EP #194 Turning Grief Into Suicide Prevention Support In Fredericksburg

A foundation can start as an idea, but it becomes real when someone is willing to tell the hardest story out loud. We’re joined by Saresa Taylor, a retired Army veteran and the founder of The Forsythe Foundation Reboot With Juju, created after the loss of her son. Saresa shares how his nickname, his love of technology, and even the meaning behind the word “Foresight” shaped a mission rooted in peace, purpose, and a chance to restart.

We get specific about what the foundation is working toward in Fredericksburg, VA: mental health awareness, suicide prevention, outreach in schools and the community, and emergency therapy support for people who can’t afford immediate care. Saresa also talks about scholarship plans for students pursuing mental health and psychology, plus IT cybersecurity, reflecting both community needs and her son’s passions. One of the most powerful ideas she’s building is “Reboot Day,” a school-focused program designed to remind students they matter and to teach simple steps for noticing struggle and offering support.

If you’ve ever thought about starting a nonprofit, Saresa keeps it real about the red tape and the discipline required. We talk mission clarity, writing your vision down, doing your own research, staying organized, and the challenge of finding committed board members who truly fit the cause. If you want to connect, volunteer, or donate, find the foundation at www.rebootwithjuju.com and follow along on Facebook. Subscribe, share this with someone in Fredericksburg who cares about mental health, and leave a review so more neighbors can find the show.

Saresa Taylor

The Forsythe Foundation

rebootwithjuju.com

FB: facebook.com/TheForsytheFoundationRebootwithJuJu

theforsythefoundation2025@gmail.com

+1 915-248-6102

Stafford, VA, United States

Transcript

Speaker: 0:01

This is the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Dori Stewart. Welcome back to another episode of the FXBG Neighbors Podcast, where we share the stories of our favorite local brands. I'm excited to introduce you to my guest today. We've got Saresa Taylor joining us, and she is with the Forsythe Foundation. Saresa, welcome to the podcast. Thank you. I'm really excited about this. I'm excited to learn more about you and more about the foundation. So, let's start there. Share with us, what is the Forsyth Foundation? So, the Forsyth Foundation. First, I will introduce myself. I am Saresa Taylor. I'm the founder of the Forsythe Foundation. After losing my son last year in April, I just mysteriously just said, I'm going to create a foundation and honor my son, because I made a promise that his life will continue to make a difference from the struggles that he went through. And immediately, I just knew that that was what God brought to me to do. I had been retired for over nine years. I retired from the military, 22 years, Army, and I hadn't worked. So, I really didn't have a purpose. I just did little hobbies here and there. I never had a job after I had retired from the military. And so, that day this happened, I felt like God gave me a purpose. And that's how the foundation came about. And the name of the foundation came from my son, often changing his name all the time. He just made up names, and we would just call him those names. Never knew what those names were, but we would just go along with him. And so, the Forsyth Foundation came from him calling himself Forsyth. And I never looked the meaning up until after he passed away. And when I looked the meaning up, it mean man of peace. So, it fit perfectly for their name. And so, I added on Reboot with Juju because we call him Juju. And Reboot is because the love of technology that he had. Therefore, I did Reboot because it's give you a restart of life. So, Reboot with Juju came from the love of technology and his nickname Juju. And so, that's how I came up with the foundation, the Forsyth Foundation Reboot with Juju. Wow. Well, I'm so sorry for your loss. And I love how you are honoring him and you're still being such a great mom. Share with me what the foundation does. So, the foundation, currently we're 10 months in. Right now, we are bringing awareness to mental health, suicide prevention. We're also doing outreach at school. We haven't started. My plans are to do outreach in schools. We do outreach in the community and have emergency therapy for those that are unfortunate to be able to afford therapy emergency. Like, if they need it immediately, we will be able to provide emergency therapy for them. And we also are going to be doing scholarships for those pursuing degrees in mental health, psychology, as well as IT cybersecurity. Wow. And another, oh, yes. And one other thing that I am planning to do, if you ever heard of Dare Day. So, my future goals to get into the school system and have a reboot day dedicated to, for mental health, suicide prevention, reminding students that they matter. And so, that is one of my signature programs that I'm pushing forward to actually implement in the schools because Dare Day is all about drug. Don't do drugs. Don't do this in schools or whatever. I haven't seen a program as, you know, like the kids have to, like the fifth graders, they have to basically graduate because they do these different classes. And then they have a Dare Day where all the things that they have learned about the importance of not doing drugs and the things like that in school. So, I'm thinking of implementing my own program with The Forsythe Foundation of the reboot day. And that would be considered, like, recognize when someone is struggling, empathize without judgment, believe every life has value, open the conversation, offer support, and take action. So, that is what the reboot day stands for. I love that. I love that. What big and meaningful goals. I imagine that you would love some community support. So, tell me if the listeners want to support you, if they want to, you know, help you give back. How can the community rally behind you? What are some things that you need from the community? Right now, what I would like to have from the community is their support because starting a new business, such as my business, is very hard because a lot of people are loyal to different foundations and loyal to different businesses. So, I want them to be able to trust that my foundation is actually doing what I entail for it to do. And so, support, donate, spread the word, volunteer, allow me to come into their establishments to share my story, to see where we're going. If they kind of look at our past from the past 10 months, they can see that I have been intentionally going to events where I can share my story, my real life story, and also showing what I'm ready to do and willing to do. I'm right now just needing fundraising grants, spread the word that we actually exist and that I am ready to go and share and spread the awareness in the community because there's been several families that has lost their child to suicide. And they come to me because my small little foundation has came across possibly their Facebook social media or something and they saw what I was doing and they was curious like, you just lost your son just recently. How are you able to do this? Well, God gave me this strength and this purpose and I'm ready to serve my son and keep his memory alive and share his struggles with those that are not able to share it because they're embarrassed. A lot of people are often embarrassed about what has happened. And so, I just need them to know that you don't have a reason to be embarrassed. Your child or loved one didn't do anything wrong. Mental health just took over. Yeah, I love that you're really focusing on awareness. I think that's so important and finding each other too is really important in the community. So, I really hope that the listeners support you and I imagine you are touching the hearts of many right now. It's really hard to start a nonprofit. It's not easy at all. There's a lot of red tape that you have to go through. So, talk to me a little bit about that and if someone listening is thinking about starting a foundation, what advice would you give them? Well, I would tell the people, if you're trying to open a foundation, first of all, have a mission and a goal of what you really want to do. You just can't say, I'm going to do it without a purpose. And typically, I think a lot of people who open or start a foundation, it's lived experiences typically, not just because I saw this happen and I just want to try to bring awareness. It's always something that is personal. So, once it's a personal goal or personal experience, but it makes it that more important that it becomes a theme where you're able to show the world or help the world with the experience that you have gone through. And so, what I would tell them, you need to write it down, your vision, you have to write your vision down. It just can't be something that you just think about and just start doing. Write it down. Once you see it on paper, it help you go about it in the proper way. Research, don't listen to what other people have done. Sometimes it's okay to listen, but you need to do your own research. Even though someone already have an established, things does change. And because things change, you still need to do your own research. So, you can have like a guide just in case you have to step down, that person that takes your place can go over the guide that you have created. And they'll have step by step information on how to make your establishing continue to grow or move forward. So, I say what you should do is you should research, have a purposeful goal and state a course, be consistent with everything you choose to do. Because it's not easy. I've been 10 months in and I'm learning every day. And I can tag along with other foundations, but everybody is not, their purpose is not the same. So, whereas they're doing certain things with their foundation, it might not apply to mine. So, you just have to be goal driven. You write everything down and try to just stay organized. Organization is a very, very big key in having a foundation in the business. Yeah, that's all really, really great advice. And I really love that you said, document everything so that if you step down, someone else comes in and you have all of your systems and processes in place so that it can continue running for generations even. I also struggle with board members. So, that will be 1 thing that you have to focus on as well. I purposely didn't use family members because they are too connected with you. So, some family members could be like, they're just doing it just for you, but not really wanting to do it. And they might not be a good fit, even though they can help whenever needed. I feel like allow them to help when needed, not like be on your board. That's just my personal advice. It could work for someone else, but I just feel that having people that you're really, really close to, to not be, don't be business with the people that you love. I think having strangers possibly lived experience, I think it will work better for that specific cause because they have a purpose why they would like to help and they will be driven. And although I have done it that way, I still struggle with board members coming and going and not being consistent. Because they work and obviously when board members come, it is a volunteer basis. And some people doesn't take it as serious and don't realize the seriousness of actually being a part of a foundation and the commitment that they actually have to have. And so you just have to vet your board members when you start getting board members, then you need to make sure that you do. And I would say, make sure you do background checks. That is very, very important. Even though you might feel that it's not important, it's always important because you want the right people and the right fit for your foundation. Because obviously you're doing this for someone you love most likely and you want what's best for your loved one. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. That is all really great advice. Thank you for that. It's your reputation as a foundation and you want it to have the most respect and integrity. So having the right people on your team is so important. So thank you for that. Yes, thank you. So if the listeners are inspired and they want to connect with you, if they want to help your cause, what's the best way for them to get in touch with you? They can go to our website. It is www.rebootwithjuju.com. They can go to our website. We have a website that's active. There are some things that is not all the way complete, but it is active for whatever information you would like to do as far as volunteer. If you would like to donate and the upcoming events that we have coming on. And we also have a Facebook. I don't know how to give you the Facebook. I can give you a link to the Facebook, but I don't. It's so long for the Facebook and they can also follow us on Facebook. Amazing. I will include all of the links in the show notes to help people out. Okay. Thank you. Saresa, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today and sharing The Forsythe Foundation with us. Thank you for having me. Thank you for listening to the Fredericksburg Neighbors podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to fxbgneighborspodcast.com.