California: Youth Suicide Prevention Media and Outreach Campaign

The Center at Sierra Health Foundation is accepting applications for its Youth Suicide Prevention Media and Outreach Campaign to reduce suicide, suicide attempts and self-harm behavior for disproportionately impacted youth.

Donor Name: The Center at Sierra Health Foundation

State: California

County: All Counties

Type of Grant: Grant

Deadline: 06/06/2023

Size of the Grant: up to $500,000

Grant Duration: 2 years

Details:

The program’s overarching goal is to reduce suicide, suicide attempts and self-harm behavior in youth disproportionately impacted by suicide.

The Youth Suicide Prevention Media and Outreach Campaign was established to implement a data driven, targeted, community-based youth suicide prevention media campaign alongside community level suicide prevention projects. The media campaign will be developed by a media agency in coordination with the community-based organizations (CBOs) funded through this funding opportunity. Co-designing suicide prevention campaigns with young people can increase the engagement and usefulness of these youth interventions.

The Youth Suicide Prevention Media and Outreach Campaign is in alignment with California Health and Human Services’ (CalHHS) broader strategic priority of advancing the well-being of children and youth. Aligned efforts include, but are not limited to:

• The Youth Suicide Reporting and Crisis Response Pilot Program
• The California Youth Behavioral Health Initiative (CYBHI)

In this round of funding, The Center is seeking applications from community-based organizations and Tribal organizations that:

• Serve youth and practice ongoing youth engagement in leadership development, social-emotional support systems, mental health, and/or peer mentoring, specifically in communities disproportionately impacted by youth suicide.
• Possess cultural humility and responsiveness with staff and organizational leadership who reflect the racial, ethnic, and cultural community they intend to serve.
• Prioritize public health solutions that focus on evidence-based strategies to prevent suicide, including working with or employing youth to co-create and disseminate outreach and prevention materials.
• Can develop, support, or expand culturally and linguistically appropriate suicide prevention strategies and messaging that are trauma-informed and focused on youth populations disproportionately impacted by suicide.
• Utilize an intersectional approach to health equity through efforts to address suicide and/or mental health risk and protective factors.
• Work in coordination and collaboration with other health and youth-serving agencies/organizations at the local and state level.

Youth Population Focus

Applicants must serve one or more of the youth populations of focus below. Preliminary data statements are provided, though applicants are encouraged to incorporate additional nuances in population data and need, particularly based on the geographic area to be served.

• American Indian/Alaskan Native Youth (AI/AN) – AI/AN youth had the highest rate of suicides from 2016 to 2021 per 100,000 California residents. More than half of the suicides among this group were in the North Coast census region and the Southern San Joaquin Valley census region.
• Hispanic and Latinx Youth – Hispanic and Latinx youth had the highest count of suicides from 2016 to 2021. Additionally, the Northern San Joaquin Valley census region youth suicide rate increased from 2.07 to 4.95 from 2016-2020. This region of the state also had significantly higher emergency department visits for self-harm (e.g., suicide attempts, non-suicidal self-harm) than the state average across all time points. Rates in Los Angeles County rose from 4.18 to 5.03 in the same time period. Female youth who are Hispanic or Latinx in Los Angeles County constituted more than one-third of this group’s suicide deaths.
• African American/Black Youth – Black youth had the highest growth in rate of suicides from 2016 to 2021. From 2019 to 2020, the statewide number increased by more than 40%.

Intersectional Focus

Suicide risk for the populations of focus listed above may be increased due to various intersectional
identities. Applicants with existing programs that serve individuals from the selected population of focus who also identify with one or more of the following categories are strongly encouraged to apply.

• Youth with mental health conditions and/or substance use issues
• Youth impacted by the foster care system
• 2S/LGBTQ+ Youth

Funding Information

Grant awards will be up to $500,000 over two years for 501(c)(3) community-based organizations, Tribal organizations and coalitions/collaboratives. The Center anticipates funding 30 to 50 organizations.

Required Grant Activities

All applicants must perform the following activities and include the costs associated with implementation in their proposed budget.

• Develop a communication plan to support the dissemination and reinforcement of youth suicide prevention messages developed by the Media Campaign.
• Support youth engagement in the planning, development, consumer testing, and dissemination of media campaign suicide prevention messaging and tools.
• Promote population-specific, help-seeking behaviors at the local level (e.g., raising youth awareness of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Prevention Lifeline services, The Trevor Project and warmlines).
• Participate in a Community of Practice led by The Center. This will support funded projects in the implementation of culturally responsive, community-level, evidence-based suicide prevention strategies.
• Maintain mental health referral pathways with the ability to navigate youth to acute suicide prevention resources, including appropriate mental health services and medical care as appropriate.
• Participate in local and state-level evaluation efforts, including the development of an evaluation plan, collection and sharing of data and additional measures as needed for program monitoring and evaluation.
• Implementation of one or more activities listed in the Additional Suicide Prevention Activities section or use of an alternative evidence-based suicide prevention strategy that is tailored to meet the needs of the community.

Geographic Considerations 

• Funding will be distributed in areas serving youth disproportionately impacted by suicide throughout
• A minimum of 15% of funding will be set aside to support rural programs and organizations.

Eligibility Criteria

Applicant organizations must meet the following minimum requirements:

• Have an office located in California.
• Be registered with the California Secretary of State to operate in California.
• Are a 501(c)(3) community-based organization or Tribal organizations with established and trusted community relationships. Fiscal sponsorships are eligible. Also allowable are coalitions of organizations and collaboratives, as long as the backbone organization is an eligible applicant.
• Have demonstrated experience partnering with young people of color and other marginalized communities disproportionately impacted by suicide.
• Have the capacity to support youth involvement in the planning, development, consumer testing, and dissemination of media campaign suicide prevention messaging and tools.
• Applicant organizations and collaborative partners must deeply engage and reflect the proposed communities served that are disproportionately impacted by youth suicide. Grantee partners should have a history of working with impacted communities, including representation on the board and staff, clients served, and neighborhoods served.
• Applicant organizations and their partners must have demonstrated evidence of inclusivity and shall not discriminate based on race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status in any of its activities or operations.

For more information, visit Youth Suicide Prevention Media.