The session will outline the objectives of Project 2025, the areas of investment & strategies AFSP has set in order to meet those objectives, and how Project 2025 can be implemented across Vermont

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) has set a bold goal to reduce the annual suicide rate in the United States 20% by the year 2025. Through system dynamics modeling and guidance from leaders in suicide prevention research and practice, AFSP has identified four critical prevention areas that, through strategic investments and partnerships, can be targeted to significantly reduce the suicide rate and save more than 20,000 lives over five years. 

These four critical areas — firearms, healthcare systems, emergency departments, and correctional systems — each include a significant number of individuals at-risk for suicide and are therefore the settings in which we must intervene to save the most lives in the shortest amount of time. 

AFSP is rapidly expanding evidence-based solutions that can and will reduce the rate of suicide in this country. 

This session will outline both the strategies and the achievable benchmarks that AFSP has set to meet Project 2025, and how we in Vermont can implement these Project 2025 investments, partnerships, and programs to start bringing around real change in suicide prevention in our state.