Body of Abstract: The Lifesustaining Practices Fellowship initiative is a three-year project aimed at increasing healing for Black, African, and African-American youth and youth-serving adults by focusing on ancestral ways of knowing and being. In the first phase of the project, 18 youth-serving adults participated in a yearlong fellowship program in which they were exposed to ancestral healing practices around suicide prevention and suicide loss. This included a particularly powerful healing circle with suicide loss survivors and suicide attempt survivors. The Fellows created toolkits to be used in Phase 2 of the project to facilitate culturally specific healing among the young people they serve. This project has multiple methods of research including measuring telomere length in Fellows' DNA, survey results correlated with telomere regrowth, and statewide student health survey results. This workshop will describe the methodology of the research, outline the Fellowship program's activities, and highlight the toolkits from the Fellows. This work was integrated into Oregon's statewide youth suicide prevention plan and continues to have support for future Phases of the project.
Lead researcher, Dr. Kenjus Watson and state youth suicide prevention manager, Jill Baker will discuss the power of partnering between culturally specific research teams, the use of culture as prevention, and support from state agencies.
Learning Objectives:
Upon completion, participants will be able to identify ways to increase culturally specific suicide prevention strategies for Black, African and African-American young people.
Upon completion, participants will be able to use the resources and toolkits provided to increase the likelihood of healing from racialized trauma for young people in their communities.
Upon completion, participants will be able to make the case for culturally specific suicide prevention initiatives in their state's suicide prevention plan.
