Southcentral Foundation

Southcentral Foundation (SCF) will continue to work with other youth serving organizations throughout southcentral Alaska to encourage suicide prevention as a top priority. This project proposes to serve the estimated 9,400 Alaska Native/American Indian (AN/AI) Youth in the targeted age group. The goal for the next five years is to enhance direct suicide postvention and prevention services for youth ages 10-24, promote organizational change, increase suicide prevention capacity, and improve continuity of youth integrated health care throughout the region. The population of focus are AN/AI youth ages 10 to 24 living in Anchorage and in several remote rural southcentral Alaska villages. With SAMHSA support for the past five years, SCF’s Preserving the Future Program has made positive impacts with Anchorage with the National Strategy and Zero Suicide prevention strategies by increasing the number of youth identified at risk of suicide and referred to services, increasing training opportunities for youth-serving organization and initiating organizational system change as well as further promoting the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. The approach will be to: 1) build awareness and network by attending twenty outreach events and sharing resources with 10,000 youth, their families, and other community members each project year and by providing a major public awareness campaign during the project period; 2) provide culturally appropriate suicide prevention, interventions, and postvention trainings to 480 or more staff from at least ten youth-serving organization each project year; 3) provide four life skills development sessions each month to a total of 200 youth each project year using SAMHSA approved curriculum that develops social, emotional, and positive thinking skills; 4) help 400 youth each project year to build healthy habits and lifestyles that includes physical and mental health care by providing eight culturally resonant wellness trainings each month; 5) support 400 youth each project year to build resiliency by using ten cultural activities to share approaches to dealing with trauma and stress; 6) provide 200 youth with early suicide intervention and assessment services such as screening, referral, follow-up, mental health and substance abuse counseling, and case management services each project year; and, 7) collect and analyze data and evaluate the project to assess need for system changes, improve practices that include evidence-based suicide care and culturally appropriate treatment services, and add to the National Outcomes Evaluation each project year.