The University Counseling Center will host a Suicide Prevention Walk on May 6, 2023. This event will take place in conjunction with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention/Out of the Darkness Campus Walks. This will be the first HBCU suicide walk in conjunction with the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention (AFSP). This is in spite of the majority of non-HBCU campuses hosting annual campus walks.

According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, suicide is the second leading cause of death for black/African Americans ages 15 to 24.

The University Counseling Center has worked duly to address factors that lead to high suicide rates within this community, but we need your help. We must destigmatize mental illness so that we can begin to have open dialogues as a community. Those individuals contemplating suicide should feel comfortable seeking and accepting help. It is the counseling center’s mission to ensure that no one in our community lacks insight into suicide prevention.

Please join us in becoming leaders in the battle to address this growing concern and with becoming the first HBCU to participate in this event. The Counseling Center is extremely proud that Morgan State University is set to be the leading school in actively confronting suicide in the African American community. We seek to make this inaugural event an annual occurrence that will continue to reiterate and expound our goal to prevent suicide by destigmatizing mental illness.

We need participants to perform, speak, and walk. We also need donations as the AFSP sets a minimal goal of $5,000. Any donation helps towards suicide prevention research. Please visit our website on the AFSP page, www.afsp.org/Morgan or contact me for further information. We want this event to be as big as the purpose. We promise that participants will not be disappointed in their experience.