Latest News and Events

Free Support Group on Recovering from Suicide Grief

Thank you to the generous donations from some local businesses, the Front Porch Coalition is now able to offer free of charge to the people and suicide survivors in the Black Hills region the option to attend a support group facilitated by a professional clinician. This support group is unique in that it will bring more than just support to those who have lost someone to suicide. It will also provide people with an opportunity to learn how to cope with their grief and learn that what they are going through and may be dealing with is normal after loosing someone close to them to suicide.
The focus of the group is to understand suicide grief, learn the normal stages of grief specific to suicide, work through the grief process, and learn how to cope, heal, and recover from a loss to suicide. The support group will be facilitated by a licensed professional who will take participants through the grief process specific to suicide and provide education and resources on dealing will grief, loss, and healing. The emphasis of the support group is on education as opposed to counseling. Interested participants will be given referrals to other counseling and support resources in the community should they need any additional resources and assistance.

Pre-registration for the group session is required. Participation in the support group is voluntary but attendance at every meeting is encouraged since the support group will be closed to those who pre-register and will run for six consecutive weeks per session. The group will meet at Lutheran Social Services at 2920 Sheridan Lake Road in Rapid City from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 pm. The next group session is scheduled to start on Thursday, May 22, 2008. Please call the Front Porch Coalition at 348-6692 to register each person attending. Additional group sessions will be held throughout the year, as the program will be an ongoing service.

The event is free of charge to those wishing to participate. Materials will be provided to each participant. Pre-registration is required since the group will be a closed group from beginning to end, so please contact the Front Porch Coalition at 605-348-6692, by email at: inquiries@frontporchcoalition.org, or by mail at: 401 3rd Street, Suite #4, Rapid City, SD 57701. Please RSVP containing your name, mailing address, email address, and phone number as contact information in the event any information needs to be sent to the participants, as well as the number of participants planning to attend with you.

6th Annual Suicide Awareness Walk Rescheduled

Due to the inclement weather conditions that occurred during the first few days of May this year, the annual Suicide Awareness Walk was postponed. Even though the blizzard had passed, the parking lot and walkways were still icy. The next available weekend to hold the walk at the Old Storybook Island shelter was Saturday, June 7, 2008. The walk will be held on that date from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Registration will be set up by 7:30 so walkers can check in prior to the start. We will walk to Canyon Lake Park and back and then have a light brunch for those who want to stay and talk.

Last year we had only forty walkers due to pouring rains but still raised $10,000. With the money, we were able to keep the office open and staffed with Stephanie, our part-time Community Services Director. Our L.O.S.S. teams are able to respond whenever the Sheriff's Department calls. We offer prevention training to any interested group at no charge. This year we added free 6-week grief group sessions for survivors. I'm so proud of the many ways we help the community affected by suicide.

Last year, Reverend Ted Huffman awoke to the rainy day and wrote “ A Walk In the Rain”

“So today I will take a walk in the rain… We have the option of walking as a part of a group, but sometimes I walk alone. It gives me time to remember the people I have known who have died by suicide. It reminds me of how high the stakes are in mental illness and how brain diseases can be as surely fatal as other illnesses. I usually take a bit of time during the annual suicide prevention walk to ponder ‘what if?' It is a question that plagues all suicide survivors. It is a question without a definite answer.”

Yes, the walk is a fundraiser, but you do not have to raise funds to walk. It is a time to ponder “what if?”

If you would like more information, including donor sheets and walker instructions, you can call us at 605-348-6692 or e-mail us at inquiries@frontporchcoalition.org . Also, if you did collect donations that you would like to turn into us prior to the rescheduled date of Saturday, June 7th, you can do so by mailing them to our office.

Carol Posthumus, Walk Coordinator

Suicide Prevention Program: “Suicide Prevention Is Everybody’s Business”

Over the past few years, the local suicide rate has been steadily rising. In Pennington County, the number of suicide completions over the past five years has nearly doubled from one per month to nearly two per month. During the past year, four of the suicide victims have been under the age of 25. An average of 42% of the suicide deaths in Pennington County over the past eight years have ages that range from 14 - 35 years old at the time of their death. As the local, state, and national rate of suicide completions increases, the need for effective suicide prevention programs in every community becomes essential. Even though mental health providers are trained to identify the immediate warning signs for suicide, everyone needs to know those warning signs. Many suicide victims were not receiving treatment prior to and at the time of their death. It is important that we educate people on how to identify those warning signs and teach them how to ensure that the suicidal person receives appropriate and immediate assistance in order to save their life.

One of the primary goals and most important projects that the Front Porch Coalition is working to develop and bring to community organizations and business in the Black Hills region is a suicide prevention program that everyone can use in their everyday lives. A number of presentations will be developed so that the information will be tailored to the specific community organization, gender group, age group, and other demographic backgrounds. Each presentation is intended to teach everyone how to identify suicide warning signs, determine if a person is at risk for suicide based on those warning signs, and teach that person how to refer and persuade the suicidal person to receive treatment from the appropriate mental health provider in their community. Yet the presentation will be tailored to meet the needs of the specific group targeted, i.e. school teachers and counselors, youth providers, nursing home providers, hospice providers, ministers, etc. The presentations will provide general information on suicide prevention and will be approximately one to two hours in length.

The organization is working on developing a more in-depth training session for those groups who may need more detailed information and resources on various techniques on suicide prevention. Contact the Front Porch Coalition office or check the organization’s website for the latest news and updates for more information on this program.

Join in Public Awareness Anti-Stigma Campaign

The Front Porch Coalition has made it a strategic priority to implement a public awareness and anti-stigma campaign to reduce the negative stigma that still remains that prevents people from seeking professional help for mental health, substance abuse, suicidal ideation, and support after loosing someone to suicide, with the goal of preventing suicide and improving the overall mental health and wellness of the community. Nationwide, approximately 90% of all suicide victims suffer from some form of mental health or substance abuse problem. Two-thirds of those did not receive any treatment at the time of their death. Of the average twenty suicides per year in Pennington County, nearly all of those victims were not receiving any mental health or substance abuse treatment in the days, weeks, or months preceding their death. Nearly all of those victims were using alcohol at the time of their death and/or were dealing with some form of mental illness or using and/or abusing alcohol or drugs. While every situation and suicide death has different circumstances, these alarming statistics have remained fairly stable over the years.

So in order to prevent suicide deaths from occurring and reducing the number of suicide attempts that our community has endured over the past few months and even years, it is our priority to implement this anti-stigma and public awareness campaign. In order to do this and implement a full-scale campaign meeting the needs and concerns of the entire community and all of its mental health and substance abuse providers, we are asking for the assistance of those providers in preparing to implement this campaign as well as bringing it to the Black Hills communities. We will also need assistance in raising the funding in order to carry out this campaign. While we will be pursuing various sources of funding, we will need the assistance of a number of community providers, organizations, and even local businesses in order to raise enough funding to implement this project. Please contact me if you are interested in and able to assist us, regardless of how you can be of assistance. Together we can work to raise awareness and reduce the incidence of suicide and get people the help that they need in order to improve and maintain their mental health and wellness.

This page is updated periodically with the latest news and events from within the organization, including the events we are hosting within the community. Check back in the future for the most recent news and upcoming events. (Updated) 5/5/08