Jim Irsay Helps Reduce Stigma Around Mental Health

Carmel, Ind. - Jim Irsay's Kicking The Stigma campaign helped save many lives, according to a mental health advocate.

Melissa Peregrin, executive director of the Indiana Center for Prevention of Youth Abuse & Suicide, said her organization has received $10,000 from the campaign in each of the past two years. Since then, she's been able to provide suicide prevention classes to roughly 3,100 students at area schools.

"Because of the training that she received, she was able to connect to that," Peregrin said about a student who had been harming herself and having suicidal thoughts. "She felt empowered to connect to that social worker at her school and get some help. It gives me goosebumps, even now, but it's the power of prevention education. Enabling kids and empowering kids to seek help."

Irsay, who founded Kicking The Stigma in 2020, has made it a central part of the Indianapolis Colts' community involvement programming. In the five years that followed, Irsay appeared alongside his players in public service announcements to encourage people suffering from mental health and substance abuse problems to seek help.

Kicking The Stigma has provided grants to dozens of local charities, including Overdose Lifeline, Helping Veterans and Families, Indiana Youth Group, and the MLK Center. The Girl Scouts of Central Indiana received a $100,000 grant last year for mental health-related programming.

Lauren Palmer, communications director for the Girl Scouts of Central Indiana, said that funding helps support the Mental Wellness Badge, which provides age-appropriate education for Girl Scouts in how to manage their own mental health.

"I mean, we are just so grateful to Jim Irsay and the entire Irsay family to giving a voice to so many Indiana families who face issues around mental illness, addiction, or other challenges that we know so many families actually experience," Palmer said. "It's a crisis in Indiana for girls, it's a crisis for a lot of families, and having such a prominent family not only speak up about issues around mental illness, but also dedicate funding to help support programs that actually solve these problems and address the underlying crisis is just absolutely fantastic."

Palmer and Peregrin both said Irsay should be remembered for his willingness to use his own story of addiction and mental health crisis, as well as his strong support for such programs. Peregrin said his efforts have changed the Indianapolis community and the National Football League.

"We are so grateful for the light that he shone on mental health awareness and making it okay to just not be okay," Peregrin said. "Because we all have times when we're not okay."