About the Project
In 2005, Mental Health America of Wisconsin (MHA) received the Garrett Lee Smith Youth Suicide Prevention Grant for Wisconsin. Gordon Smith, the Oregon Senator, helped pass a bill for youth suicide prevention programs, named after his son who died by suicide. Wisconsin is one of 36 states that have received the Garrett Lee Smith Grant. Under the grant, MHA put out a request for proposals to communities and schools within Wisconsin. MHA selected nine subgrantees and offered funding, support, and training to the sites in youth suicide prevention.
The nine project sites selected for project were Fond du Lac County, Green County, Lafayette County, La Courte Orielles Tribe, Marathon County, Portage County, Sheboygan Schools, Sparta/NOW Schools, and Wisconsin School for the Deaf. The sites strengthened their suicide prevention coalitions, formalized work pland, and started youth suicide prevention programs within their sites.
Aside from the nine sites, the Garrett Lee Smith Initiative also reached out to other communities within the state of Wisconsin and established a postvention workgroup to pull together the best practices in prevention, intervention, and postvention for the state of Wisconsin in youth suicide for schools and communities.
MHA is also working with other communities that may be in need of technical assistance. If you need assistance in getting your coalition, community, or school started, or strengthening your youth suicide prevention efforts, please contact Shel Gross (608) 250-4368 or by email at shelgross@tds.net.
Looking for more information on the Garrett Lee Smith Grant? Download the Garrett Lee Smith Proposal by Section:
Section A: Statement of Need; Section B: Proposed Approach; Section C: Staff, Management, and Relevant Experience; Section D: Evaluation and Data; or Full proposal
Youth Suicide Prevention Toolkit
Welcome to Mental Health America's (MHA)
"Getting Started" toolkit. This toolkit provides you with resources and tools to assist you in creating your youth suicide project. This toolkit assumes its audience to be a community-wide collaborative of agencies and individuals working together to prevent suicide in their community. Suicide is a public health problem and requires a comprehensive prevention approach only possible by the cooperation of multiple stakeholders. However, given the youth focus of this prevention project the school system is given special attention. Whenever possible we have included materials that are school specific and materials that are community coalition specific. Click
here for toolkit materials.
Youth Prevention Resources and Best Practices
Welcome to the
Youth Suicide Prevention Resources and Best Practices. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for adolescents in Wisconsin. Therefore, Mental Health America (MHA) of Wisconsin has produced a number of products using evidence based and best practices from throughout the country. Due to the overabundance of materials in suicide prevention, we have compiled what we believe are the most relevant and useful materials for starting a suicide prevention program or supplementing an already existing one.
Well Aware - Suicide Prevention Bulletin for School Administrators
MHA is pleased to announce
Well Aware, a suicide prevention bulletin for school administrators. The bulletin is made possible by MHA's Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Youth Suicide Prevention Grant. The bulletin is being produced in collaboration with the Department of Public Instruction with content development by Point De Vue Communications, Inc. in Sheboygan, WI, which also publishes the magazine
Advancing Suicide Prevention.This bulletin is going to all school superintendents, principals and school board members in Wisconsin and will provide them with factual information about youth suicide and suicide prevention. The bulletin will be published three times in the 2006-2007 school year, with each edition highlighting programs being implemented at schools across Wisconsin. The bulletin seeks to educate school leaders about why schools should be addressing suicide prevention and provide them with best practices and resources.
Download editions of the
2007 Well Aware bulletin
SummerSpringWinterIf you have questions, comments or would like more information about MHA's youth suicide prevention activities contact Mental Health America of Wisconsin at (414) 276-3122.