The Front Porch Coalition dissolves into Journey On

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) - Suicide prevention is an essential service for those who suffer from mental illnesses like depression. For some, it can be the reason they are still with us today. This need is felt even more when an organization that helps to prevent it closes down. The Front Porch Coalition is one such organization and they just dissolved.

Seeing the organization dissolving without context can leave someone with the impression that the services they provide are leaving… But they say they are actually growing. What The Front Porch Coalition provides will continue to be available, now under the umbrella of the group Journey On. The executive director of Journey On says this will not affect the services Front Porch has provided to this point.

“All are coming over. All of its efforts are coming to Journey On. None of them will be changed. So the same staff that were working on those other programs are all coming across, we’re not making any changes that way,” said Rich Braunstein, the executive director of Journey On.

In terms of why this change is happening at all, Braunstein says both organizations saw this as a way to improve what they do.

“The Front Porch Coalition was not looking for a way to dissolve its organization. The whole conversation kind of evolved from the perspective of what can we do better if we join together,” said Braunstein.

Braunstein says that since he is only able to commit part of his time to Journey On, merging the companies had another benefit as well.

“And then all the conversations became wouldn’t it be nice if Bridgett could be the executive director for both of the organizations and then the conversation was like wouldn’t it be nice if we only had one organization and so that’s how it evolved and we’re just glad that it’s moving along,” said Braunstein.

Braunstein says there isn’t a concrete date for when the organizations will be fully integrated and wanted to reassure anyone who went to Front Porch Coalition before they will still be able to contact them the same way they always have.

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