October Newsletter

Promoting ALR on your campus!

Hopefully everyone is getting through the mid-semester hump and enjoying the cool weather! As we all know, promoting Ask Listen Refer on our campuses is an important (but difficult) feat. So, what are some ways that other ALR campuses have had success? 1. Discussing the importance of Ask Listen Refer with professors and advisers to encourage them to promote (or require) the program among their students. 2. Introduce the program to new & returning students by attending popular campus-wide events. 3. Use promotional items to persuade students to take the program (i.e. “Take this super cool informative program, and get awesome pens/highlighters/post-it notes!”)

Speaking of promotional items…

Per usual, we have an array of promotional items. Along with the pens, post-it notes, magnets (“Have you ever been concerned about someone’s mental health?”) and highlighters, don’t forget your school can receive brochures or posters with your specific information on them!

How many Students, Faculty and Staff have taken ALR on your campus?

In the last month, 259 people have taken ALR! A special congratulations goes to Lincoln University, who has had 80 people take it since September!Keep up the good work!

Click  here to see how many people from YOUR school have taken ALR!

Additional Resources

Check out the Trevor Project website! It has a ton of information on suicide facts, youth looking for support, and much more! http://www.thetrevorproject.org/suicide-resources/suicidal-signs

September Updates

ALR Promo Items Available Now!

Now that school is back in full swing, students are in study mode. Instead of those boring old school supplies, why not give your students Ask Listen Refer Pens, Highlighters or Post-It Notes?  We have plenty of supplies in stock (espeically of post-it notes and pens). Also, keep in mind that you can get school specific items (such as posters, brochures, etc). All of these are wonderful ways to get the word about Ask Listen Refer out on your campus! If you are interested in ordering any items, please contact Rachel at rclvf2@mail.missouri.edu.

How many Students, Faculty and Staff have taken ALR on your campus?

In the last month, 319 people have taken ALR! Great job everyone! Keep in mind that the more people we can get to take this program, the better.

Additional Resources

Check out http://www.save.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewPage&page_id=1! It’s a website that gives extra resources on suicide, suicide myths, and warning signs!

August Updates

Order Your Promo Items Now!

Hopefully everyone’s summer is wrapping up well, and there is a buzz in the air for the new school year! With all of the fresh faces on campus, remember that Ask Listen Refer promotional items are great giveaways! We have lots of pens available (which everybody needs). The pens have the ALR website address on them, so they would be helpful in introducing your students to the program. Additionally, remember that we can personalize posters specific to your school for you to hang around campus, residential halls, etc. If you’re interested in ordering any promotional items, please email Rachel at rclvf2@mail.missouri.edu.

How many students, faculty and staff have taken ALR on your campus?

Great job, everyone! Even though it is summer, in the last month, 125 people have taken Ask Listen Refer. We love to see those numbers! Click Here to see how many people from your school have taken ALR.

Additional Resources

Having additional resources is always helpful. http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/GetHelp/ResourcesAndLinks.aspx is a great website to use for extra information. This website gives a variety of suicide prevention organizations and peer support organizations to become familiar with.

July Updates

Ask Listen Refer Promotional Items Available!

Many of our promotional Ask Listen Refer items are currently in stock! This includes 2011 calendars, brochures, highlighters, magnets with the phrase “Have you ever been concerned about someone’s mental health?” and pens (we have lots of pens!) These are all great items to hand out to parents and incoming freshman visiting campus. These promotional items can be an especially  helpful  mental health resource for faculty, students and parents. Please email Joan at mastersj@missouri.edu if you are interested in ordering any of these items!

More Resources

In the meantime, http://www.jedfoundation.org/ is an interesting website to look at. It has resources for parents, students, campus professionals and supporters of suicide prevention. This website has free webinars, videos for students, and news about suicide and mental illness throughout the country.

How many students, faculty and staff have taken ALR on your campus?

Click Here to see how many people have particiapted in Ask Listen Refer from your campus!

Great job to all the campuses with increasing numbers for Ask Listen Refer! In the last month, 120 people have taken ALR, so let’s keep up the good work!

June Updates

Ask Listen Refer promotional items

Magnets with the text “Have you ever been concerned about someone’s mental health?” and information about Ask Listen Refer have been reordered and should arrive shortly.  Many schools are distributing these to parents during summer orientation events, so please email Sarah at smb5f5@mail.missouri.edu if you would like to order some for your upcoming events.  The usual items – 2011 calendars and calendar magnets, pens, highlighters and post-its – are also available.

More resources for parents

Here’s a good resource to check-out if you haven’t already.  It contains a lot of great information for both students and parents regarding emotional health in college.  The link below goes directly to resources to download for parents, including a “nuts-to-bolts guide to managing the emotional health transition from high school to college.”

http://www.transitionyear.org/parent/downloads.php

How many students, faculty and staff have taken ALR on your campus?

May Updates

Hello!  I hope everyone’s spring semester is wrapping up well!  With summer ahead, it’s a good time to point out the option for parents to take Ask Listen Refer.  While we’ve typically focused on marketing the program to students, faculty and staff, we encourage you to promote ALR to parents this summer during your activities for incoming students.  Here are some ideas…

1. Parents get a lot of informational handouts  in the summer, so we’re putting together a ALR magnet for parents to keep handy on the fridge.  These aren’t available quite yet, but feel free to email Sarah (smb5f5@mail.missouri.edu) if you’d be interested in ordering some.  We also have a lot of ALR magnet calendars still available, so consider giving these away to parents as well.

2. Include an article about Ask Listen Refer in a newsletter for parents.  Here’s an example:

Heading: Emotional Health and College:  Know the Warning Signs of Depression and Suicide

Body:  As a college student, your son or daughter faces unique pressures.  Leaving home, high academic standards, economic pressure, and stress are all a part of the transition to college life.  These demands may prompt feelings of depression or thoughts of self-harm.  The [YOUR INSTITUTION] Suicide Prevention Training Program is designed to help you recognize the risk factors and warning signs of suicide and respond to and get help for a son or daughter at risk.  This 15-20 minute interactive training program can be found at [YOUR ALR WEB ADDRESS].  If you are concerned about your son or daughter or want to become more knowledgeable about the risk factors and warning signs of suicide, visit [YOUR ALR WEB ADDRESS] for more information.

3. Think creatively about how you can incorporate Ask Listen Refer into existing summer activities for incoming students and parents.  For example, consider including an ALR role play into a skit performed at a summer welcome event.

How many students, faculty and staff have taken ALR on your campus?

For the third month in a row, there was a large increase in the number of Ask Listen Refer participants throughout the state!  The largest increases were seen at University of Missouri and UMKC – keep up the good work!

April Updates

This was a fantastic month for Ask Listen Refer in Missouri – over 3,000 students, faculty and staff across the state have now taken ALR!  Overall, there was an increase of 408 participants across all campuses.  A special congratulations to UMKC, Maryville University, and Evangel University – these campuses all did an amazing job promoting ALR over the past month.  If you get a chance, it would be great if you could leave a comment below and share your success secrets with everyone!

How many students, faculty and staff have taken ALR on your campus?

Ask Listen Refer promotional items are still available!

We just got a new shipment of promotional materials that are ready to be distributed to your campus.  Available items include highlighters, post-its, and a very limited amount of pens.  We also have 2011 calendars and magnet calendars (lots of magnet calendars!) that need to be distributed before 2011 calendars have no use.  Please email Sarah at smb5f5@mail.missouri.edu and let her know which items you’d like!