| Last updated on March 25, 2008 |
The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) is the only national not-for-profit organization exclusively dedicated to understanding and preventing suicide through research and education, and to reaching out to people with mood disorders and those affected by suicide.
Description:
AFSP sponsors a National Survivors of Suicide Day conference each Saturday before Thanksgiving with local conferences connected electronically to the national conference. AFSP offers the Survivor E-network over its website and an excellent survivor support group facilitator training program (April 2008 in Portland, Maine.)
AFSP funds grants to help major medical centers and individual scientists pursue promising ares of research. In 2006, it awarded a record $2 million.
AFSP supports its website, www.afsp.org, providing information for survivors, medical professionals and the public on a 24/7 basis.
AFSP's fundraising events, the Overnight Out of the Darkness Walks (this year on June 9-10, 2007 in New York City) and the Out of The Darkness Community Walks (each autumn in communities throughout the country) has raised over $2.4 million for suicide prevention, education and research, bringing awareness of the toll depression and suicide take on society.
AFSP played an important role in getting the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act passed into law, allotting $82 million over 3 years to fund grants needed to develop and expand youth suicide prevention and intervention programs.
AFSP began distributes its film, "The Truth about Suicide: Real Stories of Depression in College," to colleges and universities. AFSP has taken a stand on the use of antidepressant medications. AFSP is cosponsoring the Developing Centers on Interventions for the Prevention of Suicide producing a network of four collaborative centers throughout the U.S. for suicide prevention and research. AFSP along with the Jed Foundation has successfully introduced the College Screening Initiative which is successfully being implemented at Emory, the University of Atlanta and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Through its new Survivor Outreach Program, AFSP is training survivors who are interested in mentoring others who have more recently been affected by suicide. Along with the Annenberg Public Policy Center AFSP disseminates the nationally recognized recommendations for the media, in its "Reporting on Suicide: Recommendations for the Media, circulates its newsletter, Lifesavers, to a readership of over 50,000; distributes a free financial guide for the recently bereaved in partnership with the National Endowment for Financial Education; publishes "Surviving a Suicide Loss: A Resource and Healing Guide, and hosts a spectacular Awards Dinner each May in New York City.
History:
AFSP was founded in 1987 by concerned scientists, business and community leaders and survivors of suicide in an effort to support the research and education needed to prevent suicide. They believed that only a combined effort would make it possible to fund the research necessary for progress in the prevention of suicide. The founders were concerned with the alarming rise in youth suicide over the past four decades. During that period the suicide of young men had tripled; that of young women had doubled, and it became the second major cause of death among high school and college students. And, suicide was even more frequent among older people, the highest rates being in men over 50. The national headquarters is located at 120 Wall Street in New York City and there are field offices throughout the country, including the Maine chapter whose Area Director is Rhoda Freeman.
Contact people:
Office fax number: (207) 899-1161
Address:
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P.O. Box 7766
Portland, ME 04112 |
Web Site: http://www.afsp.org
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