Wartburg College

Wartburg College seeks to educate campus communities at small, rural colleges and universities about the risk factors and warning signs of suicide ideation among college students in an effort to fill gaps in service inherent to the limited campus and community resources these schools have and to create a mindset that suicide prevention is everyones responsibility.

Through the proposed program Suicide Prevention at Small, Rural Colleges and Universities Wartburg College seeks to take a three-fold approach to reducing suicide attempts and completions among college students:

1. Identification and acquisition or development of culturally-relevant and culturally-sensitive educational materials for dissemination to the campus community with the objectives of increasing knowledge about the risk factors and warning signs of suicide ideation among college students and of reducing the stigma associated with help seeking;
2. Planning and implementation of a series of educational seminars for the campus community with the objectives of increasing knowledge among key audiences in the campus community about the risk factors and warning signs of suicide ideation among college students and of reducing the stigma associated with help seeking; and
3. Hosting a one-day seminar for representatives of peer institutions identified as small, rural college and universities in Iowa and surrounding states with the objective of sharing the information learned for grant activities at Wartburg College and increasing dialogue regarding suicide prevention.

The population to be served will be primarily the campus community of Wartburg College and those peer institutions whose representatives attend the one-day conference. The population indirectly served by the project will be the college students at risk of suicide who will receive intervention and help. This population will primarily include those in the 18-22 age range with a gender distribution fairly close to 50 percent each. Racially, the population served will be primarily Caucasian, with some representation of African-Americans, Asians, Hispanics, American Indian/Alaska Native and multiracial individuals. The project on Wartburg campus will serve approximately 250 employees and 1,800 students annually – 750 employees and 5,400 students over the life of the grant and approximately 5,000 employees and 50,000 students annually, 15,000 employees and 150,000 employees over the life of the grant on peer institution campuses.