Our State, Our Wellbeing

Partnering to Prevent Suicide in NC

A 12-month initiative to identify and implement strategies to improve mental health and reduce the number of suicides in North Carolina, launched by Carolina Across 100 and the UNC Suicide Prevention Institute.

Get Involved

Carolina Across 100 seeks applications from communities across North Carolina who are interested in working across sectors to prevent suicides and improve mental and behavioral health in the state. Teams will build partnerships within their communities and with each other to understand the impacts of suicide and related issues and design and implement strategies to respond. Communities that wish to apply for the program must submit an online application by July 28.

Is your community working to improve mental health and reduce suicide?

Gather your community partners and apply to become a collaborative in this 12-month program.

Participating communities will receive resources, deep expert and peer support, robust technical assistance, and a community toolkit to help implement and sustain this work.

Selected collaboratives will be instrumental in this statewide work making a deep local impact, building capacity across the state, and leveraging key resources.

Expanding Our Reach

Carolina Across 100 is eager to partner with each of North Carolina’s 100 counties over the course of this 5-year initiative. Our State, Our Wellbeing is the newest opportunity for communities to get involved. Encourage your community to submit an online application by July 28. Learn more and get your questions answered by attending an online information session on July 11 at 11:30 a.m. Register here for the information session!

FAQs

Suicide and broader issues related to mental and behavioral health affect every community in the state. Both the rate and number of suicides in North Carolina have risen over the years, but the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects have only exacerbated mental and behavioral health challenges.

As part of Carolina Across 100’s aim to create meaningful partnerships with communities across North Carolina to respond effectively to opportunities and challenges facing communities, our next program of work will address suicide prevention. We will partner with UNC’s Suicide Prevention Institute to develop and implement local strategies to improve mental and behavioral health and reduce the number of suicides.

10-12 communities will be selected to participate in this program of work. “Communities” may apply as individual county teams, a municipal-county partnership, or a multi-county collaborative.

Each participating community collaborative team will be composed of a 3-5 member core team and a larger community-wide team. Because each community is different, we expect that each collaborative’s composition will vary, and we do not require representation or participation from any one type of organization or agency. However, we expect that common types of stakeholders participating in this work will include healthcare providers, mental and behavioral health practitioners, local government agencies, school districts, institutions of higher education, employers, nonprofits and community organizations, faith-based institutions, individuals and family members with lived experience and other stakeholders as appropriate to your community.

Who can provide letters of support is not limited. There are no specific rules about who the letters can come from as long as there is a demonstration of commitment from the key stakeholders and a commitment of a core team.

Carolina Across 100 intends to provide a stipend for project managers for each community collaborative, but the amount has not yet been determined. All other resources provided through this program are available for free to communities.

Carolina Across 100 will prioritize counties that have not already participated in a previous program when selecting communities for participation in Our State, Our Wellbeing. However, participation in a previous Carolina Across 100 program is not disqualifying for communities who wish to apply for Our State, Our Wellbeing.

**If you or someone you know are thinking about suicide, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.**