The focus of our Festival of Excellence Presentation is a Family Life Education course taught on suicide awareness and prevention which will address the need for the course itself, teach effective prevention strategies, discuss the common warning signs, and let the community know what they can do to help stop suicide based off of our research on the subject. According to the CDC, suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death for 15-24 year old Americans, and the 4th leading cause of death for adults ages 18-65. With suicide rates rising across the nation, more and more lives are being lost that could be prevented. Through this course we hope to educate those struggling, or know someone who is struggling, to see signs and know how to effectively overcome the issues. One that might attend will learn coping exercises and guidance taught through the different classes the course offers. Because this is such a high leading cause of death we want to get the information out to those that need it. In the past, We hope to raise awareness about how prevalent suicide is in our society and help to reduce it through classes on self-esteem, perfectionism vs. wholeness, mental health, and warning signs/resources.
