SC Communities of Care Initiative

Challenge

Persons impacted by trauma are at greater risk for suicidal thinking and behaviors. In addition, interventions and approaches to address mental and behavioral health issues too often focus on health care providers, leaving out key community stakeholders and champions.

In South Carolina, EDC partnered with the state’s Department of Mental Health on an innovative collaborative initiative called Communities of Care. This initiative engaged community organizations, schools, government and public safety agencies, and faith communities in suicide prevention. Funded by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation of South Carolina, this initiative supported communities in applying trauma-informed approaches to strengthen the safety net for South Carolinians across the 10 counties with the highest suicide rates in the state.

Key Activities

EDC’s work focused on the following:

• Promoted thought leadership, raised awareness, and built skills to improve communities’ use of comprehensive trauma-informed approaches to suicide prevention
• Designed customized and context-specific needs assessment and work plan tools to guide organizations in implementing and sustaining the initiative
• Provided trainings and train-the-trainer workshops on trauma-informed approaches and suicide prevention for community, education, faith-based, and government leaders
• Developed and co-led learning collaboratives on key topics, including applying trauma-specific skills when working with adolescents

Our Impact

• Reached thousands of community members across 10 counties in South Carolina
• Trained 91 community-based trainers in Trauma-Informed Suicide Prevention: Expanding the Support System for Adults and 60 community based-trainers in Trauma-Informed Suicide Prevention: Expanding the Support System for Adolescents
• Led five-webinars focused on Trauma-Informed Suicide Prevention engaging over 300 participants
• Trained, consulted, or provided support to community-based organizations in trauma-informed suicide prevention approaches and processes