Community-Led Suicide Prevention

Challenge

Suicide has remained a leading cause of death in the United States for the past two decades, affecting people regardless of age, location, identity, race, or ethnicity. Although there is national guidance on evidence-informed strategies for community suicide prevention, there has historically been a lack of hands-on tools to help communities implement these recommendations in a way that fits their unique contexts and needs.

EDC’s Community-Led Suicide Prevention (CLSP) model fills this gap by providing tools to help communities strengthen suicide prevention efforts. EDC’s free online Community-Led Suicide Prevention Toolkit provides resources that any local community can use. The model gives local suicide prevention groups the tools they need to strengthen the seven key elements of evidence-informed, equitable, and sustainable CLSP efforts. EDC developed the CLSP model and toolkit with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) via the Safe States Alliance. Currently, EDC works with community groups to implement the model through blended funding from multiple partners and funders.

Key Activities

Since the launch of the Community-Led Suicide Prevention Toolkit in fall 2022, EDC has continued to work toward expanding the reach and accessibility of the model and toolkit by carrying out the following activities:

Collaborating with states to pilot a virtual CLSP Academy that supports local coalitions in applying CLSP tools to their suicide prevention efforts
Embarking on projects with states to pilot and evaluate a virtual academy and enhanced community of practice approaches.
Developing additional training tools and consultation models to support community groups
Partnering with the National Association of City and County Health Officials (NACCHO) to support local health departments’ prevention efforts at the intersection of suicide, overdose, and adverse childhood experiences
Partnering with states to support local suicide prevention efforts
Connecting with national partners to expand the reach of CLSP
Offering national webinars and conference workshops to build awareness of the CLSP model and related resources
Continuing to enhance the website with tools, resources, and success stories from local communities

Impact

The Community-Led Suicide Prevention Toolkit:

Features plain language and practical how-to steps for communities across the country to use in their local suicide prevention efforts
Presents previously lacking guidance to communities on how to develop strong suicide prevention efforts that are evidence-informed, equitable, and sustainable
Offers a resource hub with evidence-informed resources from the field that have been curated specifically for use in community suicide prevention