and St. Vincent and really learn where can we interject ourselves to make the biggest impact and actually make long-lasting change.

“Not just today, not just this month, but I think our biggest goal through Kicking The Stigma is how to do we help fix the infrastructure that’s broken and help build it back up from the ground up. I feel like with Beyond the Sidelines benefitting Kicking The Stigma, we’re really able to showcase how we’ve been doing that to people and really tell that story…