OUR inITIATIVES
The Ryyan Chacra Foundation is a grant-making 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation.
Our overarching mission is to ensure that Ryyan’s life is, and will continue to be, consequential. To that end, the Foundation’s goal is to fund initiatives that help draw conversations about anxiety and OCD into the open, improve public understanding of brain disorders, and connect more people, especially young men, with life saving care.
We believe that creating a foundation like this is exactly what Ryyan himself would do. Ryyan wrote: “Above all, I love to give and lift others I care about up.” Not only did Ryyan go to great lengths to help those he loved, but he also believed in the importance of comprehensive mental health education and felt strongly that there was not enough attention spent on mental health in schools.
INITIATIVES UNDERWAY NOW:
The Sheet “Suicide: What To Know”- A one-page informational sheet for friends, family, and caregivers
Suicide is shattering. It amputates a family and rattles a community. We want to believe that crushing events only happen to other people. But the terrible reality is that a suicide happens every 11 minutes. Of those dying by suicide, approximately 90% suffer from a brain/mental health disorder.
It is estimated that more than 1 in 5 American adults live with a mental health disorder, far too many people suffer alone. And while brain disorders like OCD and depression affect people of all ages and genders, the CDC reports that men and boys make up nearly 80% of those lost to suicide each year.
INITIATIVES IN DEVELOPMENT:
We are in the early stages of planning a symposium and a photographic/media experience focused on addressing the brain healthcare crisis in the U.S. today. This brain healthcare crisis is often the prelude to yet another devastating crisis which claims over fifty thousand U.S. lives every year - suicide.
A parallel media project on the brain healthcare crisis will incorporate highlights from the symposium’s presentations and panel discussion with the goal of producing an hour-long program for online and broadcast dissemination.
The symposium will be scheduled sometime in September 2027 with exact dates and location to be finalized.
The Veil of Calm
We are in the process of identifying a number of already produced films whose focus is OCD. Our goal is to organize screening events followed by Q&A sessions to expand the conversation about the many facets of OCD.
OCD in Film
We are currently in exploratory talks with educational institutions in the U.S. and elsewhere to stage Love, Anything: A Photographic Exhibition and Speaker Series.
Love, Anything On the Road
Starting in 2027, the Foundation will host an annual celebration of Ryyan’s birthday every September 27th to continue the Reach Out for Ryyan awareness effort at the Denver Botanic Gardens. This is our commitment to honor Ryyan’s legacy of building community and lifting people up, and a step toward de-stigmatizing conversations about brain disorders and suicide.
Ryyan at the Gardens
COMPLETED INITIATIVES:
Love, Anything: A Photographic Exhibition and Speaker Series - April 10 - June 26, 2026
A three-month exhibition of Ryyan’s photography and select journal entries at the Center for Bioethics and Humanities Pavilion, CU Anschutz Medical Campus. The speaker series featured Dr. Rachel Davis, Dr. Moksha Patel, Lissa Soep, PhD, and Lynn Lyons who discuss anxiety, perfectionism and the complexities of OCD as a brain disorder.
Interested in learning more about ways to support the Foundation?