The OFFICIAL SITE to Americas #1 Youth Motivational Speaker!
The OFFICIAL SITE to Americas #1 Youth Motivational Speaker!
Nobody has more experience with youth suicides than Jeff Yalden. Schools and communities throughout North America continue to look to Jeff Yalden to restore hope, answer questions, and give teens permission to grieve through the process of losing a friend and a classmate.
Jeff’s youth suicide prevention program has helped over 4000 different schools and brought hope to many of teens and families. Jeff doesn’t use any religious tone or spirituality in his message.
Being sensitive, but at the same time Jeff walks the hearts of his audience from pain and frustration to grieving and acceptance. He is known to spend hours upon hours in friends and families kitchens helping teens and families understand youth suicide.
Not all suicide prevention programs are created equal. Jeff is one of the most in demand youth suicide prevention speakers in the world.
He’s a favorite for his powerful stories leaving the audience reflecting, embracing, and ultimately cheering each other on. Jeff loves his work with teens, families, and educators. His passion stems from his youth and he’s taken his expertise a step further now.
He’s now training teachers, staff members communities, and military personnel on how to identify, question, persuade, and refer a person in pain or possibly suicidal to get help.
Experience from the depths of despair to renewed sense of being and purpose. Jeff works with school communities – parents, adults, and teens on mental health and depression everyday.
Everyday, Jeff is on the phone with a school community, counselor, administrator, parent, or a teen dealing with loss, or thoughts of suicide.
This is what he does and when he isn’t doing this, Jeff is speaking and mesmerizing some high school audience or middle school audience with his life’s experiences and wisdom. It’s not just a job to him. This is his life’s purpose and the meaning to his existence.
What do these communities have in common? They both hired Youth Suicide Prevention Expert – Jeff Yalden.
In two days, Jeff came and restored hope to these communities searching for meaning and understanding. Jeff shared his heart with the staff, students, and community members including parents. He shared his theory on today’s teens and depression, anxiety, and expectations. He talked about the pressures of today’s youth – being on 24/7 and always connected. He shared everything from signs to look out for to how to deal with a teen in crisis.
He is not a textbook guy. The reality, sometimes it’s just another outside voice that can say things a little differently than community members, Pastors, Principals, Superintendents, Coaches, and Teachers. Jeff is used to being the one that has to say what needs to be said. It’s an outside voice with great experience that can open his heart and move the energy in a new direction, whereas, you might be chastised for being insensitive.
Jeff has a way with words and a presence that is impactful.
What would you rather have? You’d rather have the person that connects and makes a difference, rather than the person that can share statistics and textbook definitions written well before today’s generation was so actively involved in social media technology. This is what Jeff does – Loving People To Life!
So, for your next youth suicide prevention training consider the one person with more experience than anyone. Jeff Yalden will bring the students and staff members back to normalcy. You will be glad you did!
No administrative certificate, PhD, or Masters Degree will ever prepare you for what to do when a suicide rocks your school community.
This is about experience, patience, and doing the right thing for everyone including – family, students, staff, community, friends, teams, and the subject in this case. Proceed carefully and remember, “It will be ok!”
Now it is time to move forward from the loss, but how do we do it? Often times, Jeff has been asked to give an upbeat school wide assembly addressing the students and talking about life and bringing school spirit and morale back. Jeff can speak from the heart in a way that one of the everyday staff members or administrators can’t. Sometimes it’s just a matter of being from the outside that makes all the difference in the world.
Give Jeff a call and let’s talk about having Jeff bring you through this last part where we can get back to normal and move forward. Also, contact Jeff for your questions on how to handle this crisis. Questions such as, “What do we do now?” and “How do we handle this?” and many more questions are answered in the After a Suicide: Toolkit for Schools that Jeff will gladly send to you for your guide. Questions?
Contact Jeff today for a Training in your School with teachers, staff, or administrators.
Jeff was hospitalized twice for suicidal thoughts – at 16 years old and at 20 years old. He’s been there. He’s lived in the pain and dark shadows where nothing in that moment seemed like it would ever end.
He didn’t want to be a burde
n anymore. He didn’t want to wake up from his depressed state of sleep. The pain was too much.
While in elementary school, Jeff remembers a girl on his bus who one day took her life. Everyday the bus would continue to drive past that driveway/bus stop for that one girl. The bus never stopped again, but the memories were forever. As Jeff now says, “We never talked about it. We just heard and went about our days, but the bus would always continue to drive past the house.”
While in high school Jeff remembers two suicides and multiple deaths that still linger on in his heart.
Then, the defining moment came on February 26, 1992 while Jeff was in the Marine Corps. One of his Marines took his own life with a 9mm in the room while Jeff was trying to help him. This Marine looked at Jeff (Corporal Yalden) and said, “Corporal Yalden, nobody cares about me!” Corporal Yalden looked at him and said, “I care about you!” The Marine then looked at Corporal Yalden and said, “Maybe you’re the only one!” and took the 9mm and pulled the trigger, taking his own life.
For almost the next 12 hours, Jeff Yalden wasn’t allowed to leave the room during the investigation. The Marines final words were, “Maybe YOU are the only one!” Jeff remembers those words and thinks that somewhere prior to that moment had he only known that others did care could we have prevented this suicide.
These trying experiences are what inspired Jeff to create his youth suicide prevention program that has touched so many lives.
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