About

JKBF focuses on prevention of suicidal behaviors through scientific research into the bio-environmental contributors to suicide risk in an effort to highlight modifiable targets for reducing risk and suffering and promoting resilience. JKBF partners with organizations that offer support and services for those at risk of mental health and suicidal challenges.  In addition, JKBF presents POBA | Where the Arts Live, a program fostering creative expression through a digital collection of artistic legacies.

Our motto, Create – Connect – Contribute, embodies what we believe to be essential elements of resilience and flourishing. Create reflects the arts, as well as the need for creative thinking and problem solving in suicide prevention. Connect represents the human need for connection, through stories, art, communication, and relationships. Contribute portrays the importance of feeling valued by giving, whether it be through scientific endeavors, artistic creations, or shared stories.

The James Kirk Bernard Foundation was founded in 2010. It is a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation based in Colorado with Federal Tax ID# 27-1791881.

 

Meet our Board of Directors

Meet our Staff 

 

History

The James Kirk Bernard Foundation (JKBF) honors the life, work, and passions of Jamie Bernard, a kind, creative, and brave young man who lived his life with generous humor and quiet courage until the day he died from suicide. Jamie was a triplet brother of Fred and Bill and spent his summers as a counselor at Extreme Sports Camp, now Ascendigo Autism Services.

Jamie attended Bard College, from which he received a posthumous degree in 2010. Jamie was a beautiful human being who lives on in the memories of those he left behind, and in the writings and drawings which amount, after only twenty-two years, to an admirable life’s work. The art displayed throughout this website is Jamie’s work.

The stories in Taming the Blank, a short collection of James Bernard’s writings compiled by close friends and teachers at Bard College, can be read both as a window into Jamie’s progression as a writer as well as for their humor, insight, and total originality. The collection includes Daniil Platonovich, James’ senior project and very much a work in progress that offers insights into his writing process, perfectionism, and love of Russian literature; Taming the Blank, a series of tutorial writings conducted under Professor Cole Heinowitz that depict his overactive imagination wrestling with itself as well as the immovable ten-minute writing exercise deadline; and earlier writings from his high school years in which his interests and temperament truly begin to reveal themselves.

 

Contact Information

James Kirk Bernard Foundation
P.O. Box 3562
Basalt, CO 81621

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Corporate Documents

Form 990 Public Disclosure 2020
Form 990 Public Disclosure 2019
Form 990 Public Disclosure 2018
Form 990 Public Disclosure 2017
Form 990 Public Disclosure 2016
IRS Letter of Determination
Conflict of Interest Policy