Sandy Hook nonprofit closing, but work goes on

NEWTOWN — A nonprofit started by the parents of a schoolgirl killed in the Sandy Hook School shootings is closing its doors, but the mission to understand the brain science of violence and combat it with compassion will continue in their daughter’s name.

The Avielle Foundation will close in Newtown after seven years of funding research and running community programs, and be reborn as the Avielle Initiative at an academic health center in Colorado, according to a release.

“The Avielle Foundation did incredible work during their many years of operation at generating dialogue and building a deeper understanding of origins of violence and how to prevent it,” said Matt Vogl, executive director with the National Mental Health Innovation Center at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. “While the Avielle Initiative will be different in terms of the work we do and how we

go about it, the goals of building compassion and, ultimately, contributing to efforts to prevent violence are very much part of the initiative.”

Jennifer Hansel, a co-founder of the Avielle Foundation, whose daughter was among the 26 firstgraders and educators killed at Sandy Hook School in 2012, said her daughter’s legacy would live on in Colorado with research into “science-driven solutions to promote brain health, public health and community engagement.”

The migration of the Avielle Foundation from an office in Newtown’s Edmond Town Hall to the sprawling academic mental health center in Colorado follows 20 months of transition for the nonprofit after Jeremy Richman died by suicide.

Richman, the co-founder and the face of the Avielle Foundation, told an audience just six days before his suicide that the pain of losing his daughter remained so traumatizing that “you just feel displaced — like the world is spinning and you’re not, and you’re going to get thrown off and you have to find something to grip onto.”

Richman’s suicide in March of 2019 sent shockwaves through Newtown and made national headlines. Richman, a 49-year-old neuropharmacologist, was one of the high-profile parents from Sandy Hook who was turning his grief into good. His suicide came just days after two teenagers who survived the mass shooting at a Florida high school took their own lives.

On Monday there was little sign of a nonprofit in the midst of migration on the Avielle Foundation website.

Further details about the migration were not immediately available.

Urvi Jhaveri Sanghvi, the acting co-CEO of the Avielle Foundation, would only say that there was excitement and hope in Newtown about the nonprofit’s new home in Colorado.

“The team led by Matt at NMHIC approaches their work with deep passion, enduring hope, and unflinching dedication,” said Sanghvi, who is pursuing her doctorate at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. “We are looking forward to this next chapter with a renewed commitment toward our mission to build compassion and prevent violence.”

Avielle’s next chapter will involve two components – a research program and an endowment to fund fellowships and internships in Jeremy Richman’s name.