Grants Boost Hope Around Suicide Prevention, Gun Safety Efforts

SOUTH HARWICH – Pay a visit to Nauset Regional High School, and you might find students inviting their peers to play board games at lunch or handing out Lifesavers to students reminding them to look out for one another.
 
They’re members of the Hope Squad, a program that has been adopted by students and faculty at a number of schools across the Cape and Islands geared toward looking out for the mental and emotional wellbeing of students.
 
“It’s fabulous,” Nauset Regional High School Principal Patrick Clark said of the program. “It’s exactly what you want to see as a principal, students that care enough to say, ‘I’m willing to put my own efforts in to see to it that social emotional wellbeing is strong for all students across the student body.’”
 
Now thanks to a grant offered through the Cape and Islands District Attorney’s Office, Sharing Kindness, the Harwich-based nonprofit that helps train students and faculty advisors to serve as Hope Squad members in their schools, plans to bring the program into more schools in the region.

On Feb. 7 at the Sharing Kindness offices in South Harwich, Cape and Islands District Attorney Rob Galibois presented Dr. Kim Mead-Walters, the group’s co-founder, with a check for $48,620 to help expand the Hope Squad program locally.

“We’re just so grateful,” said Mead-Walters, who called the newly-secured funding a “game-changer” for students across the Cape and Islands.

Mead-Walters and her husband Davis founded Sharing Kindness in 2018 after their son took his life. Citing data from the Centers for Disease Control, she said since about 2007, incidents of youth suicide have gone up 62 percent nationally. In Massachusetts, she said, youth suicide is the second leading cause of death among people ages 10 to 24.

The causes for the increase are many, but Mead-Walters said the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated already existing issues around mental health and social emotional wellness among children. She said since the pandemic, suicide incidents involving guns have gone up 2 percent overall nationally and 15 percent among youth.

"And here on the Cape, she said, that has a lot to do with the lack of access to resources.

But the Hope Squad program, which was first introduced on the Cape at Falmouth High School three years ago, is rallying students around the importance of giving support to their peers in need of mental health and emotional support. Mead-Walters said there are 460 students involved in Hope Squad across 12 schools on the Cape and Nantucket serving an overall population of 7,700 students.

“That number will probably go up 50 percent because of this funding,” she said.

“It’s amazing to sit here and listen to you talk about how three years ago basically this didn’t exist, and you’re already into 12 schools with another four or five on the horizon,” Galibois said. “Congratulations on all your hard work.”

Each program has an advisor and students are recommended to participate and be trained to be part of their school’s Hope Squad. At Nauset Regional High School, Clark said there are bulletins posted around the school informing students and faculty about who is involved in the program.

“We don’t have data on things that don’t happen,” he said. “But what they do do is help with climate building, openness and conversations about things that once were considered difficult conversations.”

Unlike other suicide prevention programs that are often led by professionals, Mead-Walters said the peer-to-peer nature of Hope Squad gives more comfort to students struggling with suicidal ideation and other mental health issues. She said that according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, half of teens who experience suicidal ideation don’t tell anyone about it. For the other half that do, seven out of 10 times they reach out to a friend or peer, she said.

“They’re not taught how to be counselors,” Mead-Walters said of students involved in the program. “They’re taught to look and listen and be the bridge, the connection, to the trusted adult.”

Mead-Walters said Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School is the next school on the Cape and Islands to introduce Hope Squad. But moving forward, she said she wants to bring the program to more middle schools. Students in the 10-to-14 age range are particularly at risk of suicide, she said, especially girls of color.

In total, approximately $129,000 was secured through the state Office of Grants and Research and the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security to increase programming, training and education around the issues of suicide awareness and gun safety. Funding will also go to Cape Cod Community College ($24,000) for the creation of safe talk trainings, mental health first aid training and applied suicide prevention training in partnership with Cape and Islands Suicide Prevention Coalition; the nonprofit Console ($45,000) for mental health training for local police departments; and Grandmothers Against Gun Violence ($6,800), which will use its funding to purchase gun locks and further efforts around gun safety education.

Galibois said an additional $5,000 will go toward hosting a future Cape and Islands Suicide Prevention Summit with the local organizations.

Email Ryan Bray at ryan@capecodchronicle.com