The Connect Project

The Connect Project intervenes at multiple community levels to reduce risk and enhance protective factors for youth suicide. The program divides its intervention in three components: gatekeeper training for all participants; discipline-specific training for professionals in 13 different disciplines (e.g., law enforcement, educators, clergy); and clear, evidence-supported protocols that provide an integrated approach to guide the response of individuals who recognize a youth as being at risk for suicide. These protocols attempt to raise awareness of factors that may indicate a heightened risk, prepare participants to connect with at-risk youth, and enhance the ability of advising professionals to reduce the risk of youth suicide. The program aims to provide specific action steps to reduce gaps between provider systems and coordinate community response and aims to integrate these methods in the institutional level to create a sustainable, long-lasting risk reduction for youth suicide.

The main component of the program, the gate-keeping, is implemented through a series of training sessions which emphasize the importance of seeking help at any potential risk and the coordination of efforts among all community levels. There is strict adherence to the prescribed program protocol, because by training a critical mass of individuals in a common procedure, Connect aims to increase the competency of individual and community preventative action. Connections are built, services are provided, and this coordinated effort helps to facilitate an integrated community of support that not only works to prevent youth suicide but also work to eliminate associated stigmas.

The Connect Project is a community-based youth suicide prevention program that works to develop a shared knowledge and understanding of suicide prevention within a community.

The Connect Project was evaluated using a case-crossover study design. The study gave pre- and post-test questionnaires to participants before and after the Connect Project’s intervention where participants were their own individual cases and controls. 300 adults and 204 high school students were surveyed in community-A, while 348 adults and 146 high school students were surveyed in community-B. Participants were evaluated with two sections of structured questions meant to assess knowledge, attitude and beliefs and a third section comprising of an open-ended question. The percentile scores (M) were calculated based on percent of questions correct (range was 0%-100%). For adults, there was an increase in youth suicide knowledge from before and after the Connect sessions, with M= 51.5% and M=86.6 percent, respectively (p<.001). Youth participants’ scores improved significantly, with M=72.25% before the session and M=92.66% afterwards (p<.001). For adults, average scores on the Preparedness to Help Scale increased from M=24.83% prior to the training to M=42.79% after the Connect sessions (p<.001). For youth scores, the sense that they would know what to do if they were faced with someone thought to be at risk for suicide increased from M=51.83% to M=82.52% for before and after the Connect sessions respectively (p<.001). In the open ended portion of the questionnaire, the proportion of youth who said they would seek adult assistance increased from 40% before the sessions to 56% after the trainings (X2=22.74, p<.001).