MCSP believes that social justice work is suicide prevention. Only by acknowledging and examining inequity and systems of oppression will we be able to address the root causes of health disparities, resulting in better physical and mental health outcomes for communities and individuals who are often underreached and underserved by ‘mainstream’ suicide prevention efforts.
Equity is at the forefront of all our work. We are committed to doing the work necessary to incorporate social justice and equity into every level of the organization.
Contact: MCSPAllianceforEquity@gmail.com
MCSP Alliance for Equity
MCSP Alliance for Equity is comprised of the People of Color Caucus and the White Ally Caucus. The two groups mostly work together (occasionally separating into affinity groups for certain conversations) to inform the Coalition’s priorities and work and to ensure that the MCSP is actively moving toward becoming more socially just and equitable.
The Alliance for Equity informs the work of the coalition at all levels, from the Executive Committee to the General Membership, through providing feedback on things like MCSP’s priority areas and the revised version of the Statewide Strategic Plan for Suicide Prevention
We also conduct workshops, presentations and webinars on social justice and equity. Our Widening the Lens Toolkit, along with several webinars we have done for DPH, is available as a resource on our here
Contact for People of Color Caucus: Pata Suyemoto at kotoridesigns@gmail.com
Contact for White Ally Caucus: Jennifer Kelliher at jkelliher@masspreventssuicide.org
Download the Widening the Lens Toolkit
Webinars
Widening the Lens Toolkit Webinar 101
This webinar is the first in a series sponsored by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Suicide Prevention Program to address racial equity and social justice in suicide prevention with a focus on making organizations more anti-racist and equitable.
Weaving a Tapestry: Understanding the role of story in suicide prevention
This webinar, sponsored by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Suicide Prevention Program, will consider the intersection between intergenerational mental illness and traumatic racism as experienced by Dr. Suyemoto and her family. Growing up with mental illness on both sides of her family and having a diagnosis of major depression and complex PTSD herself, Dr. Suyemoto understands what it means to be a suicide attempt survivor, a person with lived experience, and an impacted family member simultaneously. In addition, her experience with mental illness has also been impacted by her cultural perspective and experience as a Japanese American woman, whose father was imprisoned in an internment camp during WWII. She will discuss the impact of these issues across three generations, as she explores how the experience of telling and hearing stories can heal and empower individuals and communities, as well as develop cultural humility in suicide prevention.
Exploring the Meanings and Impact of Different Manifestations of Racism in Suicide Prevention
This continuation of our webinar series sponsored by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Suicide Prevention Program focuses on racism. Racism is commonly understood as overt, intentional and interpersonal. In reality, there are a multiplicity of manifestations of racism, from the interpersonal to the structural to the systemic, as well as different forms of racism including covert, overt, aversive and micro-aggressions. Understanding racism as a social determinant of health is crucial in understanding and providing culturally relevant resources for BIPOC communities and individuals and must be a part of all of our suicide prevention efforts, and understanding these manifestations and the ways in which racism functions on many levels enables us to address racism in all its complexity and truly work toward equity in suicide prevention. This webinar will provide possible actions and ways of working toward restorative justice in order to further participants’ equity work.
Widening the Lens: Oppression Theory, Intersectionality, and BIPOC Identity
This webinar examines the impact that oppression theory, intersectionality, and BIOC Identity has on the field of suicidology.