School Suicide Postvention x Recovery and Renewal
Embracing and Expanding Postvention in / for Our Schools
This page hosts materials related to school suicide postvention + recovery and renewal: how have, do or might school leaders go beyond suicide response into the aftermath?
The resources provided are sourced from the field, participants in our “School Suicide Postvention x Recovery and Renewal Community of Practice (now in it’s second year), and SCRR staff.
If you have a resource you would like to add to this page, please submit it here.
Community of Practice members! If you are accessing this page as part of your participation in “School Suicide Postvention x Recovery and Renewal Embracing and Expanding Postvention in / for Our Schools” Community of Practice, you’ll find relevant materials and information at the bottom of this page.
Quick Links to Key Sections on this Page
- Resource List: School Suicide Postvention + Recovery and Renewal
- Submit a resource connected to Suicide Postvention in Schools
- About Community of Practice
- Community of Practice Materials and Supporting Resources
Resource List: School Suicide Postvention + Recovery and Renewal
Have other resources connected to Suicide Postvention in Schools?
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Resources from and for our Community of Practice
A collaborative and conversational space to build the field’s capacity to hold ourselves and each other after death by suicide in our school communities with equity and liberation at the forefront.
This community of practice is a collaborative & brave space for school based or connected practitioners from across the country to come together to share insights, be present together and develop strategies and tools to share with your own networks relating to school suicide postvention, collective care, and healing.
2022-2023 Community of Practice: “School-Based Suicide Postvention from a Liberated Lens”
Building on last year’s School Suicide Postvention CoP, we are deepening our discourse and discussions by designing our space to hold an explicit focus on liberation and the inclusion of young people in our postvention policies, practices, conversations and decisions.
Each of the four CoP sessions focuses on a different question or need for participants to discuss, ideate and leverage collective wisdom to move conversations and practice forward regarding liberated school postvention. This taps into the post-crisis human need for agency, community and growth, while crafting meaning and learning for ourselves and each other.
Below are posted decks for each session. Recordings will not be posted to respect confidentiality of the Community of Practice to ensure all participants have a common grounding. If you have questions about this Community of Practice, please contact us.
Session 1- October 20, 2022
Session 2- January 19, 2023
Session 3- March 2, 2023
Session 4- May 4, 2023
2021-2022 Community of Practice: “Embracing and Expanding Postvention in / for Our Schools”
Our first year of this Community of Practice ran from September 2021-May 2022, and was open nationally to educators, youth advocates, mental health providers, crisis responders, school site leaders, and school mental health professionals to:
- Learn about suicide postvention- where the field is now, and where it can go (e.g., what does long term postvention look like? Should it even be called “postvention”?)
- Approach suicide postvention through grief sensitive, trauma informed, healing centered, and youth-focused work
- Collaboratively create content (and eventually a training) that could be used to train others that expands postvention beyond the first weeks after a death by suicide (containment) and for longer, more holistic impact (incorporating restorative circles, meaning making, and mourning)
- Center Black and Indigenous youth postvention needs, innovations, practices
- Provide an overview of important topics to support trauma-informed and culturally appropriate responses in school communities in suicide aftermath.
Below are posted decks for each session. Recordings will not be posted to respect confidentiality of the Community of Practice, with the exception of Session 1 to ensure all participants have a common grounding. If you have questions about this Community of Practice, please contact us.
Community of Practice Materials and Resources
2021 – Session 1: Community of Practice launch (Creating community)
2021 – Session 2: Language: The words we use, the stories we tell (what is postvention? what are language norms about suicide?)
A wonderful gem! Kris Bifulco put this in the chat: “Postvention does not end at the funeral”
2021 – Session 3: Lived experience in practice (Peer Presenter: Kelechi Ubozoh)
- Session 3 slide deck (PDF)
- Session 3 Guiding Questions (PDF)
- Kelechi’s writing on How to Have a Better Crisis
2021 – Session 4: Using restorative circles for school suicide postvention (Peer Presenter: Project Fleur-de-lis)
- Session 4 slide deck (PDF)
- Guidance for Suicide Postvention Circles by Project Fleur-de-lis and Mercy
- Discrimination and Suicide Prevention video by Project Fleur-de-lis
2021 – Session 5: Grief and stigma: How does this impact lived experience? (Peer Presenters: Petra Gutierrez & Amy Castellanos)
2021 – Session 6: Cultural humility and responsiveness: Meeting people where they are (Peer presenters: Adrianne Tennant, Canada Taylor Parker, Fredina Drye-Romero, & Kris Bifulco)
2021 – Session 7: Where have we been? Where are we headed? What do we need?
Community of Practice Co-Facilitators and Coordinators
Zeruiah Buchanan
Zeruiah Buchanan (she/her) has been the suicide prevention epidemiologist at AHCCCS and is transitioning into a new role as a doctoral student in the Epidemiology Department at University of Washington. Her former education includes psychology, Africana studies, community health education, epidemiology, and biostatistics. Her experience as a Black Woman in America and educational background has moved her to be an activist and advocate for marginalized communities that are often made invisible. It is a personal and professional goal for her to promote work surrounding mental health, health equity, and cultural humility. For the Embracing & Expanding Postvention in/for Our Schools Community of Practice, Zeruiah hopes to create a brave space for discussion and bidirectional learning.
Francesca Osuana
Francesca Osuana (she/her) is currently a Field Coach with the School Crisis Recovery and Renewal (SCRR) Project and joined the project in 2020 through her work with Trauma Transformed, where she focuses on trauma-informed systems and has collaborated with county behavioral health, local school districts, and public health departments, among others. Prior to her work with SCRR, Francesca was a school social worker and was regularly called in to support students dealing with suicidal ideation. Before becoming a social worker, she was a crisis hotline volunteer and worked under a psychiatric epidemiologist who focuses on suicide prevention. As part of the Embracing & Expanding Postvention in/for Our Schools Community of Practice, Francesca is committed to uplifting community wisdom, prioritizing racial equity and destigmatizing mental health.