Take This® is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit charity founded in 2013 by veteran journalists Russ Pitts and Susan Arendt and clinical psychologist Dr. Mark Kline, Psy.D. in response to the tragic suicide of a colleague.
Mission
Take This is a mental health nonprofit serving the game community/industry that provides resources, guidelines and training about mental health issues in the game community, thus reducing the stigma of mental illness.
What we do
Take This provides gamers and developers with resources, guidelines, and training that help them support themselves and others in dealing with mental health challenges.
Take This’ key programs are its AFK Room Program at conventions, its mental health consulting program for game developers, and its ambassador program for streamers.
Who do we benefit
Take This is beneficial to any person experiencing mental health challenges, or their friends, family, and colleagues, and to game companies seeking to support their employees, fans, and community members in addressing mental health challenges in safe, supportive ways.
What makes us different
Take This is the only mental health organization providing comprehensive resources and support that is tailored for the unique needs of the game development community and embraces the diverse cultures and issues of the game community.
Why it's important
Many who suffer from emotional issues feel like there's no one they can talk to, or who will understand. They suffer in silence, and silence can lead to further symptoms. Take This® offers perspective and hope.
How you can help
You can donate to Take This.
Your tax-deductible donation will help Take This spread more awareness to more people in more places.
You can volunteer with Take This.
Your time and energy will help Take This reach further, faster.
You can shop at Amazon.
Simply go to our Amazon Smile page and sign up to support Take This. Every time you shop, we'll get a small donation from Amazon. It's quick, it's easy and it doesn't cost you a thing. And it helps us out a lot.
Who We Are
Take This Governing Board & Company Officers
The Take This, Inc. governing board provides executive leadership for all Take This activities according to the organization's bylaws. Board members are elected by a unanimous decision of existing board members. The board is designed to be comprised of members from the video game community, video game development industry and the field of clinical mental health.
Russ Pitts, Board Chairman & President
Russ Pitts is a documentary filmmaker; video producer; director; award-nominated journalist; six-time Webby winning website editor; author of the books "How Video Games Are Made", "Sex, Drugs and Cartoon Violence" and "Eagle Semen"; founder and President of Flying Saucer Media; co- founder and former Features Editor of Polygon.com; producer of the documentary web series “Human Angle” and “Press Reset”; and co-founder and President of the mental health education and advocacy non-profit TakeThis.org.
Pitts has worked in media for 25 years, in film, television, theater, radio, and the internet.
Susan Arendt, Board Member
Susan Arendt has been working in the video game industry since 2007, adding her expertise to sites including Game|Life, 1up, The Escapist, Joystiq and GamesRadar+. She's passionate about mentoring the next generation of game journalists and bringing positivity back into the gaming space. She will happily talk your ear off about Doctor Who, horror movies, and video games...then she'll start showing you videos of adorable animals. Look for her on Twitter: @SusanArendt.
Eve Crevoshay, Executive Director
Eve Crevoshay is a 15-year veteran of the nonprofit sector, with a focus on fundraising and executing strategy. She has raised over $10 million across four organizations and has a passion for building and fostering high-performing teams. Her background spans education, social services, and the arts, and her passion is the next generation. She's also a certified yoga teacher, avid gardener and cook, and reluctant gamer. She lives in the Seattle area with her husband, daughter and two dogs.
Kate Edwards, Board Member
Kate is a unique hybrid of an applied geographer, writer, and content culturalization strategist with a passion for global cultures and media technologies. With broad experience in the fields of geography, cartography, geopolitics and cross-cultural issues, Kate is a recognized thought leader in applying this knowledge to 'real world' business solutions and problem solving, particularly in the information industry as related to inclusive representation, content management, and cross-cultural impacts of information and globalization.
As Microsoft’s geopolitical strategist in the internal geopolitical strategy team she created (’92-’05) and now as an independent consultant in her company Geogrify, she pioneered the field of digital content "culturalization" to identify geopolitical and cultural risks and opportunities in corporate products and services. Kate applies her expertise to a broad range of issues related to multinational corporate activity in local markets.
Kate is better known for her leadership and culturalization work in the video game industry, including her most recent role as Executive Director of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA®) from 2012 to 2017. During her time at Microsoft and since, she's worked on many game franchises, including Halo, Fable, Age of Empires, Dragon Age, Modern Warfare, Mass Effect and many others. She's also the founder of the IGDA's Localization SIG and co-organizer of the former Localization Summit at GDC. Kate has been a columnist for MultiLingual Computing magazine since 2005 and she plans to publish a culturalization handbook for game developers in 2017.
Pete Hines, Board Member
Pete Hines is the vice president of pr and marketing at Bethesda Softworks, where he has worked for the last 15+ years. A graduate of Wake Forest University with an MBA from George Mason University, Pete worked in marketing and public relations for several non-profit organizations before his arrival at Bethesda in 1999, and has played various roles in every game the company has published since then. When he isn't working he's an avid soccer player, sports fan, and gamer. He joined Take This in early 2015 as a member of the advisory board.
Take This Staff
Eve Crevoshay, Executive Director
Raffael Boccamazzo, PsyD, Clinical Director
Katrina Keller, Operations Director
Suzanne Jackiw, General Counsel
Dan Hevia, Social Media Manager
Elisabeth Flannagan, MS, LCP, AFK Program Manager
Chelsea Hughes, PhD, Content Manager
For more information about Take This, please contact us.
Take This, Inc seeks to educate, inform, and advocate about about mental health issues in our community. We do not provide mental health services or professional consultations. For information on when to seek dedicated clinical help and how to find it, please visit our “When to Seek Help” page. If you or someone you know is in crisis, in need of immediate intervention, and based in the US, please visit the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline or call 1-800-273-8255. You can also text AFK to 741741. Information for other countries/areas can be found here.
