Identify whether any suicide prevention coalitions or other related groups already exist in your community. Related groups might include mental health awareness coalitions, substance misuse prevention task forces, or community wellness groups. Your state suicide prevention leaders may be able to help connect you.

If a suicide prevention coalition exists in your community, meet with the leadership from the beginning. If other related groups exist in your community, meet with their leadership to discuss options for incorporating suicide prevention as a focus within the groups’ efforts. If no groups exist, or if existing ones are not able to include suicide prevention, take steps to launch a suicide prevention coalition. If a group already exists and is interested in incorporating suicide prevention, Steps 2 and 3 below still apply.

Ask the community suicide prevention leaders whom you recruited in Unity Key Area 1: Identifying Leaders and Partners and Building Their Capacity to commit to serving on a coalition. A key to successfully maintaining the group over time is to have many community leaders participate.

The size of the coalition should be determined by the needs, activities, and availability of community representatives. But it is also important to consider the types of people, organizations, and parts of the community that are missing among the group’s members and expand beyond the initial group of suicide prevention leaders. Be sure to include people with lived experience and those of different cultural backgrounds. Also make sure that people who identify as part of groups your data show are at higher risk are well represented and make efforts to authentically engage all members. Include staff from organizations that work with those key groups as well.

Since coalition membership will naturally ebb and flow over time, intentionally seek out new and different partners over the lifetime of the coalition to maintain its strength.

For additional guidance on engaging divers members in your coalition, see Fit Key Area 2: Involving Diverse Populations.

Coalitions will be most effective when members are given different options for possible involvement. Creating structures, roles, responsibilities, and expectations, if they do not already exist, will help to spread out ownership of suicide prevention activities across partners. Members may take on roles through a vote, assignment, or volunteering depending on what works best for your group.

A coalition often is supported or coordinated by a backbone organization, which can help with logistics and keeping people on track. This could be a health department, government agency, or private organization. 

Coalitions often include structures such as an executive committee and subcommittees focused on different activities, parts of the community, and populations. The executive committee can provide leadership roles for suicide prevention, including (but not limited to) a chair, a co-chair, a secretary, and a treasurer. Subcommittees require their own leaders and membership, which results in increased leadership opportunities and wider community member engagement in areas of specific interest.

For example, two coalition members—a school superintendent and a veteran—may not be the right fit for the executive committee, but they might chair the youth suicide prevention and the lethal means subcommittees. This kind of coalition setup helps members stay involved and gives them a sense of ownership over different pieces of suicide prevention (see the Integration element).

Additionally, members will serve most effectively if leadership roles have specific expectations and lengths of time. For example, those serving as subcommittee leads might be expected to host independent meetings with their subcommittee membership or carry out a specific action item from the community’s suicide prevention plan. Executive committee members might be asked to serve one-year terms and subcommittee leads to serve two year-terms or until achievement of their specific activity or goal.

Getting input from the leadership and members on the coalition structures, roles, responsibilities, and expectations will increase participation in the coalition.

Once a structure has been created, set regular meeting times for the coalition members. For example, meetings of all the coalition members could happen bimonthly or quarterly, and subcommittees and leadership committees could be asked to meet monthly.

During coalition meetings, make sure to provide ongoing chances for members to build knowledge and skills through trainings, presentations, and events. There should also be time for both subgroups and the leadership committee to provide updates on ongoing activities. Coalitions are ideal groups to lead, inform, and carry out the other six elements of Community-Led Suicide Prevention.

To help prevention efforts continue over the long term, make sure the coalition has a consistent team that will coordinate and guide activities now and in the future (see the Sustainability element).

For guidance on launching a community suicide prevention coalition or an advisory board, visit Community Tool Box: Coalition Building I: Starting a Coalition.