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A Look at Youth Life Cle 2024 Summer Camp Celebration
From a Community Conversation about suicide to teaching youth skills they use to battle negative emotions. A six day session with over twenty youth, which incorporated the use of art therapy, poetry writing, stress management, youth suicide prevention training (QPR), financial literacy and coping skills. To celebrating youth and their willingness to spend time caring about their mental health. Below are the pictures of a celebration for the first Youth Life Cle mini- summer camp program. The next step for these youth is be take the steps to become Youth Life Cle Champions.
The Youth Life Cle (YLC) programs are designed to equip youth with resilience, hope, independence, connection, wellness, healthy thinking, and meaning.
The Program
The purpose of the Youth Life Cle Program is to change the mindset around how suicide and mental illness is interpreted and believed by African-American youth and their parents or guardians. It is about addressing the generations of cultural stigmatized beliefs within communities which has caused mental illness and suicide to be stigmatized.
The Vision
The vision of Youth Life Cle (YLC) is to bring youth-focused awareness, as it pertains to the intervention and prevention of suicide.
The program is designed to empower youth to express their feelings and personal opinions openly, honestly, in a safe space without fear of judgment or retaliation, creating a healthy atmosphere, which helps to reduce stigma, while encouraging youth to seek help.
Our Goal
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Teach parents/trusted adults and youth to identify and respond to youth with suicidal thoughts/ideation with the intention of increasing communication and safety in allowing youth to feel comfortable talking to parents/trusted adults.
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Establishing a support system for parents and youth to prevent crisis as well as support during and after crisis.
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Establish clear community support and resources for supporting youth seeking care for suicidal ideation or other mental health concerns.
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Creating cross-agency coordination protocols with other organizations to support youth with suicidal thoughts/ideation.
Addressing the Stigma: Changing the Mindset
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Destigmatize getting help
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Normalize conversations about mental illness and suicide between youth and trusted adults
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Identify healthy coping skills
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Identifying and understanding the use of local resources and crisis lines
Create a Atmosphere for Change
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Identify the roles of stigma in mental illness, and suicide
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Identify ways to reduce and remove stigma
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Identifying myths and introduce truths about mental illness, and suicide.
BECOME A YOUTH LIFE CLE CHAMPION
The final outcome for Youth Life Cle is to have trained youth the importance of awareness, intervention and prevention while incorporating support systems, and breaking stigma. Participants of the program will attend a graduation ceremony, where they will be recognized as Youth Life Cle Champions in Cleveland, Ohio. They will be able to teach, and help their peers in crisis.
