Jordan Mooney came from a middle class, two parent household. She was an honor roll student throughout 6th grade and the start of 7th grade. When she turned 13 years old, her family noticed a change in her behavior and at first chalked it up to typical teenage phase we all go through.

But within a few weeks it was clear this was more then a normal case of teenage angst. Jordan had taken to self harming and was dealing with suicidal thoughts. This began the family’s journey navigating and becoming familiar with the gaps in the mental health system.

Jordan was soon self medicating and using marijuana 8-10 times daily to cope. On her 15th birthday the adult whom she was buying the marijuana from offered her methamphetamine (meth) for the first time as a birthday present.

On 11/3/16 Jordan became a meth addict using daily, running away from home, getting in trouble with local law enforcement, dropped out of school, and still her family and her fought to beat the addiction that she was fighting at such a young age.

Jordan and her family always knew during this battle that when they got her to healthy recovery they would turn around and use their story of how hard it was to get the help needed when they needed it to help others.

I wish I could tell you this was the origin of The Jordan Project. That she recovered and is now a part of leading the change in this community.

Unfortunately, 65 days after Jordan’s 16th birthday, on 1/7/18, Jordan Victoria Mooney passed away of a methamphetamine overdose in the company of the same person who had started her addiction to the drug 430 days before on her 15th birthday.

This did not stop her family from wanting to help use their story to help others. If anything it only impassioned them more. Just four weeks after she passed away in February 2018, Jordan’s mom met with community members with a long list of things she knew needed changing.

Goal number one was to provide youth with a YOUTH ONLY support meeting as the community did not have one. It became The Jordan Project’s mission to start this support meeting within 6 months of Jordan’s passing and they met this goal with the opening of The Beacon in July of 2018.

We are approaching the sixth anniversary of Jordan’s passing, youth have gone through The Beacon and graduated out, The Jordan Project is more about their success and the youth and families getting support from this project then it is about her.

But she was why we started, why we are named The Jordan Project. We won’t ever forget about her and the reason this all began.