Our Project

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 
The Surviving Project hopes to increase awareness about suicide and provide support, comfort, love, and hope to those whose lives have been forever changed by the loss of a loved one by suicide.  We are survivors of what is sometimes described as the most debilitating and complicated grief known.  The Surviving Project was created within one family’s journey through this grief as a way to give back to others and provide support and understanding in the days, weeks, months, and years following the loss of someone so special in their lives.  Our lives changed on April 5, 2010, disrupted by the suicide of our son, Frederick Brian Beery.  We remember Fred with joy and agonize over his absence.  We feel awkward, broken, avoided, fooled, reluctant, hopeless, angry, despondent, responsible, stressed, tired, guilty, stuck, and even shamed.  And through our journey we have been touched by hearts, communities, churches, friends, family, strangers, and enemies alike to rebuild our beliefs in hope, future, and love.  Our journey has been a deep, personal struggle.  Sometimes wanting to give up, and other times feeling enormous strength and energy to take steps forward.  The pain that a Suicide Survivor feels is difficult to explain to another person.  We cannot think of adequate words to describe the pain or the affects mentally and physically on the families, friends, coworkers, neighbors, teachers, clergy….anyone involved in our loved one’s life.Our mission at The Surviving Project is to survive this incredible pain through helping others.  We are not licensed professional psychologists of suicidology.  No, we are something we find more valuable.  We are Suicide Survivors that have felt exactly what you are going through and want to help in ways that we have identified as “lacking for resource”.  We want to help you while we step through our own grief on this unexpected journey.
The Surviving Project is a family project headed by Leslie Beery to assist those in need of grief support after a loss by suicide.  We also advocate for suicide prevention, assessments, intervention, mental health services, responsible media reporting, and positive reinforcement for healthy lives.  When someone loses a loved one, by suicide or not, grief takes over and things change.  Our goal is to be a resource, a support, a comfort, and a constant.  We provide an on going support, not just one time, we are there until the bereaved person is comfortable going forward.  Every situation is unique and there is no right or wrong way to grieve.  For some, recovery after bereavement takes 18 to 24 months, but for others, the grieving process may be longer or shorter. We do not pressure the bereaved to move on or make them feel like they’ve been grieving too long or not long enough. This can actually slow their healing or complicate their survival going forward.Welcome to The Surviving Project.
Leslie Beery
My Journey by Leslie Beery 

Click Here for “My Letter to Suicide Prevention Organizations”

The Beery Family, left to right, Fred, Grant, Tracey, Sarah, Leslie, Chris