Hello! We hope you have had a lovely winter and are enjoying the warmer weather and longer days. We certainly are!

It’s been a calm and purposeful winter for our alliance. Below you’ll find a few details of our winter activities and some fun news about work in process & upcoming activities in chronological order since we last wrote.

Thanks to the generosity of Western Colorado Community Foundation and CDPHE Office of Suicide Prevention, Sources of Strength based community projects continue to grow throughout the Mesa County.

Postvention Alliance founders Darrell & Erica Kitzman braved the December cold to join in the Fruita Parade of Lights with Fruita LGBTQ+ Youth Group. Afterwards everyone got together at a Sources of Strength themed holiday party. The parents, teens, and allies involved in FLYG are working hard to make their group inclusive and safe for everyone.

Inspired by the growth of amazing statewide advocacy in postvention work, Sandra Eisenberg has coauthored a series of articles with other Colorado postvention advocates. We would like to thank Dan West at the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel for supporting this effort to offer essential local, regional, and state resources to survivors.

The articles appeared in the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel since our last newsletter.
Postvention is Palliative
Postvention: A Process of Recuperation
Monitoring Attempt Survivors

Stay tuned for more upcoming articles!

Tabling with Action is Safer during Mutual Aid Tuesday distribution was a wonderful collaboration and learning experience. Shannon Robinson, who serves as our harm reduction advisor, calls this work Healing Justice and agree with her! Spending a couple of hours every other week during the winter was encouraging and inspiring. It was delightful to serve people who took such care in creating tiny relaxation jars to and who discussed the many ways they would use their Sources of Strength coloring pages. It was such fun to blow bubbles with adults and children alike.

Sneak peak of the Youth Vision Spring 2022 mural project which is Downtown GJ’s newest work of public art! Our local youth postvention activists are fortunate to have support from the Grand Junction Commission on Arts and Culture and the Western Colorado Community Foundation. Over the next few weekends, keep an eye out for the Youth Vision mural team. They will be planning, painting, and filming their work on Sunday afternoons between March 27 and April 10. Please watch for #WeHaveTheMic on TikTok and other social media between now and July! We want to thank ANB Bank for donating such a fine “canvas,” and also recognize Will Campbell TV, Harmony Creations, Stray Wild, Juliá Peréz-Chavéz, and the BAM! team for their awesome support and assistance.

We are all so excited, relieved, grateful, hopeful, and supportive of the brand new Colorado State Suicide Prevention Commission Postvention Committee! This could only have happened through the persistent and continued advocacy of multiple youth groups on the Western Slope and to the West Slope Youth Voice interns for drafting HB21-1119. It was lovely to hear state leaders acknowledge our local youth during the meeting introductions! We are thrilled that Julissa Soto is one of the Postvention Committee’s leaders because she supports the Clifton Community.

If you are interested in serving on the state postvention committee, please contact the Colorado Suicide Prevention Commissioner HERE, or if you’d just like to follow along as the committee develops you can do so HERE.

Please stop by the booth during Cinco de Mayo & say hello to newlyweds Caroline Valdez & Blanca Lerma! If you’ve never had the pleasure to meet Jr. Bueno’s family, they are long time postvention workers. As you can see in Blanca’s recent interview, even when they’re working their day jobs they practice solid community #postvention advocacy.

While we are relaying good news, board member Colin Wilhelm and his wife Erin Richards-Wilhelm are having a baby next month! If you aren’t familiar with Colin, he’s well into his second year as an alliance board member and is a devoted advocate for people who are committed to recovering from alcoholism.

And some sad-for-us but happy-for-them news, Darrell has just begun his last quarter as a middle school teacher, after which he and Erica are headed to Europe for a few months. They remain committed to our alliance and will be active via virtual meetings and planning for a long time. We are definitely hoping for a Kitzman travel vlog.

Wishing you a fabulous springtime!

Welcoming Longer Days