Roots of Hope Case Studies – Spotlight on Stony Plain, Alberta

THE STONY PLAIN EARLY ADOPTER COMMUNITY

Stony Plain is part of a tri-region area (with Spruce Grove and Parkland County) that lies west of Edmonton and has a combined population of about 85,500. Our Roots of Hope team currently includes representatives from the RCMP, the Victim Services Society, Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation, Paul First Nation, the Bredin Centre for Career Advancement, the Evergreen Catholic School Division, Spruce Grove Family and Community Support Services, and a person with lived and living experience. Our identified priority populations include men, youth, Indigenous peoples, and members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community.

COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS

1. Public Awareness: The community provided many awareness events and activities over the last year, including Self-Injury Awareness Day, the Canadian Mental Health Association Mental Health Week, the Buddy Up campaign, and Suicide Awareness Week.

2. Training and Networks: Mental Health First Aid, safeTALK, and QPR Institute training have all been offered throughout this past year, free of charge to residents. We also engaged with local pharmacies in the community, connecting them to the Centre for Suicide Prevention’s pharmacy tools and resources.

3. Specialized Supports: We have been organizing and preparing to implement the Skills for Safer Living program in our community, which will start in 2023. This is a suicide-intervention group both for youth who have experienced suicide ideation or attempted suicide and their caregivers.

COMMUNITY IMPACT

Increasing community awareness and participation is critical to the further development of our action plan, but the awareness events and activities have been a great start and show that the community appreciated these types of initiatives. There has been a shift of perspective within our close municipalities about the importance of collaboration and of coming together as an entire community to address service gaps and offer specialized supports.

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