Meet Jennings Hester | Founder

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jennings Hester and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jennings, can you talk to us a bit about the social impact of your business?
Our mission is to ‘improve all lives by serving men facing mental health challenges’. Men make up over 82% of suicides in Colorado and less than 20% of people treated for a mental illness and/or substance abuse. Improving all ives was very intentional. We know the butterfly effect that men have on the entire community.

Husbands, partners, friends, siblings, children and the entire community are affected by men’s mental health. Healthier men equates to a healthier community. Men need a supportive community of other men, healthy hobbies and awareness of what they are dealing with when it comes to their mental health. All three of those items lack for the vast majority of men.

Our goal is to be a catalyst for change in men that are struggling with their mental health. It’s usually depression, substance abuse and anxiety. We expose them to that community, that hobby and the awareness. We can’t control if they take action after our programs, but we can make the introduction and provide ongoing programs for them to stay engaged.

What should our readers know about your business?
Our programs include retreats, ongoing men’s groups, a men’s speaker series, social events every other week and subsidizing therapy costs for men who can’t afford this critical service. It’s been a long journey to get to this point and it wasn’t easy. We started by tying flies, selling them and then making donations to organizations we felt were making an impact on men facing mental health challenges. Another board member and myself would tie flies every day and throughout the night to keep up with demand. We didn’t have any of our own programs initially.

Selling flies wasn’t a sustainable model so we shifted to fundraising, which still takes a ton of effort, time and resources. We rely on individual donors and corporate partners to be able to provide these programs. Ensuring that everyone can access and utilize our programs regardless of their financial situation is an extremely important part of our mission.

The biggest thing that sets us apart is that we are not a ‘one and done’ organization. Men don’t just attend a retreat or a men’s group and then go off on their own mental health journey. Our volunteers at our programs are past participants and almost every man who attends a program is engaged in other programs. We have a lot of initiatives this upcoming year to continue to improve that engagement and provide ongoing resources. Things like virtual men’s groups, group forums and digital interactive journaling are all new ways we’re working to include men that have participated in our programs throughout the state and country.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I’d take them to some of my favorite restaurants and breweries, especially in LoHi and RiNo. Some of the breweries would include Zuni Street Brewing, Ratio, Little Machine, Call to Arms, New Terrain (along with a hike on North Table) and New Image.

Restaurants would include Dio Mio, Redeemer Pizza, Post Oak BBQ, El Camino and Linger for a fancy night out.

Fly fishing would certainly be on the agenda with a trip to one of the famous sections of the South Platte River and Clear Creek Canyon (combined with some hiking around Lookout Mountain).

If the Avs are in town, that would certainly be a must!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My shoutout would go to my parents, my wife, my first therapist and our co-founder- Baker Arena. My parents and wife were the first ones to really encourage me to seek help. This organization wouldn’t be around if it wasn’t for them. I went to high school with Baker in high school and we reconnected in Denver over fly fishing. He’s an attorney, and for my birthday he incorporated Fishing the Good Fight as a 501c3 non profit and we went to work.

My first therapist was extremely encouraging regarding exposure to nature, journaling and my decision to move my life to a city I had never even visited. I realized how helpful nature and fly fishing were to my mental health journey and decided to move across the country for better access to something that was having a significant impact on my life.

Website: www.fishingthegoodfight.org

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Youtube: Fishing the Good Fight

Image Credits
a board member took them.