Overview and Background
To prevent the suicide of young people and promote healing, we must strengthen community- and clinic-based healing, connection, and wellbeing. This highlights the importance of the community in driving the direction for, and positive changes to, suicide prevention and response systems. It was developed over the course of a year as we engaged in dialogues with staff from the National Center for Child Traumatic Stress (NCCTS), National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) organizations, and community and family partners. In the spirit of this work, a series of Community Think Tanks were held during the summer and fall of 2023 -bringing together NCTSN Centers and community and family partners to help shape this project. All work done in the Collaborative will continue to demonstrate our commitment to equity, anti-racism, and values-based work.
The National Center for Child Traumatic Stress (NCCTS) is leading this Change Collaborative, seeking to support communities and their NCTSN Category III centers in achieving this mission. Working together, participating teams will identify their own pathways and processes – based on their own unique community strengths and needs – that promote healing, connection, and wellbeing for young people.
The Mission of this Collaborative
The mission of this Collaborative is for all participating teams to deepen meaningful partnerships (as defined by communities and families) between communities, families, and the clinics in ways that communities and families feel seen, heard, and valued. These partnerships promote connection, wellbeing, and healing for the youth, families, and communities most impacted by trauma and suicide in ways that ultimately prevent suicide.
The Purpose of this Collaborative Change Framework
This Collaborative Change Framework (CCF) establishes the vision for a community-driven, collaborative approach to suicide prevention for young people. We endeavor to create a system that provides the support and connections that young people need in their community so that risks of suicide are reduced and young people remain safe, healthy, and well. A key aspect of this is striving to understand the communities being served in meaningful ways as we collectively strive to eliminate the structural and institutional racism that has created the systems, organizations, and conditions that hold oppression in place and result in such significant disparities.