Characteristics of At-Risk Students
Alexandra Jadovski
Sunday, Nov. 21, 2010

There are many at-risk students in the United States today. Many come from broken homes or don’t have homes at all. Those that are most at-risk though, are the students who are considering or have attempted suicide. Recently, new programs have sprung up to target these students and see to it that they are better able to handle stresses in their lives. One such program is called Sources of Strength and is in place in high schools around NYS. Students in high school who are found to be at-risk for suicide may have trouble at home, but they may also be troubled psychologically or socially outcaste for one reason or another. A suicidal student may be unable to handle stressful situations that normally others can, like breaking up with a boy/girlfriend. These students are at-risk of losing their lives unless aided by an outer force that shows them another way or stops them altogether. Help for these students have mainly been medical. Psychiatrists and psychologists or social workers would be placed in schools to evaluate students and care for those found to be at-risk for suicide. The care extended was normally in the form of either one-on-one counseling or group-counseling which often teenagers at-risk are deterred from and are unwilling to fully participate of their free will. This may lead, for some, to further stress that grow their anxieties and drive their interest in suicide. A relatively new program for students at-risk for suicide was developed in the late 1990s (CHAVIS, 2010). This program, called Sources of Strength, takes a new approach to solve an old problem. Instead of having adult professionals interview kids and treat them, they have other students volunteer to be trained to spot teenagers at-risk for suicide and guide them. These trained teens, called “youth leaders”, are taught to report peers who they view as at-risk for suicide. They are also trained to encourage their peers to find adults they trust who they could talk to about their perceived problems. Because at-risk youth tend to have fewer friends who they would reach out to (Sources of Strength, 2010), some of the youth leaders are at-risk or have been at-risk themselves. This is what makes this program exemplary since it links these youth leaders with other students at-risk for suicide. It’s also what makes them better at identifying these at-risk students, because they are viewed as trusted friends and not adults who may be seen as a part of the problem. Sources of Strength has been shown to help schools bring at-risk youth to trust more adults and come to them for help with their problems. The program has been gaining appeal and is spreading through-out the country. Currently nine states have adapted the Sources of Strength program; seven states are working on adapting the program shortly. The organization plans to build the program up to be available in every state in the next five to ten years.

References
CHAVIS, S. (September 10, 2010). High Schools Pilot Suicide Prevention Program. Retrieved from http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/09/10/high-schools-pilot-suicide-prevention-program/17941.html
Sources of Strength. (2010). National Peer Leader Study Powerpoint. Retrieved from http://www.sourcesofstrength.org/working/studypowerpoint.html