#ZeroReasonsWhy

2022 NACo Achievement Award Winner

Johnson County, Kan., KS

Image of AchievementAwards_extension_bkg_0.jpg

About the Program

Category: Health (Best in Category)

Year: 2022

#ZeroReasonsWhy is a teen-led storytelling and community mobilization campaign working to prevent teen suicide and drive productive conversations that remove the stigma around mental health struggles. The campaign is driven by the guidance of a Teen Council comprised of students across various high schools in multiple school districts. This group identifies priorities, dorms strategies, and approves initiatives and tactics. To reduce the stigma of mental health and prevent teen suicide, the campaign produces and distributes multimedia content with an underlying educational purpose to build empathy. In addition, community mobilization efforts are focused on empowering teens and community members to take action toward change (e.g., community convenings, marches, rallies, etc.). The key to the strategy of the campaign is to promote collaboration and build community support under a common movement and effort. The plan helps the community view of mental health as being equal to physical health, as well as address systemic change across the county’s Mental Health Continuum of Care. The campaign believes that removing stigma will help increase help-seeking behaviors in teens, thus reducing the number of suicides in our community.

Tagged In: