FORT COLLINS, Colo. — A colorful mural lights up the side of the Community Impact Center in Fort Collins — an ode to teen mental health designed by Fort Collins teens.
It’s just one of the many projects led by the Alliance for Suicide Prevention of Larimer County, a nonprofit working to prevent suicide through outreach, support, and education.
‘’Back in 2015, we lost two 11-year-olds to suicide, and that really rocked our community. And a small group of people started to gather and say, ‘What are we going to do about this?’” explained Rachel Olsen-Towlen, deputy director for the Alliance for Suicide Prevention.
In 2019, the nonprofit received a federal grant when it joined the Colorado-National Collaborative for Suicide Prevention.
“I think it was imperative because we started working across systems and really started to collaborate,” said Olsen.
Since then, the number of suicides in Larimer County dropped from 85 in 2018 to 61 in 2023.
It’s a steady decline in a state that has one of the highest suicide rates in the nation.
“Right now, that funding pays for about a third of our entire operating budget. It pays 90% [of] salaries and then 10% goes to programmatic things. So every dollar is being spent, given right back to the community,” said executive director Kim Moeller.
That funding, however, expires in August 2025.
“Without it, you know, we know that things get dropped. Programs get dropped. We have to pivot and shift the way that we're doing things, and we've seen so much success right now that we are just avidly seeking funding in all the places we can,” said Moeller.
The nonprofit is now seeking other ways to obtain the funding, which ranges anywhere between $175,000 to 225,000 a year.
With the momentum the organization has created in such a short amount of time, Moeller worries about the potential lives that could be impacted without continued funding.
“There’s no reason that we can't cut [suicide rates] in half. There's no reason that that's not possible if we continue to do the work that we're doing… which is why it's so crucial that we find funding to continue this work because we are literally saving lives," Moeller said.
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