Our first guest of Season 3 is Joel Frieders. Joel is a man of many talents, but most of all, he exudes charisma and his passion for suicide prevention burns very bright. We cover Joel’s experience as an Alderman for the United City of Yorkville, IL, as well as his journey to becoming the Public Policy Director for Hope for the Day.

The main focus of our discussion this episode continually circles back to Joel’s main passion project - the National Suicide Prevention & Action Month Proclamation (NSPAMP). After painfully losing multiple friends, loved ones, and mentors to suicide, Joel decided it was time something had to be done to break the silence and the stigma around talking about suicide and the impact it has on our communities.