The Peace Park at Northeast Florida State Hospital Begins!

In 2025, Patients Not Prisoners shared an ambitious goal: to help Chaplain Rick bring additional comfort, dignity and hope to patients at Northeast Florida State Hospital during a time when budget challenges were affecting programs at the facility.

That same year, we held our Evening of Compassion Gala and Concert to help raise funds for this effort. Thanks to the generosity of those who attended and donated, additional donors who supported us throughout the year, and the hard work of our volunteers and community supporters, construction of the Peace Park at Northeast Florida State Hospital is now ready to begin.

Patients Not Prisoners (PNP), a Florida-based advocacy organization focused on SMI, hosted its “Evening of Compassion Gala and Concert” on October 17, 2025, at the Marywood Retreat Center in St. Johns, Florida.

The Peace Park began as a vision from Chaplain Rick for a peaceful outdoor space where patients and staff could step away from the clinical environment and find a place for reflection, connection and hope. Because our family has a close connection to NEFSH, we made it our mission to help bring that vision to life by raising $50,000 for the project.

The Peace Park is part of PNP’s broader commitment to supporting individuals receiving care at state mental health facilities and helping create environments that promote dignity, recovery and healing. PNP’s fundraising efforts have also supported improvements to the hospital’s visitor center and other initiatives benefiting patients, families and staff.

The rendering below gives you a glimpse of what we expect the Peace Park to look like. We can’t wait to watch this beautiful vision become a reality!

Thank you to everyone who helped make this possible. We couldn’t have done it without you! 💙

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Interested in Touring NEFSH