Photo by Patrick Kleineberg (@catchmeifyoucanpk).
Sayless Projects only just received the nonprofit status two months ago, but Vincent Holland has been working within the advocacy space for mental health and suicide prevention for years.
As one of the founders of the Oak Cliff Run Crew almost five years ago, which is also a nonprofit, community and running has been an essential part of Holland’s life.
In April of last year he became an ambassador for ASICS, which focuses on a sound mind and sound body.
“I was wanting to put together a project to partner with them and do something for mental health awareness (month in May) because I lost my father to suicide in 2021 and so I have been advocating for suicide prevention and mental health awareness the last several years,” he said.
The project became Sayless Projects, starting with Project #1, a relay run from Dallas to Austin in May of 2024. The purpose of the run was to raise money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
“It was literally like 30 days from the idea to execution the first time we did it,” Holland said. “And so that’s kind of how it started.”
September is Suicide Prevention Month and to document the work Sayless Projects does for their relay, the nonprofit premiered the film The Art of Doing Something About It at the Granada Theater following the annual run on Memorial Day.
“All of that was to continue to raise awareness and also raise money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention,” he said, “and then we also launched a podcast to kind of build up for the relay run this year.”
The Sayless Projects Podcast released the first season of 12 episodes interviewing the runners who were running this year from Dallas to Austin. Participants shared their stories of their why and their purpose, from losing loved ones to their own mental health battles.
The next season of the podcast will hopefully be interviewing people who work in the mental health space.
“Just people from the community who have a passion for this or have a story about this subject,” he said.
That community being Oak Cliff and others here in Dallas. Holland said a big push for him is to help provide helpful content for those in the area.
“In my opinion, from what I’ve been able to see, a lot of times I’ve noticed, it doesn’t really attract or grab my attention as someone who’s more in, like, an urban, inner city context,” Holland said.
The goal of the nonprofit is to fill that gap, by making resources more diverse in representing Oak Cliff and South Dallas, he said.
In the future, Sayless Projects is also looking to expand their website to provide help and support for up to a global audience, as much as possible.
“I don’t think we’re going to be focused on one age group or demographic, we’re really trying to make this as broad as possible,” he said. “Everyone deals with mental health at some level.”
To continue to build that reach, the three person Sayless Projects board is continuing outreach for volunteers, hosting events, and fundraising to help the impact for the community.
“I foresee it growing for sure right now … the best way I can tell people is to help share our content. Come to our events,” Holland said.
To learn more about Sayless Projects and how you can get involved, visit https://www.saylessprojects.com/.
