Youth Suicide Prevention Media and Outreach Campaign

The Youth Suicide Prevention Media and Outreach Campaign was established to implement a data-driven, targeted, community-based youth suicide prevention media campaign alongside community-level suicide prevention projects. The media campaign will be developed by a media agency in coordination with the community-based organizations (CBOs) funded through this funding opportunity. Co-designing suicide prevention campaigns with young people can increase the engagement and usefulness of these youth interventions.

Community-level prevention projects will include youth-serving CBOs working to implement evidence-based suicide prevention strategies tailored to meet the needs of their community, and will amplify and build upon media campaign messages. Such strategies may include but are not limited to: creating protective environments by reducing access to lethal means, strengthening access to care through telemental health, promoting connectedness through peer norm programs, and teaching coping and problem-solving skills through social-emotional learning and family relationship programs. 

In this round of funding, The Center is seeking applications from community-based organizations and Tribal organizations that:

• Serve youth and practice ongoing youth engagement in leadership development, social-emotional support systems, mental health, and/or peer mentoring, specifically in communities disproportionately impacted by youth suicide.
• Possess cultural humility and responsiveness with staff and organizational leadership who reflect the racial, ethnic, and cultural community they intend to serve.
• Prioritize public health solutions that focus on evidence-based strategies to prevent suicide, including working with or employing youth to co-create and disseminate outreach and prevention materials.
• Can develop, support, or expand culturally and linguistically appropriate suicide prevention strategies and messaging that are trauma-informed and focused on youth populations disproportionately impacted by suicide.
• Utilize an intersectional approach to health equity through efforts to address suicide and/or mental health risk and protective factors.
• Work in coordination and collaboration with other health and youth-serving agencies/organizations at the local and state level.

This funding opportunity focuses on youth populations disproportionately impacted by suicide, defined further in the Youth Populations of Focus section below. However, The Center recognizes that youth may experience more than one form of oppression or marginalization. For example, Two-Spirit (2S)/LGBTQ+ youth of color may experience discrimination and lack access to resources based on race and sexual orientation, and thus may be at greater risk for suicidal ideation or mental health challenges. Similarly, while foster youth generally need healing from trauma, foster youth of color face additional challenges due to racial bias. This analysis of the intersections of race and other forms of oppression is commonly referred to as intersectionality. This project encourages applications that demonstrate the ability to effectively serve youth who may be at even greater risk for suicide due to these intersectional identities and other social factors.

For details about grantee requirements, see: https://www.shfcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Youth_Suicide_Prevention_Media_and_Outreach_Campaign_RFA_May_2023.pdf#page=7

For details about target youth populations, see: https://www.shfcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Youth_Suicide_Prevention_Media_and_Outreach_Campaign_RFA_May_2023.pdf#page=8