INSPIRE in Postsecondary Ed: Promoting Behavioral Health & Preventing Suicide

Forefront Suicide Prevention, with the INSPIRE Workgroup, developed a website aimed at supporting behavioral health and preventing suicide among students attending all 2-year and 4-year colleges and universities in Washington state. This website includes resources for both campus administrators, faculty, staff and mental health professionals, as well as students, and more information will be added in the coming months.

We are grateful to the many members of the INSPIRE Workgroup and the larger community of postsecondary education behavioral health professionals who generously shared their time and expertise to develop these resources.

INSPIRE in Postsecondary Ed was created by state legislation in 2018. Representative Tina Orwall and Senator Sharon Brown were the primary sponsors of the respective bills that made this work possible. The legislative initiative also included a one-time grant program for low-resourced institutions. Learn more about those grants here.

Forefront’s Higher Education Initiatives 2018-21

Forefront Suicide Prevention has actively worked to benefit higher education students since its earliest years.

Washington Cohort in the JED Campus Program

A cohort of 13 institutions entered the JED Campus Program in 2017. Forefront and the Jolene McCaw Family Foundation were instrumental in creating an all-expenses paid opportunity for these colleges and universities to benefit from JED Campus. The Jed Foundation is the nation’s leading private voice in suicide prevention for higher education.

Five Annual Suicide Prevention Conferences for Higher Education

Between 2015-2019, five free annual conferences and trainings were produced by Forefront for Washington colleges and universities. JED Campus participated in most of these events. Funding from a federal Garrett Lee Smith Grant to Washington state made this series possible.

Garrett Lee Smith Grant for University of Washington

Forefront led a GLS grant to benefit the University of Washington’s students with comprehensive suicide prevention programming. Elements of the work done through that grant remain key to UW’s suicide prevention work today.