“Strength in the Circle Project” - Project Title: Strength in the Circle Applicant Organization: Tanana Chiefs Conference NOFO Number: SM-26-010 Project Period: September 30, 2026 – September 29, 2031 Annual Federal Funding Requested: $735,000 Total Project Period Funding Requested: $3,675,000 Strength in the Circle is a five-year Garrett Lee Smith Tribal Youth Suicide Prevention and Early Intervention initiative administered by Tanana Chiefs Conference (TCC) to build sustainable, community-level suicide prevention infrastructure across 15 rural Alaska Native communities in interior Alaska. Working intensively with three communities per year, the program will train community members, school personnel, and youth in evidence-based prevention programs; establish standardized crisis response and postvention protocols; and create clear referral pathways connecting at-risk youth ages 10–24 to behavioral health services, leaving each community with the trained personnel, written protocols, and institutional partnerships needed to protect youth after the grant period ends. TCC serves 39 communities across a 235,000 square-mile region of interior Alaska, an area larger than the state of California, with no road access between most communities and regional hub cities. The suicide rate in the TCC catchment area is 37.5 per 100,000, nearly three times the national rate of 13.7 per 100,000 and significantly above the Alaska statewide rate of 29.9 per 100,000. Youth in the region face compounding risk factors including disproportionate involvement in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems, high rates of adverse childhood experiences, and an estimated substance use disorder prevalence of 7%, above the national adolescent average. Despite this need, only 76 of 122 youth referred to TCC behavioral health services in 2025 were admitted to treatment, a gap this program is designed to close. Strength in the Circle will implement all seven required activities through a community-focused, multi-tiered model operating simultaneously at the community-wide, organizational, and individual and family levels. The program will implement suicide risk screenings in three identified systems, schools, TCC behavioral health programs, and primary and pediatric health services; deliver QPR Gatekeeper training, Youth Mental Health First Aid, Teen Mental Health First Aid, and school staff suicide risk identification training; establish community prevention coalitions; provide lethal means safety counseling; deploy the STOPit anonymous incident reporting platform; implement 72-hour warm handoff protocols; and ensure families of at-risk youth receive culturally appropriate resource materials and 988 Lifeline information. All services will be delivered by a Project Director and three Prevention Coordinators conducting monthly community visits, with program performance evaluated by a Key Personnel evaluator reporting all five required SUPRT-P indicators quarterly via SPARS.
