Leestown Middle School Sources of Strength

Sources of Strength (SOS) is a student-centered strengths-based suicide prevention project. Source’s goal is to connect peers and caring adults in order to prevent suicide and promote an environment of health and wellbeing. We are happy to highlight Leestown middle school in implementing this evidence-based suicide prevention program in their school.

Leestown SOS has 4 adult advisors and 60 peer leaders currently.  This is their 3^rd year providing the program at Leestown Middle.  We have had 3 campaigns, Getting the Word Out about our new and returning peer leaders, Thankfulness Campaign.  Thankfulness Journal is a campaign that students did throughout the month of November and wrote down things they are thankful for during the month for 21 days.  The journals were collected on December 1^st and every student that completed the journal got a prize!  Our students have been on the morning news discussing Sources of Strength and the Thankfulness Journals several times this year.

Leestown did another campaign this past month “Who is your trusted Adult?” Also, in January the Sources team got to go to Children’s Advocacy Day in Frankfort on January 24^th to advocate for Sources of Strength.  It is sponsored by Kentucky Youth Advocates.  Currently, Leestown SOS will have the Kindness Challenge where we will challenge our students to break out record of kindness referrals of 2,154 from last year.  Then in March/April Leestown SOS will have Mental Health Week where they will remind everyone about the SOS wheel and how to deal with the big three feelings of anger, anxiety and sadness.

   Sources of Strength (SOS)- Is a upstream suicide prevention program, that majority focuses hope, help and strengths. Sources as the program is mostly focused on strength. The 8 strengths (Sources of strength wheel) that SOS focuses on family support, positive friends, mentors’ healthy activities, generosity, spirituality, Physical health, and mental health.

We want to thank Leestown and many other schools in our community who have implemented Sources of Strength in their schools and efforts to build a strength-based community for suicide prevention.

If interested in learning more about sources of strength or implementing this program in your school, please contact Prevention specialist Lain Hager via email (Lain.hager@newvista.org)