Chanda L. Spates is the Founder & CEO of Flourish Foundation Project Inc., a federally recognized community behavioral health organization working to redefine how communities respond to the youth mental health and suicide crisis. In the United States, suicide claims more than 51,000 lives each year, with approximately 1.7 million suicide attempts annually, and children and youth account for nearly 23 percent of those lost. Spates’ work focuses on building collaborative prevention ecosystems that meet children and youth where they are—in schools, community centers, and on the digital platforms youth spend up to 7.5 hours a day engaging with after school—using music, gaming, and creative media as powerful channels for resilience, awareness, and prevention.

A mother of five, including a set of triplets, Spates was driven to launch the organization after her own family experienced the reality of youth suicide risk when her son survived a suicide attempt. Frustrated by the limited solutions available that truly resonated with children and youth, she applied her professional background in corporate gap analysis and strategic problem solving to examine where prevention systems were failing to reach youth. That analysis became the foundation for a new approach designed to meet children and youth within the environments that most influence their lives.

Through youth enrichment initiatives such as SoundQuest Station, children and youth engage in hands-on experiences in music creation, esports, digital media production, and creative storytelling while developing leadership skills, confidence, and purpose. A central component of the program is future-focused career exploration, introducing youth to emerging and high-demand career pathways across fields such as technology, medicine, media, sports, and other industries shaping a rapidly evolving world. Research consistently shows that when youth begin to see meaningful possibilities for their future, their sense of purpose strengthens and risk factors associated with suicide are dramatically reduced.

Participants learn practical prevention and resilience-building strategies and reinforce those lessons through a learn-and-teach-back model, where youth create music, media, and peer-to-peer messages that share prevention insights and encouragement with others on the same digital platforms they already use—spaces where resilience and prevention messaging are often absent. In doing so, youth become powerful ambassadors of hope and positive influence within their own peer networks.

Spates developed the F.I.R.E. Ecosystem (Flourish, Impact, Resilience, and Excellence), a collaborative prevention framework designed to surround children and youth with reinforcing messages of hope, purpose, and opportunity across the environments that influence their lives. The ecosystem brings together educators, community organizations, national brands, professional athletes, music artists, and cross-sector leaders whom youth look up to, ensuring that messages of resilience are consistently reinforced across schools, youth programs, digital platforms, and national awareness initiatives.

This ecosystem approach comes to life through initiatives such as Every11Minutes.org and the Play & Stay — Live Championship™: Esports, Music & Wellness Youth Summit, developed in collaboration with the Olympic Regional Development Authority and live-streamed nationwide with interactive youth participation from the Olympic Center in Lake Placid, New York. Through esports competitions, music, creative media, and youth-led storytelling, the summit demonstrates how gaming and creative culture can serve as stigma-free entry points for youth to learn and demonstrate prevention and resilience strategies, supported by partners and national brands that youth recognize and trust.

Spates holds a Master of Human Resource Management from Keller Graduate School of Management at DeVry University and is a certified QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) Gatekeeper Trainer in suicide prevention. She is also a contributing author in the international bestselling anthology Beyond Boundaries: Thriving in Life’s Gray Zone, alongside leadership expert Dr. Constance J. Leland.

As a woman leader committed to turning personal experience into meaningful change, Chanda Spates continues to champion innovative, collaborative solutions that empower children and youth to embrace life, discover purpose, and build brighter futures—fueling safe, caring, and globally competitive communities.