Connection & Resilience: A Suicide Prevention Month Toolkit for Our Communities
September is National Suicide Prevention Month, a time to raise awareness that suicide is a preventable public health issue, encourage conversations about mental health, and make sure people know where to turn when they or someone they care about needs support. This year, The Speedy Foundation is focusing on two things every community can help build: connection and resilience.
To help turn awareness into action, we created our 2026 Suicide Prevention & Recovery Month Toolkit—a collection of ready-to-use resources for individuals, schools, businesses, workplaces, community organizations, local leaders, and anyone who wants to help.
Connection Can Be Prevention
Suicide prevention isn't limited to clinicians or crisis responders. It happens in everyday moments: checking on a friend, noticing when someone seems different, listening without judgment, learning how to have a difficult conversation, and helping someone connect with support.
Our theme, Connection & Resilience, recognizes that resilience helps us navigate adversity while connection reminds us that we don't have to navigate it alone. The toolkit is designed to make those ideas actionable through messages, activities, resources, and opportunities to start conversations throughout our communities.
Light Up Your Community in Teal & Purple
One of our calls to action this September is simple: help us light up our communities—literally and figuratively.
We're encouraging businesses, schools, government buildings, organizations, neighborhoods, and households to display teal and purple lights. Together, teal and purple represent suicide prevention—honoring people we've lost, offering hope to people who are struggling, and reminding everyone that help is available. Purple also recognizes opioid overdose awareness and prevention.
Put lights in your storefront or front window. Wear teal and purple. Display a 988 sign. Share a prevention message on social media. Small, visible actions can help make conversations about mental health and help-seeking part of everyday community life.
What's Inside the Toolkit?
We wanted this toolkit to be something you could use, not simply read.
You'll find ready-to-share social media graphics and messages about 988, connection, resilience, suicide prevention, recovery, and overdose prevention. There are also printable activities, including our Take What You Need / Toma Lo Que Necesitas sheets and a Mental Health Check-In; templates for contacting elected officials and engaging friends and neighbors; sample newsletter bulletins; and practical calls to action.
The toolkit also includes safe messaging guidance. The words and images we use when talking about suicide matter. Responsible communication avoids sensationalizing suicide, does not describe or show methods, emphasizes help and hope, and provides a clear way for someone to reach support.
Two Things You Can Do Today
This September, we're asking community members to take two especially simple actions:
Save 988 in your phone. Add naloxone (Narcan) to your first aid kit.
988 provides free, confidential crisis support 24/7, and naloxone can reverse an opioid overdose. Being prepared before a crisis occurs means help is easier to reach when minutes matter.
Then take one more step: tell someone else you did it.
Our toolkit even includes seven sample texts you can send to friends and family to check in, encourage preparedness, and remind someone that they aren't alone.
We All Have a Role
Suicide prevention doesn't happen during one week or one month. It happens when communities build cultures where asking for help is accepted, people know how to respond when someone is struggling, and resources are visible and accessible.
So this September, choose something from the toolkit and put it into action.
Light your porch teal and purple.
Share a 988 graphic.
Check in with someone you haven't heard from lately.
Put naloxone in your first aid kit.
Hang a Take What You Need sheet at work.
Start a conversation.
Learn a suicide prevention skill.
You don't have to do everything. Do one thing—and invite someone else to join you.
Together, we can build communities grounded in connection, strengthened by resilience, and filled with reminders that help and hope are always available.
Need Support?
If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis or emotional distress, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. You can also chat at 988lifeline.org/chat. 988 is available nationwide, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The Speedy Foundation | Turning Compassion Into Action