A Non-Profit Founder Who is tackling the 40% Suicide Rate Problem in the Autism Community.
When 30 Calls Go Unanswered
What happens when someone with autism is suicidal… and no one picks up the phone?
That’s the question Sean Sullivan had to answer in real time, when a woman on the edge of ending her life called his nonprofit after 30 other organizations had rejected her.
Sean didn’t hesitate. He stayed on the line for 40 minutes, listening, validating, and connecting her with real support. He wasn’t a licensed counselor. He was something rarer: someone who understood, because he had been there too.
Sean Sullivan isn’t just the founder of the I Know Autism Foundation (IKAF), he’s also autistic. And after years of watching the system fail people like him, he decided to build something better.
Because the truth is: autistic people are facing a silent crisis.
Suicide rates among autistic individuals hover around 40%.
Substance use and social isolation are rising.
Traditional hotlines, institutions, and protocols often miss the mark.
And yet, most nonprofits treat autism with education, awareness campaigns, and legislative advocacy. Necessary? Sure. But what about the person in crisis, right now?
That’s where IKAF comes in.
Through peer-led mentorship, digital outreach, and big-picture vision, Sean’s work isn’t just creating new services; it’s proving that sometimes the best expert… is someone who’s lived it.
In this MBNews feature, we share Sean’s mission to turn survival into purpose and how one man’s experience is helping an entire community feel seen, heard, and supported.
From Surviving Autism to Supporting Others: Sean’s Wake-Up Call
Sean Sullivan didn’t start IKAF because he studied autism. He started it because he lives with it, every single day.
Diagnosed with autism himself, Sean saw firsthand how people on the spectrum often feel misunderstood, misdiagnosed, and dismissed. Especially when the symptoms don’t fit into a neat box. Especially when the cries for help are invisible.
“I called it the I Know Autism Foundation because I know what it’s like,” Sean shared during our interview. “Not from a textbook but from experience.”
His wake-up call came in a moment most people never hear about, a late-night phone call from a woman on the edge of suicide. She had contacted 30 other nonprofits. Everyone of them hung up.
But Sean answered.
And he stayed on the line for 40 minutes until she felt safe again.
He wasn’t a counselor. He was something more powerful in that moment: someone who didn’t treat her like a liability, but like a person.
“Part of her pain was losing her parents,” he recalled. “But the other part was feeling like she had no resources. Like no one saw her.”
That one call crystallized Sean’s mission: to make sure no one else has to feel that alone again.
From that moment, I Know Autism Foundation became more than a cause. It became a lifeline.
And it’s not just about suicide prevention. It’s about addressing the deeper issues hiding beneath the surface, autism and substance use, autism and revenge crimes, autism and the ache of being unheard in a world that doesn’t know how to listen.
This was never about launching a nonprofit. It was about building the kind of support system Sean wished existed when he needed it most.
Silence to Support: How One Man’s Pain Became a Lifeline for the Autism Community.
Sean Sullivan isn’t just building a nonprofit. He’s building the kind of infrastructure most people assume already exists, but doesn’t.
Through the I Know Autism Foundation (IKAF), Sean is tackling some of the most overlooked, misunderstood, and stigmatized challenges affecting autistic individuals: suicide, substance use, and what he calls “revenge crimes”, retaliatory actions born from years of being rejected, bullied, or institutionalized without support.
And the most urgent piece of his mission? A suicide prevention hotline designed for people with autism, by people with autism.
“Therapists are helpful,” Sean explains. “But sometimes what you need most is someone who’s actually been there—someone who gets it because they’ve felt it too.”
This hotline isn’t just a phone number. It’s a paradigm shift: a peer-to-peer support model staffed by individuals with lived experience—people who’ve battled addiction, suicidal thoughts, or despair and made it to the other side.
And it’s not a vague dream. IKAF has already received a grant from Westcom Bank and is actively pursuing larger funding to launch the hotline within the next 3–5 years.
But Sean knows that healing requires more than just emergency intervention. That’s why IKAF also operates across multiple public platforms, including podcasts, YouTube, community outreach, talent showcases, and even partnerships with Krispy Kreme and Regal Cinemas for fundraising.
This multi-pronged approach is intentional: meet people where they are, through formats that feel human, not clinical.
Sean’s philosophy isn’t rooted in diagnosis. It’s rooted in self-knowledge, acceptance, and purpose.
“We teach people to examine themselves. To know their strengths. Their natural skills,” he says.
And it’s not just talk. He lives it. Sean wakes up every day at 5 or 6 a.m., drawing inspiration from articles about highly successful people who do the same. It's his way of staying focused on the big picture: building a foundation that serves others, even in the dark.
And while he’s an ambassador for Autism Speaks, IKAF operates independently, with a unique mission to center real people, not just policies or protocols.
This is a grassroots operation with a radical heartbeat: no one should have to suffer silently simply because their neurodivergence doesn’t fit the system’s mold.
Obstacles Behind the Mission
Building a nonprofit is hard enough. Building one for a community that often goes unseen, underfunded, and misunderstood? That takes grit.
Funding remains the biggest hurdle.
While IKAF recently received a small grant from Westcom Credit Union, Sean is working toward larger funding that could launch his autism-focused suicide prevention hotline, staffed not by clinicians, but by peers who’ve lived the struggle.
Support gaps are everywhere.
One caller had tried 30 nonprofits before finding IKAF. That moment showed Sean what the system is missing: real-time help, by people who actually understand.
He’s also balancing multiple roles.
As both an ambassador for Autism Speaks and founder of IKAF, Sean wears many hats, building programs, taking crisis calls, and advocating for long-overdue change.
And then there's the vision itself.
A peer-led hotline isn’t conventional. But Sean believes it’s exactly what this community needs: connection over credentials. Lived wisdom over scripts.
“As long as you’re breathing, you still have a chance to accomplish your goals.”
As he puts it:
“As long as you’re breathing, you still have a chance to accomplish your goals. So use your time to make them real.”
From One Voice to a Growing Movement
Sean Sullivan may not be a household name. He doesn’t have viral videos or celebrity endorsements.
But he does have something more powerful: momentum and a mission rooted in lived experience.
He founded the I Know Autism Foundation (IKAF) to be what many organizations are not: a space built on compassion, direct action, and peer understanding. Sean created IKAF not from theory, but from necessity. From the gaps he saw in support systems. From the pain of being overlooked. From the desire to make sure no one else slips through the cracks.
He’s already secured IKAF’s first grant, a $500 award from Westcom Credit Union. It’s a small amount by nonprofit standards, but for Sean, it’s the seed of something bigger: funding a peer-led suicide prevention hotline specifically for autistic individuals.
He’s also building unconventional yet effective partnerships. Through collaborations with Krispy Kreme and Regal Cinemas, supporters can contribute to IKAF just by buying movie tickets or a box of donuts. It's a grassroots model designed to fund long-term impact through small, consistent support.
Recently, Sean stepped onto the national stage. He performed his original poem, “Don’t Quit, Never Give Up”, at a nationwide talent show, sharing his story through art and reaching new audiences with a message of resilience and purpose.
Beyond IKAF, Sean serves as an ambassador for Autism Speaks, one of the largest autism-focused organizations in the country. His work bridges advocacy and action, drawing attention to issues that often go ignored, like the high rate of suicide and substance use among people with autism.
But Sean’s most defining moment wasn’t on a stage or in a partnership meeting. It came in a quiet, critical moment, when a woman in crisis called him after being rejected by over 30 other nonprofits. Sean didn’t hang up. He stayed on the line for 40 minutes, connecting her to resources and simply being there when no one else would.
He’s not waiting for the perfect team or a million-dollar donation. He’s building something that works now.
For real people. With real needs. And real hope.
Why This Work Matters and Why It’s Just the Beginning
In a world where nonprofits are often measured by their visibility, funding rounds, or media presence, Sean Sullivan is doing something radical: he's showing up where others won’t.
He’s answering calls when 30 other organizations don’t.
He’s creating peer-led solutions in a system dominated by red tape.
He’s building a future that autistic individuals can see themselves in because he’s walked the road himself.
Sean’s work reminds us of something the wellness world sometimes forgets: not all heroes wear stethoscopes, and not all solutions come from the top down. Sometimes, the most meaningful change starts with someone simply saying, “I understand. I’m here. Let’s get through this together.”
And if you're reading this as a practitioner, advocate, or conscious entrepreneur wondering whether your efforts matter, let Sean’s journey be your answer.
Because sometimes one voice really does make a difference.
If you believe in meeting people where they are…
If you know the system needs more heart and less hierarchy…
If you’re building something from the ground up that centers real people with real pain…
Then this story was written for you.
📍 For support, inquiries, or collaboration, you can reach Sean directly on his LinkedIn.
📍 To learn more about the I Know Autism Foundation, visit their Yelp profile.
