Blog
Returning Home: How the Connect Program Deepens Roots in Hawaii
By Elaine de Mello
When my colleague Susan Ward and I touched down in Kapolei, Hawaii in early February, we were greeted with fresh flower leis—a warm welcome that felt like coming home for me, despite the decade-plus since my last visit. We were there to continue a partnership that has quietly but persistently strengthened suicide prevention, postvention, and mental wellness across the Hawaiian islands.
What struck us most wasn’t just the beauty of the islands or the warmth of old friendships renewed. It was witnessing how deeply the Connect program’s values had taken root in Hawaii’s communities through genuine, collaborative partnership with a team at the University of Hawaii.
A Partnership Built on Respect and Adaptation
The Connect Program’s work in Hawaii began around 2011 when University of Hawaii leaders recognized something important: the Connect program wasn’t just a training package to implement, but “a living, breathing curriculum” that could adapt to meet unique community needs. Rather than imposing one-size-fits-all solutions, we committed to working collaboratively—learning about Pacific Island culture, integrating local wisdom, and continuously shaping the program to reflect the values of the people we serve.
This is at the heart of how the Connect program operates. We listen. We learn. We adapt.
Over the years, this commitment paid dividends. The University of Hawaii team didn’t just implement our training—they built upon it, conducted research on its impact, and sustained the work through multiple grant cycles. Two peer-reviewed articles emerged from their evaluation, demonstrating that when training is tailored to community context, outcomes matter.
The Comprehensive Approach
This year, we delivered a complete suite of ConnectTM services: Training of Trainers for suicide prevention, Youth Leader curriculum, and specialized postvention training—all designed to address the full spectrum of community needs.
Suicide prevention isn’t a single intervention. It requires prevention training that equips community members to identify risk and respond compassionately, youth leader development that empowers young people to become change agents, and postvention support that helps communities heal after loss.
When a community commits to this comprehensive model, the ripple effects extend far beyond a single training event. During our postvention training, one participant asked our colleague about her response to a significant loss years ago. Her answer was simple but powerful: “I called Elaine.” That moment captured something essential—a network of informed, confident leaders who know they don’t face crises alone.
Meeting Communities Where They Are
The participants we worked with were deeply embedded in their families, schools, and communities. Many had been personally affected by suicide loss. What unified them was a commitment to ohana—a Hawaiian concept that extends family to include friends and community. “Ohana means family, and family means no one gets left behind or forgotten.” This isn’t just a phrase in Hawaii; it’s a lived value.
The Connect program resonated with these communities precisely because it can be tailored to reflect such values. Our foundational models aren’t rigid templates. They’re tools that communities can adapt to reflect their own understanding of connection, resilience, and collective responsibility.
Sustainability Through Shared Knowledge
What made returning to Hawaii after more than a decade meaningful was witnessing how the work had evolved. The University of Hawaii team had carried it forward, building upon it with their own expertise. They integrated Connect’s values and best practices into their systematic approach to suicide prevention across the state.
This is what real sustainability looks like: values embedded in how organizations operate, knowledge shared and continuously refined, collectively owned.
The training itself is just the beginning. What matters is whether the program can genuinely meet you where you are, adapt to your community’s needs, and leave you with tools that sustain the work for years to come.
The ConnectTM Program isn’t just about suicide prevention. It’s about building communities where no one is left behind—where everyone has access to the knowledge, skills, and support they need to care for one another.
And that, truly, is ohana.
The Connect Suicide Prevention program offers comprehensive training services in suicide prevention and postvention response. Learn how our tailored approach can strengthen your community’s ability to prevent suicide and support those affected by loss. Contact us at info@theconnectprogram.org to learn more.
Building Youth Leadership Across New Hampshire’s North Country
By Susan Ward, Prevention & Postvention Program Manager and ConnectTM Lead Trainer
In October 2025, I traveled to Lin-Wood School in Lincoln, New Hampshire to facilitate a Connect Youth Leader training for high school students and adult advisors from several North Country school communities.
Hosted through a partnership between Primex and Lin-Wood School, the training brought together 28 participants representing Lin-Wood School, Kennett High School, Plymouth Regional High School, and SAU 35’s Profile Junior/Senior High School. While the schools came from different communities, they shared a common goal: empowering young people to take an active role in promoting mental wellness, strengthening peer connections, and supporting suicide prevention efforts within their schools.
A Regional Gathering in the Heart of the White Mountains
The training took place at Lin-Wood School, nestled among the mountains of northern New Hampshire. The drive to Lincoln offered the kind of scenery New Hampshire is known for—brilliant fall foliage, winding roads, and breathtaking mountain views.
Bringing together students from multiple North Country communities created a unique learning environment. While each school faces its own challenges and opportunities, participants quickly recognized that many of the issues affecting youth mental health are shared across communities.
The training provided an opportunity not only to learn new skills, but also to connect with peers and adult leaders who are working toward similar goals.
Creating Space for Youth Voices
One of the realities of youth leadership development is that confidence does not always appear immediately.
Some of the students who attended the training arrived feeling reserved and hesitant to speak up. Some participants were visibly shy, and a few even attempted to hide their faces when called upon to participate.
Participation looks different for every young person.
While some youth are eager to lead discussions and share ideas, others process information internally and need time to build confidence before finding their voice. What mattered most was that students stayed engaged, participated in activities, and continued to explore the concepts being presented.
Youth leadership is not always about speaking the loudest in the room. Sometimes it begins with listening, reflecting, and taking the first small step toward becoming involved.
The Important Role of Adult Allies
One of the highlights of the training was the commitment and engagement of the adult guides who attended alongside students.
Representatives from all schools actively participated throughout the training, helping to create a supportive environment where students could learn and grow. Their enthusiasm for the material was evident, and many recognized the potential for applying the concepts and activities within their own schools and communities.
Strong youth leadership initiatives depend on strong adult support. When educators, counselors, administrators, and other school staff invest in youth voice and leadership development, students are more likely to feel empowered to take meaningful action.
The collaboration among schools and adult advisors created a strong foundation for future efforts.
Turning Ideas into Action
A key component of the Connect Youth Leader program is helping schools move beyond training and into action.
Participants left with access to planning resources, tools, and activities designed to help them build and sustain youth-led mental wellness initiatives. These resources provide practical ideas for promoting connectedness, reducing stigma, supporting peers, and strengthening school-wide suicide prevention efforts.
Following the training, I shared additional materials and resources with participating schools. The response was encouraging.
In a follow-up email, Lin-Wood representative, Erin Bell, expressed appreciation for the training and excitement about exploring how the school would use what they had learned. The availability of action-planning tools and implementation resources gave participants concrete ideas for how to continue the work after the training ended.
Why Youth Leadership Matters
Suicide prevention and mental wellness efforts are most effective when young people are part of the solution.
Students understand the challenges facing their peers in ways that adults often cannot. By providing youth with knowledge, skills, and opportunities for leadership, schools can create environments where students feel more connected, supported, and empowered to help one another.
The Connect Youth Leader program is designed to do exactly that—equip young people and the adults who support them with practical tools for creating positive change within their school communities.
Not every future leader enters the room feeling confident. Some arrive quietly, unsure of their place or voice. Trainings like this create opportunities for those young people to discover that they have something valuable to contribute.
Looking Ahead
The true impact of youth leadership training is often measured not by what happens during the training itself, but by what happens afterward.
As participating schools begin implementing ideas, activities, and action plans developed through the Connect Youth Leader program, the potential exists for lasting change across multiple North Country communities.
The enthusiasm of the adult advisors, the willingness of students to engage despite their hesitations, and the collaboration among schools all point toward a promising future.
We look forward to following the progress of these schools and seeing how the seeds planted during this training continue to grow into meaningful efforts that strengthen youth mental wellness, connectedness, and resilience throughout the region.
The Connect Suicide Prevention program offers comprehensive training services in suicide prevention and postvention response. Learn how our tailored approach can strengthen your community’s ability to prevent suicide and support those affected by loss. Contact us at info@theconnectprogram.org to learn more.
Reflections from Alaska: Suicide Prevention, Community, and What We Can All Learn
By Elaine de Mello, NAMI New Hampshire
In August and September 2025, I returned to Alaska to provide ConnectTM Suicide Prevention and Postvention trainings across the state. NAMI New Hampshire has trained in Alaska annually since 2010, and this year my travels took me to Ketchikan, Utqiagvik, and five North Slope villages—Kaktovik, Nuiqsut, Point Hope, and Anaktuvuk Pass—as part of a statewide mental health tour.
The Urgent Need
Alaska’s suicide rate of 28.5 per 100,000 people is the highest in the nation—nearly double double the national average of 14.7. In some rural regions, rates exceed 70 per 100,000.
The contributing factors are complex: geographic isolation, limited access to services, extreme weather, restricted transportation, and unpredictable light patterns—24 hours of darkness in winter, 24 hours of light in summer. Yet despite these realities, there is extraordinary resilience.
Community-Centered Prevention
In the North Slope Borough, I joined a mental health tour hosted by North Slope Borough Behavioral Health Services. Each village visit began with an evening “carnival”—games, food, and mental health resources in community centers or school gyms. In communities of 300 people or fewer, attendance often exceeded 100 residents.
These carnivals created entry points for deeper conversations. ConnectTM Suicide Prevention trainings for adult community members followed, with participants including mayors, business owners, first responders, and other community members. But here’s what struck me: scheduling was flexible. If salmon were running or whales moving through, trainings shifted. Subsistence is survival. This wasn’t a disruption—it was a reminder that suicide prevention exists within the fabric of daily life, not outside it.
Building Sustainable Infrastructure
Across Alaska, communities are building regional and village-level wellness coalitions, reducing stigma, implementing Zero Suicide approaches, and strengthening cross-sector safety nets. Two-day Postvention training and planning sessions brought diverse stakeholders together to prepare coordinated responses after suicide deaths. In some communities, these plans have been activated in real time following tragedy.
Participants consistently expressed gratitude: “This is just what our community needed.” “Communication is key.” We facilitated discussions about resource gaps, clarified expectations across sectors, and strengthened trauma-informed networks.
What I Learned
One of the most powerful lessons from Alaska is that suicide prevention cannot be separated from relationships and culture.
In villages where families are interconnected and residents have lived their entire lives, suicide is rarely abstract—it’s personal. Those lived experiences become doorways to hope and healing.
Evidence-based practices must include not only clinical care but also the protective power of culture, ancestry, community, and shared responsibility. When a whale is caught, the entire village shares in the celebration and the food. Those who hunt accept real danger for the good of the whole. That ethic—putting oneself at risk for community—reflects the heart of suicide prevention: we carry each other when someone cannot carry themselves.
What We Can All Learn
In remote parts of our country, people experience both the impact of suicide and the absence of systemic resources. Protective factors—relationships, family, faith, shared responsibility—are not optional; they are essential.
Social capital and connectedness are powerful prevention tools. A comprehensive, whole-community approach is sustainable and effective. We cannot substitute technology for human connection.
No matter where we live, we are all in this together. Suicide affects every community—and every community holds strengths that can be amplified in the work of prevention and healing.
I am grateful to continue walking alongside Alaska’s leaders, providers, and residents as we strengthen the safety net—together.
The Connect Suicide Prevention program offers comprehensive training services in suicide prevention and postvention response. Learn how our tailored approach can strengthen your community’s ability to prevent suicide and support those affected by loss. Contact us at info@theconnectprogram.org to learn more.
From New Hampshire to Tennessee: How Connect Training Supports Community Healing After Suicide and Disaster
By Amy Cook
In September 2025, I had the opportunity to travel from New Hampshire to Gray, Tennessee to provide Connect Postvention Training, facilitated postvention response planning, and a Postvention Train-the-Trainer program for Frontier Health. By the end of the week, 30 clinical staff and social workers had completed the training, and four new Connect trainers were prepared to bring this important work to others throughout the region.
While every Connect training experience is unique, this one reinforced an important lesson: the principles of postvention and community healing extend far beyond suicide loss. They can help communities respond to many types of trauma and adversity.
A Community Defined by Resilience
Northeast Tennessee is a beautiful part of the country. Nestled in the Great Smoky Mountains, the region is characterized by rolling farmland, winding backroads, steep hills, and small rural communities. Each morning, a dense fog settled over the landscape, often limiting visibility to just a few feet and creating an almost surreal start to the day.
The training took place at Frontier Health’s main office in Gray, a small rural community that serves as a hub for behavioral health services across portions of Tennessee and Virginia.
What struck me most, however, was not the scenery—it was the people.
From the moment I arrived at the airport, I was met with warmth and hospitality. People smiled, greeted one another, and took time to connect. As a New Englander accustomed to a faster pace, I quickly noticed the difference. Even my morning trips to Dunkin’ became a lesson in community. Conversations flowed freely among customers and staff, and no one seemed particularly concerned about how long the line took. Participants later told me that spending time on the porch with neighbors, sipping sweet tea and watching the horizon, remains a common and valued part of daily life.
That sense of connection and community became a powerful backdrop for the work we were doing together.
Building Capacity Through Training
Frontier Health provides a comprehensive range of mental health and substance use services across the region. Their staff work with individuals and families throughout the lifespan, including youth and schools, placing them in a unique position to strengthen suicide prevention and postvention efforts across multiple communities.
Throughout the training, I was impressed by both the expertise and passion of the participants. They immediately recognized how Connect’s postvention principles could be applied not only within their organization, but also throughout the communities they serve.
As discussions unfolded, participants began identifying practical ways to strengthen their response to suicide loss, support grieving individuals, and improve organizational readiness. The energy in the room was palpable. It was clear that participants were not simply learning new information—they were envisioning how to use it to create meaningful change.
When Postvention Supports More Than Suicide Loss
One of the most powerful discussions centered on the lasting impact of Hurricane Helene, which had caused significant destruction in the region approximately one year before the training.
Many participants worked closely with schools and children who were still experiencing the effects of that trauma. As we explored concepts related to postvention, grief, trauma, communication, and healing, participants began drawing connections between suicide postvention and broader community recovery efforts.
They recognized that many of the same principles that help communities heal after a suicide death can also support recovery following a natural disaster or other traumatic event. The training provided a framework for understanding trauma’s impact on individuals and communities while offering practical strategies for fostering connection, resilience, and healing.
This realization became one of the week’s most meaningful takeaways. Connect’s principles were helping participants think beyond a single event and consider how they could support healing across an entire community.
A New Perspective on a Family’s Grief
Another powerful moment came during the “S-Word” activity, which explores the many reasons people may struggle to talk openly about suicide.
One participant shared concerns about a student whose older brother had died by suicide. The family had become reluctant to engage with school staff and would not discuss either the suicide or the younger child’s mental health needs.
Prior to the training, she and her colleagues had interpreted the family’s reluctance as resistance or avoidance. Through the activity and discussion, however, she began to see the situation differently.
She recognized that grief, trauma, fear, guilt, stigma, and many other factors could be influencing the family’s response. Rather than viewing the parents as unwilling to engage, she developed a deeper understanding of what they might be experiencing and gained new ideas for approaching the family with greater empathy and support.
For me, this moment captured one of the most important goals of Connect training: helping people move from assumptions to understanding and from judgment to compassion.
Renewing Purpose
At the conclusion of the training, one participant’s feedback struck me. She shared that participating in the training helped her reconnect with why she entered the field in the first place and gave her a renewed sense of purpose.
Suicide prevention and postvention work is not easy. The topics we address are often painful and complex. Yet there is something incredibly rewarding about watching people discover new ways they can make a difference in the lives of others.
Seeing participants leave with renewed energy, practical tools, and a commitment to helping their communities heal is one of the most meaningful parts of this work.
Why This Matters
This experience in Tennessee demonstrates how Connect training can be adapted to meet the needs of diverse communities and organizations.
Whether working with schools, behavioral health providers, hospitals, crisis teams, faith communities, or community coalitions, Connect helps participants build skills that strengthen prevention, intervention, postvention, and long-term community healing.
The participants at Frontier Health left with concrete action steps to continue developing their postvention response plan, a deeper understanding of community trauma, and increased confidence in their ability to support those affected by loss.
Most importantly, they left empowered to take action.
As I reflect on my time in northeast Tennessee, what stands out most is the passion of the people I met and their commitment to helping others. My hope is that the momentum generated during the training continues to grow, strengthening regional partnerships and ensuring that communities have the tools they need to support healing after suicide, disaster, and other traumatic events.
Because when communities are equipped to respond with compassion, connection, and purpose, healing becomes possible.
The Connect Suicide Prevention program offers comprehensive training services in suicide prevention and postvention response. Learn how our tailored approach can strengthen your community’s ability to prevent suicide and support those affected by loss. Contact us at info@theconnectprogram.org to learn more.
