Gold Award Girl Scout Brings Awareness to Suicide Postvention
WICHITA, Kan. — Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland congratulates Samantha P. for becoming a Gold Award Girl Scout, a designation she earned by spreading awareness about suicide postvention and providing information and educational materials to first responders and funeral homes to pass along to affected families.
The Gold Award is the mark of the truly remarkable — earned by a high school Girl Scout who works to address an issue she’s passionate about in a way that produces meaningful and lasting change. Whether it’s on a local, national, or global level, Gold Award Girl Scouts provide innovative solutions to significant challenges.
“Gold Award Girl Scouts don’t just change the world for the better, they change it for good — and Samantha embodies everything this achievement stands for," said Rolinda Sample, chief executive officer of Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland. “Samantha addressed an issue that’s important to her — suicide postvention awareness and education.”
After being personally affected by the suicide of a relative, Samantha realized that many first responders and funeral homes are not properly educated in communicating with survivors of suicide loss.
Samantha trained with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention before starting her outreach so she could be well-versed and able to properly educate others. After training, she teamed up with the Sedgwick County Suicide Prevention Coalition as the outreach person to the funeral homes and first responders so they could begin their education. Samantha provided each contact with copies of the “Survivors of Suicide” handbook created by the coalition.
In total, she reached out to all funeral homes in Sedgwick County as well as all first responders – Wichita Police Department, Emergency Medical Services, Wichita Fire Department, Sedgwick County Fire Department, Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office and the Robert J. Dole VA Medical Center. This culminated in the distribution of 858 English handbooks and 585 Spanish handbooks for each facility to handout when needed. Additionally, Samantha took the opportunity to meet with members of each group to provide education and training on how to communicate with survivors when they are personally interacting with them.
“While I think my project was successful, it also comes with great sadness because a life was lost, but the reason I am doing this is to hopefully save another life.” Samantha said. “I hope this information helps those affected by suicide.”
