The plan, in one place.
ESCAPE is a two-part answer to suicide prevention. Part one: an SOS matchmaking app that connects someone to a trained community member who relates. Part two: a reset button on life, an all-inclusive retreat to escape to, followed by 90 days of help with the problem itself. This page is how we build it.
A US 501(c)(3) public charity, one region first, an international network eventually.
Its defining proposition is not that every suicidal person needs a vacation. It is that some people face problems requiring more than conversation, and the right combination of safety, belonging, treatment, environmental change and material support may create options they could not see.
A more approachable front door
A visually attractive app with text-first communication, supportive matching and personal choice.
A community that stays
Relationships that continue past the first crisis conversation, with boundaries and continuity.
Real escape opportunities
Temporary stays away from harmful or overwhelming circumstances, where clinically appropriate.
Individualized rebuilding
Help with work, housing, finances, grief, physical well-being, social connection and future plans.
A charity-powered model
Philanthropists, corporations, grants, individual donors and optional participant fees subsidizing access.
What ESCAPE is, and what it is not.
What it is
- A free, simple app that connects you to one real person who stays in touch
- A supported stay away from the situation that is crushing you, run by experienced people in a place that feels restorative
- Ninety days of follow-up after a stay, with money set aside for practical help: rent, work, debt, grief, health
- Run with partners: an established charity hosts it, an experienced operator runs the stays, clinicians keep it safe
- Free for people who cannot pay. Guests who can pay help fund places for those who can't
What it is not
- Not a crisis line. Urgent danger goes straight to trained crisis responders and emergency services
- Not a hospital, a rehab or a treatment center, and never a substitute for one when that is what someone needs
- Not a dating app. Nobody browses anyone. Supporters are vetted and conversations are moderated
- Not a luxury resort. Nobody has to be wealthy, attractive or outgoing to belong
- Not a promise that a trip fixes a life. Most people who use ESCAPE will never need a stay
The app: what ships first.
Small on purpose. The first version does three things: a tiny first step, one named person, and the thread from that person to a stay and the help after it. More comes only once that works.
| Feature | What it does | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Immediate Support | Routes urgent needs to trained crisis responders and emergency services | Essential |
| Easy first contact | One tap to start; type or leave an optional voice note; a few need categories, recording deleted | Essential |
| Human matching | A small team suggests one supporter using simple rules; the person can say no | Essential |
| Text / Voice / Video | Lets users choose their communication method | Essential |
| Personal Safety Plan | Warning signs, coping steps, trusted contacts, safer environments | Essential |
| Personalized Resource Path | Connects problems to housing, jobs, financial counseling, grief support | Essential |
| Stay and aftercare thread | Screening, travel, the stay and 90-day follow-up carried by one named person | Essential |
| Community Activities | Moderated interest groups, events and peer activities | Phase 2 |
| Alumni Network | Keeps connections alive after an intervention or stay | Phase 2 |
| AI admin helper | Organizes requests, translations, scheduling and finding resources | Later |
Verified Angel Matching
| Applications | Identity verification, screening, references |
| Training | For the role: boundaries, reporting, what to do in an emergency |
| Communication | Moderated in-app, defined privacy safeguards |
| Availability | Clear hours; urgent cases go to crisis responders, never only to an Angel |
| Emergencies | Written rules and trained people who answer |
| Oversight | Clinical oversight, audits, every incident reviewed |
| Relationships | Optional continuity with boundaries and supervision |
Participants say a few words about what they need and receive one suggested person from a vetted group, chosen by a human team with simple rules. No browsing, no swiping, no open directory of people in distress. How a match is made, in order: first filter to supporters who are trained for the need, free, speak the language, and fit any boundaries the person has set. Then rank by what the person asked for, relevant experience, continuity with someone they already know, and how long they have waited. Then a person confirms it and handles anyone with no good match. What it never uses: appearance. Nothing about risk is ever inferred from someone's voice.
The Fresh Start Plan.
Every consenting participant is offered an individualized plan focused on their actual circumstances: loneliness, financial hardship, housing instability, employment, grief, relationships, or access to healthcare.
The plan is developed with appropriately qualified people, respects the participant's choices, and names which partner is responsible for each service. Success is measured by whether people obtain the support and opportunities that matter to them, not by how many retreat beds were filled.
Not just someone to talk to. Someone to help you find a way forward.
Forming the nonprofit, in order.
The single most important part of making ESCAPE legitimate. Nothing here is skipped or done informally.
Run the pilot as a project hosted by an established nonprofit
A written agreement on who operates, who pays and who owns the work. Our own entity only if the pilot earns it; a company or LLC only if the funding turns out to be commercial.
Establish a nonprofit corporation in a chosen state
Recruit a genuinely independent board of directors
Articles, bylaws, conflict-of-interest policy, financial controls
EIN, accounting and banking
Apply for 501(c)(3) exemption
Form 1023, or Form 1023-EZ where eligible. Current IRS fees: $600 and $275 respectively.
State charitable-solicitation registrations
Engage healthcare and nonprofit counsel before offering any direct support
Counsel to recruit
- Nonprofit counsel
- Healthcare regulatory counsel
- Privacy and technology counsel
- Employment counsel
- International immigration counsel, when expansion becomes relevant
Privacy architecture
- Collect the minimum sensitive data
- Encrypt in transit and at rest
- Role-based permissions and audit logs
- Identifiable participant data never in marketing or donor reporting
- No advertising pixels or commercial targeting on support activity
- Consent, retention, deletion and breach policies written with counsel
- HIPAA business associate agreements wherever required; FTC Health Breach Notification Rule treated as applying
- Independent security review before sensitive conversations go live
Direct assistance, legally defensible
The Fresh Start Fund operates under a formal assistance policy: financial and program eligibility, conflict-of-interest screening, independent award decisions, maximum benefit amounts and permitted uses, documentation and audits, and emergency exceptions with defined approvals. Donors sponsor categories, never individuals.
Not all full-time on day one. All accountable from day one.
Some roles start contracted or run through qualified partners. Independent governance, accountable clinical direction and data security are never informal.
Board of Directors
Independent oversight, charitable mission and governance. Clinical and Safety Committee reports here.
Executive Director / Founder
Vision, fundraising, partnerships and organizational leadership.
Clinical & Safety
Care standards, crisis partnerships, training. First strategic hire: a licensed clinical director.
Product & Technology
App, security, user experience.
Operations & People
HR, volunteers, participant services.
Development & Brand
Donors, partnerships, marketing.
Residential Programs
Sites, support teams, facilities, partner oversight.
Finance & Compliance
Budgeting, legal, reporting, controls.
Who is in place, and who we are recruiting
| Role | Status | What they are responsible for |
|---|---|---|
| Founder and executive director | In place | Vision, partnerships, fundraising. Not clinical decisions. |
| Licensed clinical director | Recruiting | Screening, safety rules, emergencies, and the authority to stop anything unsafe. |
| Host charity | In conversations | Charitable status, governance and insurance for the first stays. |
| Retreat operator and venue | Recruiting | Running the stays day to day with their own staff. |
| Crisis and clinical partner | Recruiting | Assessment, treatment, urgent response. |
| Independent evaluator | Recruiting | Checking and publishing the results, including what went wrong. |
| Legal counsel | Recruiting | Nonprofit, healthcare and privacy law. |
No partner is signed yet. Names are added here as agreements are made, never before.
Partner network
Crisis service, clinical, residential, employment, housing, research. Delivering within their licenses, under written agreements.
The 12-month plan we would actually run.
Partners, the deal, and listening first
Secure a host nonprofit, an experienced retreat operator with an existing venue, and a clinical partner. Write down who operates, who pays and who owns the work. Define who the stay is for and not for, and the route to urgent medical help. Sit down, with proper support in the room, with 10 to 15 people who have been there, including people who turned down help, and let what they say shape the offer.
Will people say yes?
Offer a free, supported stay, travel included, to 30 to 60 people from different backgrounds, including people who have turned down help before. Note who says yes and exactly where the others drop out. Try different first messages, with a clinician checking them.
Supported retreat pilot
Two groups of up to 12 screened adults. The app used only for first contact and follow-up, with people doing the matching. The operator's staff on site, a named clinician accountable for screening and for getting urgent help. Alongside them, a comparison group gets the same named person and the same practical help without a stay, so we learn whether the stay itself adds enough to justify its cost.
Funded aftercare
Every participant leaves with a named follow-up person and a practical-help plan for 90 days. Housing, work, money and grief partners deliver; ESCAPE coordinates and pays from the assistance fund.
Independent review, then decide
Safety incidents, how many people said yes versus how many were interested, how guests are doing 90 days on, the real cost per guest, and the money committed. Then: our own charity, a bigger raise, or stop. Growth only if the evidence supports it.
What the pilot measures
Targets, not results. Safety is assessed independently. One trouble-free pilot would not prove the program is safe.
Five questions the pilot must answer
- Do people actually say yes to a free stay, including people who have turned down help before, and where do the others drop out?
- Can a screened stay be run safely by a responsible operator, with a route to urgent help that works?
- Does the benefit hold at 90 days when aftercare is a named person and a funded plan?
- What does one completed fresh start really cost, counting travel, cancellations, people who turn out not to be suitable, and the 90 days after, and who will reliably pay for it?
- Does the stay itself add enough, compared with giving the same person and the same practical help without a stay?
After year one, if the results are good Next Later
Year two
Stays running all year with the same partners. First contracts with a health system or county. ESCAPE becomes its own charity.
Year three
A second region. More venues and more aftercare partners. The app opens to more people, still adults, still one region at a time.
Years three to five
A flagship campus of our own, part retreat and part friendly campus, once the model is proven and the money to run it is secured.
Long term
Local chapters, a network of venues, employer partnerships, and former guests who come back to help the next person.
Planning targets, not promises. Licensing, staffing and funding can all stretch the timeline.
Hypothetical milestones, not growth predictions.
| Stage | App reach | Residential capacity |
|---|---|---|
| First pilot | 500 to 2,000 users | Two supported stays at a partner venue |
| Early launch | 5,000 to 20,000 | One small guest-house partnership or pilot |
| Regional expansion | 50,000 to 150,000 | 2 to 5 facilities or partner sites |
| Established network | 250,000 to 500,000 | 5 to 15 facilities and partners |
| Long-term vision | 1 million+ | Capacity for thousands of annual stays |
Real forecasts need actual acquisition cost, repeat use, risk levels, referrals, eligibility, residence demand and funding. The 1-million-user ambition is not extrapolated from 988 contact totals.
The first stays, then a full year.
| First supported stays (raising now) | $250,000 |
| The stays themselves, with experienced staff | $80,000 |
| Clinicians: screening, oversight, crisis partner | $40,000 |
| The 90 days after: a named person and practical help | $40,000 |
| Legal, insurance and the host charity | $25,000 |
| Travel for guests | $20,000 |
| The simple app, privacy and security | $20,000 |
| Cushion for surprises | $15,000 |
| Independent check of the results | $10,000 |
| Year two, if the results are good | $750,000 |
Draft figures until the retreat operator, the lawyers and the lead clinician have costed them. Full detail on the funders page.
Open questions, stated plainly.
Will people actually go?
Being interested is not the same as getting on the plane. Until we offer real stays to real people, we do not know how many will say yes, or why the others won't.
Who operates, and where?
No operator, venue or host nonprofit is signed. Possible connections exist and are not named here until they are confirmed.
What does it really cost?
The $250,000 split is a draft. Staffing, travel, insurance, cancellations and the 90 days after will be costed with the operator before any donor is asked to commit.
Is the stay the part that works?
Maybe the named person and the practical help do most of the work. The pilot compares both, honestly, before anyone builds a campus.
Who gets a place?
Places will be scarce. Selection follows written criteria, decided independently of fundraising, and we will publish who we had to turn away and why.
Where things stand.
The concrete steps before the first guest travels, and the honest status of each. Updated by us as they move.
| Step | Status |
|---|---|
| Finalize brand, website and design system | Done |
| Write the plan, the safety rules and who the first pilot is for | Done |
| Recruit nonprofit and healthcare legal counsel | In progress |
| Secure a licensed clinical director or lead adviser | In progress |
| Secure a host charity and write the deal: who operates, who pays, who owns | In progress |
| Secure a retreat operator with a venue, an insurer and a route to urgent medical help | Not started |
| Listen to 10 to 15 people who have been there, including people who turned down help | Not started |
| Offer a free stay to 30 to 60 people and see who says yes | Not started |
| Produce the founding deck and the concept trailer | Not started |
| Work out the full cost with the operator: staffing, travel, insurance, a cushion, the 90 days after | Not started |
| Begin founding-donor outreach with the $250,000 pilot budget | Not started |
Four things you will see from us.
A short founding deck
The problem, the gap, how ESCAPE works, how it is kept safe, what the first stays cost, and what we are asking for.
60 to 90-second concept trailer
Being stuck, then connection, support, nature and a fresh start. No graphic or sensationalized crisis scenes.
This site
The whole plan in one place, with a way to register interest and a way to get help today.
A public results page
What we spent, what happened, and what we could not measure, checked independently and published as we grow.
An international network, earned through results.
Local community chapters, professionally governed residential programs, corporate employment partnerships, financial-stability programs, educational opportunities, and an alumni community capable of supporting others.
A vision to earn through demonstrated results, not an outcome assumed from the strength of the idea alone. The flagship campus, part boutique retreat and part friendly university campus, gets built when the operating model is proven and the capital to sustain it exists.
A hotline helps someone through an urgent moment. ESCAPE aims to help them discover what comes next.
The bottom line. ESCAPE is not trying to prove that a beautiful retreat can replace suicide prevention. It is building a service that connects people in distress to a real person, a safer place, practical help, and a reason to picture a future, and then proves it with published results.