Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, today launched OptionB.Org, a new website aimed at helping people facing grief and other types of personal adversity.
The idea for the site and a related book grew out of Ms. Sandberg’s experiences while grieving for her husband, Dave Goldberg, who died suddenly in May 2015. The project is named for advice a close friend gave Ms. Sandberg in the wake of her husband’s death about recovering and moving forward.
The site provides a free collection of tools and resources for people struggling not only with grief and loss, but also with abuse and sexual assault; divorce and family challenges; hate and violence; health, illness, and injury; incarceration; or raising children who can handle adversity. Other topic areas will be added later.
OptionB.Org is interactive — visitors can read and share personal stories, join support groups, find out about resources from nonprofits that help people in crisis, and access materials from a variety of experts, including psychologists and physicians.
A core principle of the site is resilience, and Ms. Sandberg is soliciting and curating a large collection of stories from people who have been through a wide range of challenges. So far the site offers more than 50 such stories.
One of those is from Vernon Turner, who overcame a family history of drug use and trauma to make it to the National Football League. Another is from Kathy Andersen, who survived years of sexual abuse before she became a popular expert on organizational leadership who also helps young women who have experienced abuse and exploitation.
Directory Service
The site is also compiling a directory of groups so members can find other people struggling with similar challenges and share experiences. In addition to running its own groups on Facebook, OptionB.Org provides information on groups run by other organizations on the social network and over email, in online forums, and in person. Visitors can find organizations that specialize in the topic areas on which OptionB.org is focused, like the National Alliance for Grieving Children, the National Network to End Domestic Violence, and RAINN, which combats sexual violence.
The site will also include contact information for the National Suicide Prevention Hotline and Crisis Text Line.
Ms. Sandberg is leading OptionB.Org with guidance from an advisory board made up of prominent nonprofit, academic, and other leaders with expertise in the website’s topic areas.
The site will be funded through Ms. Sandberg’s family foundation and income from the new book, Option B. The book, co-written by Adam Grant, a professor of management and psychology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, will be published on April 24. A foundation spokeswoman declined to say how much money Ms. Sandberg will spend on OptionB.Org.
Ms. Sandberg gave $107 million to charity last year, landing her in 11th place on The Chronicle’s Philanthropy 50 ranking of the nation’s most generous donors. She has signed the Giving Pledge, the effort promoted by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates to encourage billionaires to commit to giving at least half of their fortune to charity.
