Suicide has affected everyone in some way. While some people are comfortable asking for help and finding resources, others might not be. They don’t know who to turn to for help when needing it. Hope Squad was created to be that resource for anyone who needs support while possibly navigating through a difficult situation
Over the past few years, the Boise school district has continuously ramped up its efforts to talk about mental health and support those needing it. A new thing at some Boise schools this year was the Hope Squad.
Hope Squad is a peer-based support program hoping to prevent suicide and promote mental health awareness. In 1992 two researchers, John Kalafat and Maurice Elias investigated how High school students responded after talking and learning about suicide. A survey said only 25% of those students would confide in a trusting adult about a peer’s suicide risk. This led a fellow researcher, Dr. Hudnall, and his team to create the K-12 school-based “peer-to-peer” suicide prevention program. This program has now involved over 47 states and 2,000 schools in Canada.
In our school, some students were chosen by peers as kind, good listeners, trustworthy, and non-judgemental and that is who is on the Hope Squad. They are trained to see the signs if a fellow student is struggling, listen and talk about what they need, and find the resources that they need if necessary. Their mission and goal is “to foster human connection, community, and hope. The approach to that is elevating mental well-being through peer-to-peer suicide prevention programming.”
In our school the Hope Squad were the ones who put on the Chalk the Walk, a chalk activity to help spread positivity around the school, and give out notes to students as they finished and walked out of PSAT rooms. They are working hard to do more events and activities to spread awareness.
The Hope Squad has already worked and been in contact with Bronco Bold (a student-athlete initiative that works to champion a message of hope, help, and resiliency), and our school’s Student Council. They hope to work with other peer mentors, learn what they can do differently, and learn from other Hope Squad members.
Why is this different from just going to a counselor? The Hope Squad said “This means something to us personally”, and “We are invested in our community and our friends. We are in this class because we all know people who have been through mental health struggles”.
So know this, there are people to help you. The Hope Squad is an amazing group of people who are glad to be helping and want to be there for the BHS students. If you or someone you know needs help but do not know what to do, go to the Hope Squad, this is what they were trained to do, help people.
