Talk It Out, MI. Michigan Association for Suicide Prevention. c/o Joan Durling PO Box 96 Vernon, MI December 10, 2014 $70,000.

Transcription

1 Talk It Out, MI Michigan Association for Suicide Prevention c/o Joan Durling PO Box 96 Vernon, MI December 10, 2014 $70,000 Kira Poncin

2 2 Executive Summary Although many teenagers struggle with depression and eight percent of Michigan s teens attempt suicide, an online crisis chat specifically for teens in Michigan will provide an outlet to talk, get help, and to resolve the situation before it escalates to suicide. Our project will be more effective than a telephone hotline because the internet is where teenagers are most comfortable; 95 percent of today s teens use the internet. In order to create the crisis chat, we will need to purchase a website, recruit volunteers with backgrounds in psychology, and market our project so that Michigan teens and parents know it is available. To begin this project, we will hire a project coordinator and a web designer. The project coordinator will work 40 hours per week for the entirety of the project and the web designer will work 40 hours per week for the first three months. To recruit volunteers, we will rely on internet job sites and we will contact university students pursuing degrees in psychology. To evaluate the project s success, we will conduct two surveys and compare the suicide rates before and after the project has been running for several years. We intend to sustain our project by seeking annual grants from Michigan and national organizations as well as holding fundraisers and benefit dinners. Ideally, we will have the funds to create a smart phone application in the future. We have budgeted $54,150 for personnel, including the fringe benefits. Other than personnel costs include rent, utilities, a web domain, advertisements, and copying for a total of $6,719. Personnel and OTPS costs combined with an overhead of 15 percent bring the grand total to $70,000. The Michigan Association for Suicide Prevention (MASP) is a non-profit organization in Vernon, Michigan. MASP has promoted education, training, research, and community awareness throughout the state for more than 25 years. With your help, we can reduce the number of suicides and suicide attempts in Michigan. This grant of $70,000 is the first step to help us save lives.

3 3 Statement of Need The years of adolescence are a struggle for many teens. Changing, growing bodies often lead to changes in the chemicals in the brain. Many teens experience moody or depressive phases, but for some teens these feelings can be more than a passing phase. According to a survey conducted in 2011 by the Office of Adolescent Health, 26 percent of high school students in Michigan displayed depressive symptoms in the 12 months before the survey. 1 Among these teens with depressive symptoms, 16 percent of them seriously considered suicide and eight percent of them actually attempted it. 2 Teens throughout Michigan struggle with depression and suicidal thoughts. They often feel alone and that they don t have anyone they can talk to. Usually the problem is not discussed until after a suicide attempt, and in some cases it s too late. While many suicide telephone hotlines exist, they aren t always helpful because by the time a teen has planned suicide, they don t want to call for help. 3 Also, social anxiety can prevent a teen from making the call to a hotline. Our program will be more effective than a telephone hotline because the interaction is occurring where teenagers are most comfortable online. Teens will also feel more at ease addressing the problem with a level of anonymity and privacy. In a study done by Kristen Purcell of the Pew Research Internet Project, Purcell concluded that 95 percent of teens use the internet and nearly all households today have a computer (93 percent). 4 Because so many teens have an online presence, an online resource for Michigan teens to reach out to before their depression progresses to suicidal thoughts and tendencies could prevent many unnecessary deaths. There are already several suicide prevention chat rooms in existence. We plan to model our website similar to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Crisis Chat, but with an emphasis on Michigan teens. Because teen suicide is a problem throughout the nation, our program could become a model for other communities who desire a more direct and precise approach to the issue. Our program will be more fine-tuned to the needs of teens in Michigan, specifically by suggesting local counselors for teens wishing to seek further help and offering information on self-help and coping skills. Though teen suicide is a devastating problem, depression is treatable with counseling and medication, and suicide is always preventable. Our proposed crisis chat line can be the first step in suicide prevention for teens in Michigan and can become a great asset to the communities of Michigan

4 4 Project Description In this section we will discuss the objectives that we have for this project, the methods we will use to carry out this project, who will be on our staff, how we will evaluate our success, and how we plan to sustain our project in the future. Objectives Our three objectives with this project are to create an online crisis chat, recruit volunteers, and to market the website so that teens and parents know it is available to them. We hope to have the website fully functional and staffed within six months. The sooner we can begin helping teens, the better. Our first step in this process is to purchase the domain name talkitoutmi.org. This should cost between $8 and $10 dollars per year. To begin work on the website, we will hire a web designer to build and maintain the website. The web designer will be responsible for creating and maintaining an attractive, user friendly site that consists of a chat box and an organized compilation of self-help and coping skills information. The website construction should take no more than two to three months. Once the website construction has been started, the next step is to begin staffing counselors. To build our counseling staff, we will employ ten individuals, preferably with degrees and experience in teenage psychology and counseling. These will be primarily volunteer positions to begin with; potentially hired positions could be created once the website is established and successfully running for at least three years. Hiring will coincide with the website construction for the first three to four months of the program. We will begin taking applications on January 1, 2015 and we will continue to accept them until the end of February. As soon as we receive at least 20 applications we will begin the hiring process, which will consists of an initial interview via phone or in person, a second interview, and a references and background check. To market the site, we will use primarily online media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google. We will also place advertisements in newspapers and local restaurants throughout Michigan. We will rely on local news media to gain awareness of our website by scheduling interviews and press conferences. Methods We will purchase our domain name from GoDaddy.com as soon as the project kicks off. This should take almost no time at all. First we will hire a program coordinator. We will accept applications for this position by posting the opening on websites like Indeed.com and Monster.com. We will also rely on word of mouth and local postings. Then we will use the same methods to find a web designer. Similar to the application process for the program coordinator and web editor, we will recruit our counselors via the internet and local listings. We will also reach out to universities to recruit students currently pursuing psychology degrees. When hired, counselors will be trained on suicide prevention and suicide counseling, familiarized with the website, and taught to operate the chat portion of the site. The training process will cover how to identify the risk factors and warning signs of attempting suicide, how to communicate with and counsel teens, and how to create a safety plan.

5 5 Our marketing plan is to create Facebook and Twitter accounts with our domain name, Talk it Out, MI. We will also reach out to local news stations and MLive to get the word out about the website. The project coordinator will be responsible for maintaining the online campaign and for collaborating with local news. Staffing As previously discussed, we will hire a project coordinator and a web designer. These are potentially our only paid employees to start off with. The program coordinator will work an average of 40 hours per week and the web designer will work 40 hours per week for the first three months of the project. We have decided on a $40,320 salary for the program coordinator and a $3,000 payment for the web designer s three months of employment. Salaries for both of these employees are discussed in more detail in the budget section of this proposal. Our ten volunteers will be assigned as on-call counselors to the chat hotline. On-call counselors must be active on the website for the period of time assigned to them. This ensures that someone is available 24/7 if a teen in crisis logs on to talk. In total, we will have 12 employees working on this project until the website is completed; after the website is finished we will no longer need the services of the web designer. Evaluation A series of surveys will be done to evaluate our short term, medium term, and long term outcomes. In short term, we simply hope that teens will turn to the website when they are in need and that it will help them feel supported. To measure this, teens will be given an optional survey after they use the chat. Our medium term outcomes are: teens will learn to be open about their feelings, boost their self-esteem, and learn coping and self-help skills. Again, we will measure this by a survey. This survey will be listed on our website under the self-help and coping skills section. The survey will appear in quiz form. Our long term outcome is that there are fewer teen suicides in Michigan. We will measure this by comparing the number of teen suicides before our project and after the website has been in use for several years. Sustainability This will be an ongoing project. After the initial grants, we hope to secure annual grants with multiple organizations. After the first year of the project, we will seek organizations in Michigan and some nationally that are willing to partner with us to fund this project. We will also plan fundraisers and benefit dinners to gain awareness in the community and help support our cause. In the future we would also like to develop a smart phone application and a mobile format for our website so that teens can access the chat from their cell phones.

6 6 Budget Personnel Costs Participation Salary Notes Program Coordinator 12 months $40,320 A Web Designer 3 months $3,000 B Subtotal: $43,320 Fringe Benefits 25% $10,830 C Total Personnel Cost: $54,150 OTPS Cost Rent $3,600 D Utilities $720 E Web Domain $9 F Newspaper Ads $1,620 G Copying $770 H Subtotal of OTPS: $6,719 Personnel & OTPS $60,869 Project Overhead 15% $9,130 I GRAND TOTAL: $70,000 Notes A. The salary for the Program Coordinator is based on a 40 hour work week at $21 per hour. B. The web designer will be paid hourly, working 40 hours per week for three months. This equates to a $12.50 per hour wage. C. Our employees will receive the average percentage of fringe benefits, 25 percent. D. Rent is based on a 346 square foot office. E. Utilities are based on the average for the state of Michigan. F. Web domain purchased from GoDaddy.com. G. We have budgeted $1,620 to spend on placing advertisements in local newspapers throughout Michigan. We hope to reach as many regions of the state as possible with this amount. H. Copying is necessary to create pamphlets that will be placed in local businesses throughout the state. $770 at 10 cents per copy will give us 7,700 copies. I. Overhead is based on the average.

7 7 Organization Information The Michigan Association for Suicide Prevention (MASP) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that promotes education, training, research, and community awareness. MASP resides in Vernon, Michigan and has been helping communities in Michigan for over 25 years. Our mission statement is to reduce the number of suicides and attempts in the state by offering intervention training and supporting prevention plans, promote support for people who have lost loved ones to suicide, and reduce the stigma associated with suicide and mental illness. 5 Our leaders are Joan Durling, President and Crisis Center Co-Chair; Bill Phelps, Vice President; Larry Lewis, Secretary; and Judi Rosen-Davis, Treasurer. We also have a board and an advisory board. MASP holds events throughout the year. Most recently were the Be Aware 5k-Walk/Run for Suicide Prevention (October 18) and the International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day (November 22). With your generosity, our proposed online crisis chat can greatly help to reduce the number of suicides and suicide attempts among teenagers in Michigan by giving them an outlet to talk and to learn. You can become a part of this innovative and effective solution to the problem by supporting us with a grant of $70,000. Not only will your grant help to establish something great, your grant can help us save lives. 5