The Sarnia Lambton Suicide Prevention Committee is scrambling to come up with other sources of funding after its application with the United Way was denied for the upcoming fiscal year.
Co-chair Sharon Berry Ross said they were told homelessness has been identified as a crisis and the $20,000 they've received to hire a coordinator for the past eight years was redirected to assist and support the issue.
"We get that, but suicide prevention is part of that big globe of mental health issues and really it's all linked together," said Berry Ross. "The issue of suicide, addictions, mental health, homelessness... all of those things are part of the community network that really needs to be addressed."
Berry Ross said the coordinator position is critical to the committee.
"For example there's training called safeTALK: Suicide Alertness for Everyone, it's a three hour training, we've trained about 3,000 people across the community, but that requires somebody to coordinate a lot of things. People signing up, there's certificates involved," she said. "We also undertook some grant writing for specific things. For example, the Suicide Loss Group, we run eight week sessions. There's community partners like the Neurofeedback Group and Side By Side runs, which is a monthly support group."
Berry Ross said the Suicide Prevention Committee also advocates, networks and helps other groups with advertising.
"Talk For Tamara, Project Mental Wellness, The Mike Harvey Foundation. Those are groups often with people with lived experience who have decided they really want to try and make a difference. So, we have very close relationships with those folks," she said.
Berry Ross said they'll no longer be in a position to pay their coordinator by the end of June.
"So, we're reaching out to the community to see if we can try to piece this together and move forward," she said. "We're hoping somewhere in the community there will be somebody to help specifically with that coordinator position."
Anyone interested in assisting can reach the committee at slsuicideprevention@gmail.com
Berry Ross said the United Way has acknowledged the work they've been doing, encouraged them to reapply in the future, and provided a letter of support.