2019 Highlights: Living Hope’s Year In Review

As we enter the second month of 2020, we have an opportunity to reflect back on the past year’s activities, lessons, and important moments. 2019 was a big year for Living Hope! We launched the 11 of Us public awareness campaign, sponsored over 30 suicide prevention training and education sessions, convened all five committees, and shared our lessons at the 2019 Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention annual conference in October.  

11 of Us public awareness campaign

Within a month of the campaign’s launch, 5,778 people had visited the campaign’s website 6,853 times. As of February 10, 2020, nearly 18,000 people have visited the site and there have been about 900 downloads of PDF resources from the website.  

Training and sponsorship opportunities

Since August/September, a whole suite of sponsored training and education opportunities have been made available through Living Hope, such as ASIST, Trauma Informed Care, QPR, SafeTalk and more. 

Living Hope has also played a role in sponsoring the 2019 Canadian Association of Suicide Prevention Conference, Mysterious Barricades, a Headstrong Summit for LGBTQ2S+ youth, An Evening to Remember: Honouring Lives Lost to Suicide and the Edmonton Police Services Commemorative Sign Post.

Roots of Hope

The Living Hope team has been working with Roots of Hope, a national suicide prevention project convened by the Mental Health Commission of Canada, since spring 2019. Participation in this project also includes a national research and evaluation Community of Practice and other collaborative activities.

Committee work

All Four of Living Hope’s community-based implementation team committees have been convened. They include representation from 45 community agencies, organizations and individuals with lived experience.

Expansion of men’s support services

City of Edmonton Administration provided support for Momentum Walk-in Counselling Society to expand the Anchor Men’s Evening Drop-in Group. To further the work of Living Hope, City of Edmonton provided seed funding for a planning committee to host a men’s forum. Both actions are intended to increase social connectedness and healthy coping strategies for men.