Local Nonprofit Helping Oklahoma Students Deal With Mental Illness

Mental illness is without question a real issue for today’s youth, and having dealt with it in his past Jordan Miller knew he had to do whatever he could to help. 

“In 2017, Oklahoma went from thirty second to the third leading state in the nation for teen suicide, and then we were like man we got to do something about it,” said Jordan Miller founder of Generation Why.  

Those statistics were the purpose behind the nonprofit, Generation Why. 

“Your ‘why’ is the foundation for your future, and that’s why we call it Generation Why,” said Miller.  

They go into schools and reach kids in a way the kids can relate to. 

“We have rappers, dancers, spoken word artist, motivational speakers, we’ve got a live DJ,” said Miller. 

Everything is set up to get kids to open up. 

“As soon as a kid is walking in, automatically their walls start breaking down,” said Miller. 

The pep rally of sorts is all to address mental health issues with kids.

“In our last event, out of each session that we did, I asked ‘how many of your schools are talking about mental health, at all?’ Nobody raised their hand,” said Miller.  

For Miller, every day that goes by without having these tough discussions is a day to potentially lose another kid.  

“Generation Why wants to break the stigma of mental health before we all are fully broken,” said Miller.  

The issues run deep for Jordan, who tried to take his own life twice during his freshman year of college. 

“I understood everybody else because I wanted to give, give, give, and I felt like that, who these students are, they’re giving so much of themselves, that they lose who they are, and that's what I was doing at the time,” said Miller.  

The nonprofit, now in its fifth year, has reached one hundred and ten thousand Oklahoma students with a message of hope.  

“If we can just meet them where they are and bring them hope and bring them life, then that’s what we’re going to do,” said Miller. 

In the future Miller sees the nonprofit expanding into other states, locally he would like to open a community center to be able to devote more time to each student on a one-on-one level. For more information about the nonprofit visit their website www.pursueyourwhy.org or their social media pages @generation why.