Fore the Kids Foundation and Children’s Mercy Lighting the Path Forward on the Youth Mental Health Crisis
This year, longtime mental health champions Fore the Kids Foundation pledged $3.5 million to support Illuminate, a bold plan launched by Children’s Mercy to address the devastating mental health crisis impacting children and teens in Kansas City and our region.
Advocates for children’s health since 2009, Fore the Kids Foundation has raised more than $8 million for a variety of needs since its partnership began with Children’s Mercy. In 2017, a personal loss for the organization shifted the Foundation’s focus to addressing the growing mental health crisis among youth in our community.
“In 2017, my son, Nick, died by suicide. He was just 22 years old,” said Kevin Timmons, Fore the Kids co-founder. “Learning that suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people and not wanting any other family to go through what we experienced, we established the Nick’s Voice Fund at Children’s Mercy to raise awareness and urgency in the community. We wanted to use our tragedy to help others in need and, stemming from Nick’s legacy, our support of addressing the mental health crisis has only grown.”
Since that time, the Fore the Kids Foundation has been dedicated to raising funds to support the cause as well as educate our community about the signs and treatment of depression, anxiety and other mood disorders affecting the mental health of children and adolescents. The first program Fore the Kids Foundation helped support was a pilot program to embed Children’s Mercy social workers and behavioral health support in the Blue Valley School District.
“The school district shared that the results of this program have been amazing,” Timmons said. “It has been incredible to see the impact of our dollars being put to use to literally save the lives of our kids, our neighbors’ kids, right here in Kansas City. It inspired us to do more and focus our fundraising efforts on supporting programs and initiatives that aim to make kids feel good about themselves and never even think about harming themselves.”
In the years since shifting this focus to encourage our youth to live, Fore the Kids established the Nick Timmons Endowed Chair in Developmental and Behavioral Health and kick-started the Depression and Anxiety in Youth (DAY) Clinic – both firsts at Children’s Mercy.
“Fore the Kids Foundation has been an early advocate and leading mental health partner in our community,” Jenea Oliver, Children’s Mercy Chief Development Officer said. “This new $3.5 million dollar commitment, their single largest pledge to Children’s Mercy, is an incredible testament to their passion for this cause and will bring critically-needed mental health services for thousands of children and teens in our community.”
Funding will also advance key Illuminate initiatives including the integration of behavioral health services in local primary care practices, school-based mental health services and a joint venture with KVC Camber Mental Health for a 72-inpatient bed hospital in Olathe opening this year. This leadership commitment also helped Children’s Mercy reach an early fundraising goal of $13.7 million in less than a year to help secure a $2 million challenge grant from the Mabee Foundation.
Fore the Kids Foundation
In 2005, Jordan Paden checked into Children’s Mercy at 11 years old knowing something was wrong. Four months later, she was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease. Jordan would end up in and out of the hospital for years to follow. The Paden family had been close with Nick and Jake’s owners, Kevin Timmons and Doug Watkins. After visiting Jordan in the hospital, Timmons discovered how bored she was sitting in the bed all day long. He also discovered how difficult it was for her to stay caught up in school. It was then that Fore the Kids would begin a partnership with Children’s Mercy to help raise funds for new laptops that both patients and doctors could use.
Since 2017, Fore the Kids Foundation has focused on raising funds for mental health initiatives. The Foundation has grown under the leadership of Kevin Timmons and Dan Beutler's vision and now, under the board direction of Haley Prophet and Executive Director Tracy MacDonald, the foundation continues to be a focused partner and community champion of Children's Mercy. With a vision to help every kid smile from the enjoyment of life and support positive mental health through improving community awareness and advocating access to high quality care and research, the Foundation hosts a popular annual golf tournament, a pickleball event and bourbon raffle among their fundraisers as well as hosting outreach and awareness events to advocate for the cause.
Learn more about Fore the Kids at forethekidskc.org.
Illuminate
One in five young people in the U.S. have a mental health disorder, and in Kansas City over 40 percent of those kids don’t get the help they need. That’s why Children’s Mercy launched Illuminate, a 5-year, $275 million plan, to address this youth mental health crisis through early intervention, equitable access, expanded services and research. We need your help. Learn how you can help light the path forward.