Objective Zero Foundation

Our team would apply Elevate Prize funds to our development and deployment of new technology features, would amplify our efforts to increase our user base and network of peer supporters, and be applied toward developing world-class proprietary new training for our peer support Ambassadors. These alone would be catalytic to achieving our strategic goal of bringing rates of military suicide in line with the civilian population, a state we call functional zero. 

As a non-profit organization, our team invests a significant amount of time focusing on fundraising and not on our core program goals and objectives; Elevate Prize funds would free our small team from fundraising and enable us to focus on advancing our mission of combating suicide in the military community. 

Specifically, we would use financial support from Elevate to develop and deploy new tools and training that were identified in a recent study which identified the six best evidence-based approaches to suicide prevention. To date, no other organization has employed all six approaches and our goal is to meet this extremely high standard of care for the military community. 

Chris Mercado, Objective Zero (OZ) founder, saw his friend and former comrade Justin Miller struggling with his transition out of the military. Chris called Justin and asked him directly if he was thinking of suicide. Justin confided that he was in fact thinking about suicide and was lost and unsure what to do. Chris stayed on the line with Justin until he was convinced Justin was no longer at risk. It spawned the idea that the simple act of listening can save lives, that you don't need to be a mental health professional in order to be there.

OZ provides an upstream approach to suicide prevention, connecting at risk veterans, service members, and family members to support when they need it, wherever they may be before they are in crisis through technology. Improving social connection and enabling access to resources are two evidence-based approaches we use to combat this suicide. We've supported over 10,000 veterans and trained over 2,200 people in suicide prevention. We want to do more and use the technology our team has developed to support other vulnerable populations in the future. We are implementing our first project, supporting Native American youth, and want to continue helping others. 

OZ is combating suicide in the military community. Approximately 20 service members and veterans die by suicide every day at a rate 1.5 times higher than civilians. Prior to 2000, suicide among military members was lower than the general population but the rate of suicide more than doubled between 2003-2012. While preliminary data shows suicides decreased for civilians in 2020, there was an astonishing 125% increase in the reserve component and 8% increase in active duty suicides.

The OZ App connects service members, veterans, their families and caregivers to a network of trained peer and civilian support Ambassadors via text, voice, and video chat. Users who are seeking support can filter through our network of Ambassadors to find meaningful connections by age, gender, branch of service, component, military occupational specialty, service academy attended, and campaign served in. Users may not want to filter through the network and can contact the first available Ambassador at the push of a button. Those that are in crisis can connect to the Veterans Crisis Line or 911 instantly, without having to dial any number. Users can access curated wellness resources, tools, and training from yoga and meditation to mental health care.

OZ leverages existing technologies in an innovative way to prevent suicide and promote wellness in our community. Through the OZ App, users can access peer support and resources from a smartphone. We recently deployed a web app, offering the same functionality for those without a smartphone. This enables us to reach more users, to include those in rural areas or older veterans, accessing our support network and tools, training, and resources through a smartphone, tablet, or computer. Although crisis hotlines and text lines do already exist, none of them use technology in the same way we do. We saw a need for an upstream solution to suicide prevention, finding a gap in services between the need for a mental health professional and crisis or emergency services. OZ is available 24 hours a day, wherever a person is located, and relies on a network of volunteers rather than a paid staff to keep costs low. By crowd-sourcing peer support, we provide on-demand care upstream of conventional crisis Our app is free to download and free to use, eliminating barriers to get support.

There are many indicators that have demonstrated that OZ has made an impact on the military community. Since the launch of our app in December 2017, over 17,000 people have downloaded the app, and in 2020 alone there were nearly 32,000 texts exchanged and over 194 hours of call and video chats within the app. We have trained over 2,100 peer and civilian support Ambassadors in how to deal with someone that may be in crisis and how to support them. Not only are our volunteers using this training within the OZ App, they are also taking that knowledge to support those in their communities around the country. We continue to eliminate barriers to seeking help and fighting the stigmas surrounding seeking mental health care and support within the military community. We are in our second year of the CDC's Veteran Suicide Prevention Program Evaluation project, to build the capacity to evaluate our impact.

The military doesn't have a monopoly on depression, trauma, or self-harm. Licensing our technology to other vulnerable populations, we can support other organizations serving at-risk populations across the world while maintaining focus on our mission. Our first effort is already supporting Native American youth, aged 10-24.