The Vincennes University Counseling Center is hosting events this week to help spread awareness for Suicide Prevention Month. 

At 11 a.m. on Friday, a Mental Health/Suicide Prevention Lunch and Learn is being held in the Ft. Sackville Room at the Beckes Student Union. 

Community, staff, and students are welcome. 

Lunch and Learn will include a free lunch and a TED Talk speaker, Ann Moss Rogers, a mental health advocate who will be sharing her heartfelt story of losing a loved one to suicide. Rogers will also be discussing ways to help people with coping and healing, based on her own experiences.

Registration is required.

A second event, set for 9 a.m. on Saturday, will be the 2023 Suicide Prevention Walk at the university’s Outdoor Track, 1600 Short St.

Anyone is welcome to the event, particularly students, staff, and members of the community. 

The Suicide Prevention Walk, said Kathleen Evans, a professor in VU’s Mental Health Department, has three purposes: prevention, to offer support to friends and families affected by suicide, and, finally, to raise funds for education.

Many other activities will also be held during the Suicide Prevention Walk, like an opening ceremony where the VU choir will sing, and Rogers also be there to visit with participants and share her story.

There will also be basket raffles and various free activities for participants.

Once the walking portion of the event starts, Evans said, “anyone can walk for however long or what they are capable of.”

“The the main goal is to bring people together,” she said. 

These events all together are to help bring people together and provide a safe space for anyone to seek help or advice, she said.

Registration link for Mental Health/Suicide Prevention Lunch and Learn: https://forms.gle/9tUMb2aZy6VvGF4c7

Registration link for the 2023 Suicide Prevention Walk: https://forms.gle/4JFzpozowNSpApgK6

Or for more information, contact Evans via email at [email protected] or by phone at 812-888-4374.By