Truckee Meadows Community College

Truckee Meadows Community College (TMCC) is committed to creating a zero suicide campus culture. The purpose of the proposed suicide prevention project is to building an infrastructure to support and sustain prevention efforts and continuous care. We will do this by using cultural and ability-appropriate materials and evidence-based interventions to address the needs of our students including those in recovery, LGBTA, Veteran’s, those with disabilites, student leadership, campus leadership, campus police/Threat Assessment Team and culturally diverse individuals. We will provide layers of training from online resources to in-depth training for key campus personnel and student leaders.

Nevada has one of the highest rates of suicide in the nation. The unemployment rate in the state is higher than the national average. Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno, Nevada is the only community college in Washoe County and has a mission of providing open access for lifelong learning opportunities to improve the quality of life for our diverse community. The campus is non-residential, commuter, and due to its physical location is isolated from community resources.

Our specific program outcomes are to:

• Increase awareness of signs and symptoms of suicide to all audiences. We expect to train 300 students and staff annually with 900 trained over the grant period.
• Provide advanced training to those doing direct intervnetion (for example, campus Counselors, Disability Resource Center (DRC) staff, Student Activities and Leadership Coordinator, police department, student mentors) We will train 30 individuals annually with 90 trained over the course of the grant.
• Develop partnerships with coalitions and orgnaizations on campus to promote a) awareness, b) create an efficient response protocol and follow up with those who are suicidal and c) provide safe places giving support.
• Use technology (Simplicity Advocate, intake databases, social media, etc.) to craete a sustainabilite infrastructure to perform ongoing service once the grant is over.
• Increase collaboration with community agencies for better support and referral processes.