Community Suicide Prevention & Wellness Coalition
A Cross-Sector Partnership of Faith-Based Organizations, Schools, Healthcare Providers, and Community Partners
1. Executive Summary
The Community Suicide Prevention & Wellness Coalition will bring together faith-based organizations, schools, healthcare organizations, behavioral-health providers, community organizations, and other stakeholders to create a coordinated, community-wide approach to suicide prevention.
The coalition will focus on prevention, early identification, timely intervention, connection to care, postvention, education, and community resilience. Rather than expecting any single organization to address suicide prevention independently, the coalition will establish shared training, referral pathways, communication protocols, community education, and measurable objectives.
The coalition will recognize the important role that trusted community relationships play in helping individuals and families seek support. Faith leaders, educators, healthcare professionals, and community organizations will be equipped to recognize concerns, respond safely, connect individuals with appropriate professional services, and support ongoing recovery and belonging.
2. Mission
To unite faith communities, schools, healthcare organizations, and community partners to prevent suicide, strengthen protective factors, improve access to behavioral-health support, and ensure that individuals and families can connect with help when they need it.
3. Vision
A community where people experiencing emotional distress or suicidal thoughts are recognized early, treated with dignity and compassion, connected rapidly to appropriate care, and surrounded by a coordinated network of support.
4. Guiding Principles
The coalition will operate according to the following principles:
Life and safety: Immediate safety concerns receive prompt and appropriate attention.
Early intervention: Community members are equipped to recognize concerns before a crisis escalates.
Professional care: Community support complements rather than replaces qualified behavioral-health care.
Cultural and faith sensitivity: Prevention strategies respect different cultures, traditions, beliefs, and community contexts.
Confidentiality and privacy: Information is shared only when appropriate and consistent with applicable laws, policies, and ethical requirements.
Collaboration: Organizations coordinate rather than duplicate services.
Equity and accessibility: Prevention resources should be accessible to populations that experience barriers to care.
Hope and connection: Community belonging, supportive relationships, and access to meaningful resources are central components of prevention.
5. Coalition Membership
Faith-Based Organizations
Potential representatives include:
Clergy and pastoral leaders
Youth and family ministry leaders
Faith-based counselors and social-service programs
Congregational health ministries
Lay leaders and trained volunteers
Schools and Educational Institutions
Potential representatives include:
School counselors and psychologists
Administrators
Teachers and student-support personnel
Coaches and extracurricular leaders
School nurses
Parent and family representatives
Higher-education counseling and student-support services
Healthcare and Behavioral Health
Potential representatives include:
Hospitals and health systems
Primary-care organizations
Behavioral-health providers
Emergency departments
Community mental-health organizations
Pediatric and adolescent health providers
Licensed clinicians
Care-management and social-service organizations
Community Partners
Additional partners may include:
Public-health agencies
First responders
Youth-serving organizations
Social-service agencies
Senior-service organizations
Community centers
Foundations and philanthropic organizations
People with lived experience and family representatives
6. Strategic Priorities
Priority 1: Build a Trained Community
Develop a coordinated training program for clergy, educators, healthcare workers, youth-serving professionals, and other trusted community members.
Training should emphasize:
Recognizing warning signs and risk factors
Starting a supportive conversation
Responding appropriately to disclosure
Connecting people with professional help
Understanding when emergency intervention is necessary
Safe communication about suicide
Reducing stigma surrounding mental-health treatment
Supporting families and communities following a suicide or suicide attempt
Training programs should use established, evidence-informed approaches and be selected based on the population and setting.
Priority 2: Create a Coordinated Referral Network
The coalition will develop a shared resource and referral network that identifies:
Behavioral-health providers
Crisis services
Emergency resources
Primary-care services
Substance-use services
Youth and family services
Faith/community support
Transportation and social-service resources
Culturally and linguistically appropriate services
Whenever appropriate, participating organizations will emphasize warm handoffs rather than simply giving an individual a telephone number or website.
Priority 3: Strengthen School-Based Prevention
Participating schools will develop or strengthen:
Staff education
Student-support systems
Family education
Referral protocols
Crisis-response procedures
Re-entry and ongoing-support processes following a crisis
Coordination with behavioral-health providers
Student programming should be developmentally appropriate and implemented in accordance with school policies and applicable privacy requirements.
Priority 4: Engage Faith Communities
Faith communities can serve as important points of connection for individuals and families.
Coalition activities may include:
Clergy and lay-leader training
Faith-sensitive mental-health education
Youth and family programming
Referral partnerships with behavioral-health organizations
Support for families following a crisis
Anti-stigma initiatives
Community conversations focused on hope, connection, and help-seeking
Faith leaders should not be expected to provide clinical treatment outside their qualifications. Their role is primarily to provide support, recognize concerns, and facilitate appropriate professional care.
Priority 5: Improve Healthcare Coordination
Healthcare partners will work toward consistent processes for:
Identifying suicide risk when clinically appropriate
Safety planning and evidence-based intervention
Behavioral-health referral
Follow-up after emergency or inpatient care
Coordination with primary care
Connecting patients with community resources
Supporting families and caregivers
Healthcare organizations will establish appropriate procedures for communication with schools, faith organizations, and community partners while protecting patient privacy.
7. Shared Community Response Model
The coalition will establish a common framework:
Recognize → Engage → Assess → Connect → Follow Up → Support
Recognize
A trained community member identifies signs of significant emotional distress or possible suicide risk.
Engage
The individual is approached in a calm, compassionate, nonjudgmental manner.
Assess
Appropriately trained professionals determine the level of risk and the appropriate response.
Connect
The individual is connected with the appropriate behavioral-health, medical, crisis, or emergency service.
Follow Up
A designated organization or professional helps ensure that the connection to care actually occurs.
Support
The individual and, when appropriate, their family receive ongoing community and professional support.
8. Governance
The coalition will establish a Steering Committee representing the major sectors.
Suggested structure:
Coalition Chair/Co-Chairs
Provide overall leadership and facilitate collaboration.
Healthcare/Behavioral Health Lead
Coordinates clinical partnerships and referral pathways.
Education Lead
Coordinates school participation and educational initiatives.
Faith Community Lead
Coordinates faith-based organizations and clergy engagement.
Community/Public Health Lead
Coordinates community outreach, data, and prevention initiatives.
Lived-Experience/Family Representatives
Provide community-informed perspectives and help ensure that initiatives are respectful and practical.
The coalition may establish working groups for:
Training and Education
Clinical and Community Referral
Schools and Youth
Faith Communities
Communications and Outreach
Data, Evaluation, and Quality Improvement
Postvention and Community Support
10. Measurable Objectives
During the first year, the coalition may establish measurable objectives such as:
Recruit representatives from multiple faith, education, healthcare, and community organizations.
Train a defined number of clergy, educators, healthcare workers, and community members.
Establish a current community behavioral-health resource directory.
Establish formal referral relationships among participating organizations.
Develop written protocols for responding to suicide-related concerns.
Conduct community education events.
Increase awareness of available behavioral-health and crisis resources.
Track referrals and follow-up processes where legally and ethically appropriate.
Collect participant feedback and use it for continuous improvement.
The coalition should avoid relying exclusively on suicide counts as a measure of success because changes in reported suicide deaths or attempts can be influenced by many factors outside the coalition’s control.
11. Evaluation
Evaluation should examine both process measures and community outcomes.
Process Measures
Number of participating organizations
Number of individuals trained
Number of educational events
Referral-network participation
Training completion and participant feedback
Availability and utilization of community resources
Outcome Measures
Where reliable data are available, the coalition may monitor:
Connection to behavioral-health services
Follow-up after crisis or emergency care
Knowledge of suicide-prevention resources
Confidence among trained community members
Barriers to accessing care
Community awareness of available services
All evaluation activities should protect individual privacy and comply with applicable laws and organizational requirements.
12. Sustainability
Long-term sustainability will require multiple funding and partnership strategies, including:
Government and public-health grants
Hospital and healthcare-community benefit programs
Foundation grants
Corporate and philanthropic support
Faith-community contributions
In-kind professional services
University or research partnerships
The coalition should develop a diversified funding strategy rather than relying on a single funding source.
13. Immediate Next Steps
The coalition’s first meeting should accomplish five things:
Identify founding organizations.
Select interim leadership.
Map existing suicide-prevention and behavioral-health resources.
Identify the most significant gaps in the current community response.
Agree on three to five first-year priorities.
The coalition should then develop a written memorandum of understanding describing participating organizations’ roles, expectations, confidentiality requirements, decision-making structure, and referral responsibilities.
14. Proposed Coalition Statement
Together, we can build a community in which no individual or family has to navigate a mental-health crisis alone. By connecting faith communities, schools, healthcare organizations, behavioral-health professionals, families, and community partners, we can strengthen the pathways to support, reduce barriers to care, and create a coordinated system of prevention and response.