About The Summit

For too long, suicide prevention has been based on fear and an over-medicalized framework; this approach has not been proven to be effective. The people who have the most knowledge of “what works” are the people who have lived through suicide, and yet these voices are often discounted. This Summit attempts to fix this gap.

The Living Beyond Suicide Summit is a collaborative event designed to foster learning, engage diverse voices of experience, and promote engagement in issues of suicide and suicide prevention in new ways. It will bring together diverse minds and hearts for co-education and provocative dialogue, with a focus on the intersections of suicide, social injustice, public health, human rights, and community empowerment in the context of 988.

The primary output of the Summit is a Blueprint for Change focused on solutions for and recommendations on how suicide prevention and postvention is understood and addressed, and a timetable for engaging communities that have not been heard.

This Blueprint for Change is in essence the 2.0 version of the 2014 “Way Forward” Policy Paper developed by the Suicide Attempt Survivors Task Force of the National Action Alliance.

Up to 170 individuals are anticipated at this crucial dialogue. It is intended to provide a welcoming space for all stakeholders engaged in the project of “addressing and understanding suicide.” This ‘open tent’ approach is driven by the desire for connection and community, including among those who have not previously been engaged in the movement, with a special focus on people who have been, or felt, marginalized in related convenings.

Registration and funding priorities will be geared to fostering inclusivity and engaging new leaders including people of color, ethnic cultural gender, and sexual minority individuals, various forms of lived experience, and others. Emphasis will be placed on shared experience and expertise, including multiple types of experience and ‘ways of knowing’. View the schedule here.