About Us

The semicolon has become the universal logo for mental health & Suicide prevention around the globe.

The very foundation of Project Semicolon is about sharing and learning to find inspiration when it all feels impossible. We've worked with some of the most brilliant minds in mental health to create groundbreaking resources that promote strength through self care. Our community is one of the most active mental health communities online with millions of people around the world now looking to the semicolon for hope.

Our Vision

Project Semicolon’s vision is that fewer lives are lost to suicide and anyone affected by suicide receives the best possible support.

Our MIssion

Our mission is to get all parts of society working together to take action to reduce suicide and improve the support for those bereaved by suicide.

Project Semicolon and our history

In April 2013, Amy Bleuel took to social media with an idea. Anyone who had ever struggled with a mental illness would draw a semicolon on their wrist and post a photo. A semicolon symbolized that a sentence wasn’t over yet, and neither was their life.

The tagline was: Your story isn’t over. Since then, millions have shared photos of semicolons on their bodies, both drawn and permanently tattooed, as part of a burgeoning effort to erase the societal shame long associated with mental health.

“People want to know they’re not suffering in silence, you feel alone like no one cares, to know someone is there, that is what these people go forth with, they take this energy to better themselves,” Bleuel said. “I think it’s just opening the minds of society. I would hope through my stories and platforms that they would see these are everyday people, just like you, and they’re attempting to make their lives better, but here is what they struggle with.”


“I wanted to start a conversation that can’t be stopped,” she said, “and I believe I’ve done that.”
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The difference we aim to make

We aim to bring about the following outcomes:

  • Reducing stigma: We want all parts of society talking about suicide and taking action to maintain good mental health, so that it is as normal as talking about and maintaining physical health.
  • Encouraging help-seeking: We want more people who are experiencing emotional distress to seek help before they become suicidal.
  • Providing the appropriate support: We want to ensure that when people in emotional distress seek help, they receive appropriate support from the people or organizations they approach and that they are offered appropriate options.
  • Reducing access to means: We want it to be harder for people experiencing severe emotional distress to have access to the means to take their own life.
  • Reducing the impact of suicide: We want to ensure that people affected by suicide get the support they need to cope with the impact on their life.
  • Improving data & evidence: We want there to be better official data about suicide in England and more evidence about effective suicide prevention. Those working in suicide prevention should find it easier to obtain this data and evidence.
  • Working together: We want organizations with an interest in suicide prevention collaborating with each other to make a bigger difference.
 
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