About Us
In May 2019, at the age of 28, professional skateboarder Ben Raemers died by suicide. The devastation and loss of such a beautifully contagious human being rippled across the world.
Through seeing the sadness left behind and the desire from the community to support an ongoing project, The Ben Raemers Foundation was formed.
The Foundation
The overall aim of the foundation is to provide a way to maintain Ben’s legacy and help prevent any more loss to suicide.
We aim to enable the skateboarding community to have opportunities to develop the skills and tools needed to support each other to understand and address mental health. Suicide is a preventable death, so it’s something everyone can work together to do and save lives.
We have been overwhelmed by the community’s support through incredible fundraising events, brand alignments, individual donations and purchasing our merchandise. Due to this, the foundation has accomplished some of its initial goals. These include:
- Creating social media content to raise awareness of mental health issues.
- Making films highlighting skaters’ journeys in mental health.
- We deliver suicide prevention training to skaters worldwide.
By creating a platform and safe spaces for people to talk about mental health within the context of the skateboarding world, we are breaking down fears, improving knowledge and changing preconceptions and misgivings around mental health stigma and taboos.
We welcome all ages, genders, and backgrounds to be part of making skateboarding a suicide-safe community.
Impact
Find out more about how we’ve been helping support mental health initiatives within the skateboarding community from our delivery reports:
