West River Eagle

$3.6 million awarded to GPTCHB to fight youth suicide


RAPID CITY, SD – The GPTCHB’s Connecting With Our Youth Program (CWOY) has been awarded the Garrett Lee Smith (GLS) Suicide Prevention Grant worth $3.6 million over 5 years.

The CWOY program is operated by the GPTCHB and managed by Charles Sitting Bull, Director of Behavioral Health.

“We are very excited to have been selected for this grant and to have this great opportunity to work with our collaborating partners in the Rapid City area to help prevent suicide among our native youth,” said Sitting Bull.

The funding for the grant is distributed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and will be used to target Rapid City Area Native youth between the ages of 10 to 24 years old who are at risk of committing suicide.

Sitting Bull says that youth in the Rapid City Area have been struggling to navigate the epidemic of youth suicide that has impacted Indian Country, but he adds that the grant is supported by a coalition of healthcare professionals who are ready to take on the challenge.

“We have the largest number of collaborators ever in the history of our native community in Rapid City who we will be working together with on this grant,” said Sitting Bull.

CWOY began its work on June 30th, 2019 and will run through June of 2024.

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