Surfside father starts nonprofit to provide therapy to families, first responders in condo collapse
I TOLD HIM NO MATTER HOW BAD STUFF IS, YOU CAN ALWAYS TURN IT INTO SOMETHING POSITIVE. Neil Handler, talking about his son Jonah, who was pulled from the rubble in the Surfside condo collapse
Jonah Handler, 17, was one of only three survivors pulled from the rubble of the Surfside condominium collapse that killed 98 people on June 24, 2021.
His father, Neil Handler, said Jonah’s survival is a blessing he is thankful for every day.
Jonah survived a 10story fall and was rescued beneath a pile of crumbled concrete after a neighbor saw him waving his hand through a hole in the ruin. His mother, Stacie Dawn Fang, died from her injuries.
Afterwards, Neil Handler watched his son struggle with PTSD. Months later, when they met the first responders who saved Jonah, Handler saw the suffering in their eyes and heard tales of the rescue personnel unable to return to work.
So Handler decided to help. In March 2022, he founded The Phoenix Life Project, a nonprofit to provide free mental health resources to Surfside families and front-line first responders.
“It moved really quickly. I can only attribute that to God. I mean, not just my son being one of the only people who walked out of there — from the collapsed portion of the building — but everything,” Handler said. “I just keep telling people: God keeps putting wind in the sails and people with big oars in the boat. I’m just the guy blessed to steer the ship.”
Handler, who sells luxury cars to pro athletes through his company, All Sports Motor Network, put his business acumen to work. He organized a fundraising gala in June, got sponsors, sold out the 260-seat event at the St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort and raised $200,000.
He’s been busy setting up the nonprofit’s infrastructure, bringing on a board of directors and buying a case management system to track beneficiaries and efficacy of treatments.
TALK THERAPY, COGNITIVE BEHAVIOR COACHING SYSTEM
The project’s centerpiece is a neurofeedback and cognitive behavioral coaching system from Pathwaves. That and talk therapy helped Jonah immensely, Handler said.
After the collapse “when it rained, we would drive around for two hours because Jonah couldn’t be in a building. He couldn’t be in an indoor structure because the thunder would remind him of the collapse,” Handler said. “After probably about four or five sessions, he started to not have to leave the building. He started to be able to work through it.”
Handler is laser focused on growing the nonprofit.
The organization will hold a Surfside community mental health fair Dec. 4, a celebrity golf tournament in February and its second gala in June 2023.
Partners are the Trauma Resolution Center, Children’s Bereavement Center and Jewish Community Services. “I want it to be a holistic approach to treatment or whatever the individual needs,” Handler said. “I am not clueless to the fact that everybody’s got their own path.”
Though treatments are being offered to The Phoenix Life Project at discounted rates, it’s an expensive endeavor, he said.
“People ask me, ‘What do we need?’ We need money. We need funding,” Handler said. “Every dollar that we raise goes to services. Everybody that’s working in The Phoenix Life Project organization itself is volunteer.”
Handler said he hopes the nonprofit will help Jonah continue to move forward.
“I told him no matter how bad stuff is, you can always turn it into something positive. You can let this define who you are and be stuck in this morbid reflection of the past for the rest of your life or you can turn it into something good, in memory of your Mom,” he said.
“Experience isn’t what happens to somebody. Experience is what you do with what happens to you.”