The 988 Awareness Project Launches in California with a $5,000 Grant Award from the San Diego Padres 

The 988 Awareness Project has expanded beyond Nevada to our neighbors in California, thanks to our new President of California Operations, Liam Kaseburg of Encinitas, California. Liam was recently presented with the Tony Gwynn Community All-Star Award that recognizes and honors San Diego’s youth who follow in the footsteps of San Diego Padres Hall of Fame outfielder Tony Gwynn who is known as “Mr. Padre” for his leadership in the San Diego community. The San Diego Padres also provided a $5,000 grant to the 988 Awareness Project to support its work to raise awareness of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in California.

Here is what Liam had to say about getting involved with the 988 Awareness Project

Explain how you got started working with the 988 Awareness Project and how you became passionate about this cause? 

Growing up, I never truly understood the significant impact of poor mental health. This changed in the fall of 2023, when a student at my school committed suicide. Although I did not know her personally, the effects of such a tragedy were devastating to me and the entire Cathedral Catholic High School community. My knowledge and understanding of mental health grew substantially after this incident, and I became interested in learning more about suicide prevention. In March of 2024, I prepared a research paper and presentation on the prevalence of mental health issues and suicide among military Veterans. I found that Veterans are 3 times more likely to suffer from severe mental disorders or homelessness and 2 times more likely to die from opioid overdose or suicide than the general population. To put these numbers in perspective, since 2001, nearly five times the number of Veterans died from suicide after deployment than were killed in combat. Only 45% of Veterans who need help actually receive it. This research gave me an appreciation for the magnitude of this problem and gave me a passion for suicide prevention. My goal is to prevent suicides in our local San Diego community amoungst the teen and Veteran populations by raising awareness of 988 resources. I believe suicide is preventable and with the continuation of The 988 Awareness Project and a generous grant from the Tony Gwynn Community All-Star Program, we can make a huge impact on the local community by lowering the suicide rate of teens and Veterans in San Diego. I’m excited and committed to the work of this nonprofit and ready to make a difference in California.