Ana Jimenez-Nunez
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Our Mission
What is Out of Despair?
Out of Despair is a faith-inspired nonprofit based in Shelton, Connecticut, walking alongside children, youth, and families facing emotional crisis, grief, isolation, or suicidal despair. Co-founded in 2025 by Ana Jimenez-Nunez, Irsia Jimenez, Iris Genao, and Gisell Peguero, the organization serves Fairfield County and surrounding communities.
Out of Despair provides listening and emotional support, prayer and spiritual accompaniment, mentorship, and connection to practical resources — all at no cost, to anyone in need, regardless of faith background. It operates alongside clinical and emergency systems, filling the space where formal care ends and human presence begins.
What We Believe
Three commitments.
One calling.
Compassion Without Condition
We show up without judgment. Whatever you're carrying, you are welcome here exactly as you are.
Come as you are.
Presence Over Programs
We don't offer quick fixes. We offer relationship — steady, consistent, and real.
We don't fix. We stay.
Rooted in Community
No individual walks alone, and neither do we. Our strength is the network of care we build together.
Healing was never meant to be done alone.
What Sets Us Apart
What makes Out of Despair different from other crisis services?
Most crisis resources give you a phone number. Some connect you to a hotline. Very few give you a person who stays.
Out of Despair is built around the moment that referrals can't reach — when someone is too overwhelmed to navigate a system, too ashamed to call a hotline, or convinced that their pain isn't serious enough to deserve help. The people this organization most wants to reach are often the ones who look fine from the outside and fall apart alone.
What Out of Despair offers isn't a program or a protocol. It's presence — consistent, compassionate, and real. A ministry of showing up. Of sitting with someone long enough for them to believe that things could be different. Of saying, plainly and without condition: your life matters, and we are not going anywhere.
How It Started
A calling decades in the making.
For decades, Ana Jimenez-Nunez has been showing up for people in crisis. Not as a program. Not on a schedule. It cost her family evenings, weekends, time that was supposed to be theirs. She gave it anyway. To children, teenagers, parents, adults. To whoever needed it.
In 2025, someone in her community was lost to suicide. One question stayed with her: What if someone had been there to stand in the gap sooner? Out of Despair came from that question — and from the conviction that no one should have to carry that work alone.
Out of Despair was not built by one person. It was born through prayer, obedience, and a shared calling. Irsia Jimenez, Gisell Peguero, and Iris Genao answered that same call — women who believe that showing up for others is ministry. Together, they helped build an organization around the moments that referrals cannot reach and hotlines do not always fill.
Ana will tell you plainly how it started: "My Lord Jesus Christ put it in my heart." And He brought the right people with Him.
By the grace of God, Ana has been present with eleven people in the middle of a suicide attempt. Each one is still here. The glory, she will tell you, belongs to God alone.
people walked through a suicide attempt alongside us — each one still here.
Every Dollar Is Presence
Help us reach the next person.
Out of Despair runs entirely on the generosity of people who believe no one should face their darkest moment alone.
The People Behind the Mission
Our Leadership
A team united by one conviction: that hope is never out of reach, and that every life matters.
Founding Team
Irsia Jimenez
Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer
Iris Genao
Co-Founder & Chief Financial Officer
Gisell Peguero
Co-Founder & Vice President of Marketing
Board of Directors
Our board members serve without compensation — donating their time, expertise, and resources to guard and protect the heart of this mission. Their dedication is a blessing and a gift to everyone Out of Despair serves.
Fabienne Desir
President / Chairperson
Yamillet Rooney
Treasurer
Bridget Jacabacci
Secretary
Irsia Jimenez
Board Member / COO
We Are Here
You don't need the right words.
You just need to reach out.
203-441-3052
Call or text — any time.
In immediate danger? Call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) or 911.