The Story of 10-42 Project

 

     Not every story is full of hope and victory. The founder of 10-42 Project, Daniel Defenbaugh has gone from a young 20-year-old Police Officer full of life and hope to living in isolation addicted to alcohol and pain pills spending most of his days planning his suicide. The untreated cumulative trauma Daniel was exposed to over the years had crushed his mental health and resulted in severe PTSD, anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideations. Daniel ended up retiring with a medical disability after 14 years of service.  Not only did Daniel lose his job he also went through a divorce and lost his house to foreclosure and most importantly he felt like he lost his purpose and will to live. Even though he was a father he felt like he was not worthy to be called Dad.

    What the enemy meant for evil, God will use for good! Daniel lived in isolation abusing himself for years until August 12th of 2020. Daniel left work that day depressed and sobbing uncontrollably with one plan in mind, to finally end it all. While driving to the location to end his life he felt God telling him to drive to the local lake and pray. When Daniel arrived at the lake he fell to the ground and prayed for God to take him. It was at that moment God put the vision of the 10-42 Project in his heart. Since that day Daniel has made it his mission to make sure first responders like him have a path to recovery.

      10-42 Project has a mission to show first responders and their families what help is and what it looks like. We strongly believe that healing takes a whole family approach. We aim to equip, restore, and repurpose first responders around the world by using a multilevel approach. We are creating and maintaining a video library for first responders to come to and search for whatever category they are struggling with and find a video made by first responders for first responders. 10-42 Project will provide videos of hope, giving first responders a place and platform to use their voice. We will talk about topics that others are not willing to talk about. We will kick over every rock and find the different resources available to them to help give them their life back. We also travel to and send first responders to mental health conferences around the United States, where we join them in a few days of healing and fun fellowship with others. 10-42 Project the bridge between the people providing help to the people needing help.