Our Story
From military roots to a mission for everyone.
The Black Box Project began with a single question: what if the digital footprints left behind could help prevent the next suicide? That question launched a first-of-its-kind research initiative — and its answer is reshaping how we understand and prevent suicide.
Where It Started
The Black Box Project was created by Stop Soldier Suicide, a nonprofit dedicated to ending veteran and military-connected suicide. Working directly with military families who had lost loved ones, the team recognized an untapped opportunity: the phones, tablets, and computers left behind held patterns — behavioral, social, environmental — that traditional research had never been able to study.
With the trust and courage of participating families, the Black Box Project began collecting and studying these digital records alongside clinical and contextual data. The goal was to build a longitudinal dataset that could reveal the warning signs, risk factors, and protective patterns that precede a suicide — insights that no survey or retrospective interview could capture.
A Broader Mission
As the research matured, something became clear: the methodology and insights developed for the military community were not limited to it. The behavioral patterns found in digital data, the analytical frameworks, and the research infrastructure all applied to suicide prevention across every population.
The Black Box Project expanded its mission. Today, it serves all families who have lost someone to suicide — regardless of military affiliation. The project partners with researchers and clinicians across disciplines, and its data intelligence platform is designed to accelerate prevention science for everyone.
Where We're Headed
Our vision is to build the most comprehensive data intelligence platform for suicide prevention research. By linking behavioral digital data with clinical, environmental, and crisis records, we are creating a resource that enables researchers to ask questions that were previously impossible to answer.
We are committed to open science, ethical data stewardship, and partnerships with leading academic institutions, healthcare systems, and technology organizations. Every family that participates, every researcher who accesses the platform, and every clinical partner who integrates our insights moves us closer to a future where suicide is preventable.
The Black Box Project is proudly owned and operated by Stop Soldier Suicide, a nonprofit with over a decade of experience in suicide prevention.