Diocesan students rally behind suicide prevention and awareness program

Bella Bailey

Multimedia Correspondent

Newport Central Catholic High School, Newport, is opening its doors to the community for the first Real Talk Real Hope, Aug. 21, 6-8:30 p.m., a suicide prevention and awareness program hosted by the Blessings List Ministry and Cincinnati Children’s Zero Suicide team. The two-and-a-half-hour program will include community building activities, a keynote speaker, separate student and adult programming with small group discussion and guidance by mental health professionals from throughout the Diocese and the Cincinnati Children’s team.

The goal is to create an event which will inspire, and instill hope in the community, that when everything seems dark, there is still light.

“We really want to focus on creating a sense of community, building awareness and education, but most importantly, empowering people with a feeling of hope,” said Christine Whelan, member of the Blessing List Ministry, Cincinnati Children’s Zero Suicide team and a former Newport Central Catholic parent.

Students from across the Diocese have been involved in the planning and fundraising of the event, with seven students from Newport Central Catholic stepping up in a big way.

“The students have been fantastic,” said Mrs. Whelan. “They are taking all of this very seriously and really putting their hearts and souls into it.”

A senior NCC student has designed all of the event flyers, while others have helped spread the word on social media and throughout the community. In addition, the students have helped organize fundraising opportunities.

“We’re selling wristbands for the event for an out of uniform day, they are the ones who have come up with this idea of the wristbands, they designed the wristbands,” said Mrs. Whelan.

In addition to wristbands, encouraging notecards have been designed from students across the Diocese at Bishop Brossart High School, Alexandria, and St. Therese School, Southgate, as well as public elementary schools. Mrs. Whelan said the most popular packs are those designed by Diocesan students.

“The format of the event was student driven and student led. We let them tell us, ‘What do you think kids want to hear about,’” said Mrs. Whelan.

To begin the program, students and their parents, or other adults, will participate in a community building activity “where the kids and the adults will see that many of the hard experiences that they’ve had in life, they are not the only ones who have experienced it,” she said.

The keynote speaker of the event will be a young man and his mother, speaking from firsthand experience with suicide. Mrs. Whelan said, “they’re story is really powerful.”

The students will then have the chance to ask a panel including the keynote speaker and other mental health professionals questions before breaking into small groups. During this, the professionals of the Cincinnati Children’s team will be discussing with the adults ways to minimize the risk of suicide.

“You don’t have to be in crisis to come,” said Mrs. Whelan. “The more of us who are aware and can start talking about this and having these hard conversations, the better off our entire community is going to be as a result.”