By Derek Cornet

Roots of Hope project aims to reduce northern suicides

May 25, 2018 | 5:00 PM

Organizers of a community suicide prevention project called Roots of Hope are looking for residents of the tri-community to join their initiative.

A public meeting was held Wednesday at the Jonas Roberts Memorial Community Centre to introduce the project to interested residents in the area. Led by the Mental Health Commission of Canada and local co-ordinator Cathy Wheaton, Roots of Hope is meant to find effective suicide prevention activities for the region

“It’s a five-year project,” she said. “Within the five-year demonstration project timeline, there’s a planning phase that occurs usually in the first year. Then we begin to implement new activities, services and different kind of initiatives.”

There are currently two other Roots of Hope projects underway in Canada; one is in New Brunswick and the other in Newfoundland and Labrador. The demographics and the issues in those places are much different than La Ronge, Wheaton noted, because those projects are aimed at preventing suicide among older Caucasian men.

Wheaton said forming two new committees is an integral part of Roots of Hope, and volunteers are needed. While young people are encouraged to join the youth committee, she said other interested residents can help out by serving on the community committee. Wheaton said those people will create a prioritized action plan to narrow down and implement the ideas they think will work best. 

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“It’s more than new programs and services; it’s testing them out at the same time,” she said, adding an absence of youth engagement was identified during the region’s recent suicide crisis.

derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno