By Annie Rezac | Executive Director
Thanks to the generous support of our donors, Unsilence has been able to bring tough conversations of mental health and suicide to more than 30 schools, training nearly 100 educators since March 2018. Using the interactive feature, TOMORROW, Unsilence has engaged educators and students in the critical conversations of how suicide is silenced personally, culturally, and institutionally, and why it is so important to find creative solutions to unsilencing suicide at every level.
Recent statistics released by the Center for Disease Control state that suicide rates in the U.S. have increased more than 25% since 1999. Specifically, the rate for women has increased by 45% from 1999 to 2014. This data along with the latest celebrity deaths by suicide have brought the urgency of this topic back into the spotlight. It is critical that we continue having deep and meaningful conversations about mental health and suicide in order to unpack the collective trauma happening in our society.
On May 20, 2018, Unsilence hosted a Teen Leadership Workshop attended by youth from across the city. The focus was on unsilencing taboo issues of human rights. The most talked about issue during the workshop was mental health and suicide. One student stated, "Suicide is a topic that we should talk about but we don’t talk about because we’re afraid of it. Or like…we don’t know how. And so like, the fact that we have a voice here, it matters because sometimes we don’t always have a voice."
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