A Bay Area non-profit organization is on a mission to help reduce the number of suicides among first responders and veterans.
The Overwatch Collective started three years ago. Its goal is to connect members of those communities with culturally competent therapists and provide financial assistance.
Greg Grogran, a police officer in Daly City, had a friend and colleague commit suicide a few years ago.
"It is a very common thing amongst our first responders and military community to unfortunately lose members to suicide," said Grogran. "Recognizing that there was a problem, we tried to come up with the best system that we could use in order to save at least one life."
Since launching, the organization has connected over 260 people nationwide to its contracted therapists.
Kaitlyn Boaz of Missouri said she stumbled onto the Overwatch Collective's services on social media and decided to take a chance.
A member contacted her within an hour.
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"[I] faced a lot of hardship and struggles and actually ended up getting terminated from that department which left me in a spot where I could not afford to go seek out help of any kind," she said.
The former military service member and firefighter said she started working with the organization therapist, and things started to get better.
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"I'm super happy to be in the spot I'm in now and hopefully advocate for the people who don't want to speak up," Boaz said.
Carlos Tapia, president of the San Mateo County Deputy Sheriff's Association Union, said the union has partnered with the group.
"One of the ways we support this is we have a veterans patch," he said. "Between the deputy sheriffs association and the Code 30 foundation, which is our sister foundation, in total, we have given over $15,000 to the Overwatch Collective."
