Empowering Communities through Suicide Prevention

Happy February!  As 2025 unfolds, our team here at the Center for Health and Learning (CHL) are now fully engaged with our various grant, foundation, and fee-for-service trainings and project management work.  We are excited to partner again with the Vermont Department of Mental Health (DMH) in the work of the Suicide Activities grant, which began in January.  This grant is a continuation of DMH’s commitment to suicide prevention, and CHL is grateful to collaborate in this effort to bring our expertise and commitment to promoting suicide awareness and prevention across our communities.  CHL will continue to facilitate the Vermont Suicide Prevention Coalition meetings throughout the year, and we look forward to engaging with this dedicated group starting again in April.  CHL will also continue to offer our Umatter® suite of trainings in schools, businesses, healthcare organizations, and other community groups in 2025.  Our Umatter® for Schools training is being offered to schools across Vermont to help them increase their suicide prevention awareness, create policies and protocols related to this topic, and create suicide-safe schools for both students and the adults who support them every day.  We will be offering our Umatter® Suicide Prevention Awareness and Skills training bi-monthly through 2025, with our first public offering happening on 2/12 from 10:00 - 12:00.  There is still time to register HERE, but please do this now as this training will close to new participants on 2/10.  We are also very excited to start to rebuild our Umatter® Youth and Young Adults (YYA) training this Spring, intending to again offer this excellent training in the 2025-26 school year as part of SAMHSA's AWARE (Advancing Wellness and Resiliency in Education) grant in Vermont.  This is CHL’s most proactive, upstream offering in our Umatter®  suite, and the essence of this training is engaging youth in the creation of their own community action projects (CAP) to promote mental well-being, suicide prevention, and substance use awareness in their respective schools and communities.  By giving our youth the opportunity to use their own voice in the development of these projects, CHL will help empower the youth, with the oversight and guidance of both CHL project staff and trusted school-based adults, to learn to manage their own well-being and be ready to offer support to their peers.

February is Black History Month, and CHL honors this important yearly celebration of Black culture and history in America.  With CHL’s focus on suicide prevention, substance abuse, and mental health promotion, we recognize the importance of acknowledging the challenges the Black community has and continues to face related to these topics.  These Black pioneers in mental health have led the way to create inroads into their communities and help ensure that support and understanding are available to the Black community now and into the future.  February is also National Self-Check Month, #NationalSelfCheckMonth, which reminds and encourages us all to use self-checks to make sure we care for ourselves as well as others.  Stress can be a major challenge in someone’s overall health, which includes our mental health, but if we learn to check on ourselves, monitor our stress levels, and take steps to reduce and regulate this normal experience, we will be on our way to leading a healthier and happier life.

As February starts, we hope that everyone is taking time to find ways to care for themselves and those around them.  We know that we do better when we are connected to others, getting outside if and when we can (despite the cold and snow!) and consciously taking steps to manage our overall health (including our mental health) through the cold, dark winter months.  

Have a great month and take good care,

Kirk and Lorie