Click to help STRIDES secure $2,500!

STRIDES runs on a shoestring budget with help from people like you. But in order to stay at Olympic High School and expand to additional continuation high schools, we're doing our best to diversify our funding. We've found an exciting new way for you to support the continued implementation STRIDES, and it just takes one click!

GOOD and EPIP L.A. want to celebrate the awesome efforts that are moving Los Angeles forward with a $2,500 grant. STRIDES is in the running for this funding, but securing the money requires your support by voting for our idea! Only one idea will win, so please click through here to vote for us*. You can also help by posting the link (http://goodla.maker.good.is/projects/strides) in your Facebook profile, tweeting about it (our handle is @STRIDES_LA), or shooting an email off to your friends and family encouraging them to support our program. Every vote counts!

Thank you so much for all of your support and cross your fingers for us!

*Note: GOOD's system seems to work best on Firefox. They've also been having some issues with error messages. If you sign up before submitting your vote (this takes less than one minute), things go more smoothly.

Mark your calendars for the 2nd Annual STRIDES 5k Run/Walk!

We are excited to announce that our 2nd Annual STRIDES 5k Run/Walk will take place on Sunday, November 20 at Dockweiler State Beach! Our community outreach volunteers have been hard at work this summer securing an event permit for the site, the equipment we need to make the big day happen, and the Adidas dry fit t-shirts you'll get if you register.

This day will again serve as the culminating event for STRIDES students at Olympic Continuation High School, who will be training with our coaches during the 10 weeks leading up to the 5k. By participating in the event, you can not only show your support for our students' accomplishment but also increase awareness about suicide prevention in your community.

We will update you when the event registration page opens (coming soon!). Can't wait to see you out there - with your friends and family, of course - again this year!

Fall Season 2011 Starting Soon!

Our wonderful STRIDES coaches - Ashley Arax and Rose Hennesey - are getting prepared for another great season at Olympic High School. STRIDES sessions will begin on September 12 and last for 10 weeks in preparation for the 2nd Annual STRIDES 5k Run/Walk on Sunday, November 20. We are expecting at least a couple veteran STRIDES participants. Several students from the spring season have expressed interest in participating again in the fall. We are so excited that Olympic High School wants to continue the program, and even more excited that students want to participate again! A couple of students have already let us know that they have a new goal for this next season. We cannot wait to see what they are capable of and look forward to seeing what new students will bring to group!

We may need help with running shoes and sports bras again. Please hang on to any slightly used gear you have, and we will ask our supporters for help when we have an idea of what we need. Thanks again for everyone's support last year and we hope you can continue to support the program by spreading the word and coming out to the 5k in November!

STRIDES Spring Season Wrap Up

What a season! Spring season was a little easier on us because we weren't planning the STRIDES 5k in addition to coaching. This allowed us to enjoy running in a community 5k along with the students! We were joined by eight STRIDES participants for the Every Child Matters 5k Run/Walk at Loyola Marymount University. We are so proud of the efforts made by all of the students to be there and give it their best!

We were joined by several Olympic High School staff, including Marcia Gecht (the health teacher who joins us on all our training run/walks and welcomes us each Monday and Wednesday in her classroom), Janie Gates (the principal), Mark Harris (the school's guitar teacher) and Diane Palkovic (an instructional assistant). We were also joined by the 2011-2012 Community Outreach Coordinator for STRIDES - Liz Ruppel - who was a huge support for the students. Even one of the participants' parents came out to support the group!

We would also like to extend a huge congratulations out to three of our STRIDES participants who graduated high school on June 20. Ashley and I attended the ceremony and were so proud of Joana, Joe, and AJ! We wish them good luck and know they will go on to do amazing things.

Highlights from STRIDES Sessions

We know it's hard to believe, but the second season of STRIDES is half way done! We are having such a terrific time with the students this season. The group is a bit bigger and the attitudes are so positive! We're going to share a couple of our favorite moments from the past couple weeks.

Anne: I think my favorite moment was last week when we had all of the students check in about the goals they had set a few weeks earlier for the 5k Run/Walk. At the beginning of the season, we had each student write down his/her goal for the 5k, steps to achieve the goal, barriers that might come up, and ways to overcome the barriers. Yesterday was our day to check in and see if they are doing what they need to do in order to achieve their goals, or if they need to re-assess the goal or change their efforts.

One student had never run before and set a goal to walk the 5k. He didn't want to run. However - with some encouragement - he has become quite the runner. He says before STRIDES he never got any exercise and that this is really good for him. On top of that, yesterday he announced to the group that he is changing his goal - he is going to try to jog the whole 5k! This group continues to impress me with their positive attitudes and their willingness to put an effort into the program. This story is an example of just what STRIDES is about - running can build confidence in teens and a group like STRIDES can offer support for teens to set their standards a little higher and work towards something they didn't think they were capable of. I can't wait to see his face on 5k day!

Ashley: My favorite moment of the season so far comes from the same session. During the physical activity component of most STRIDES sessions, we do run/walk activities that focus at the individual level. Participants decide what they want to accomplish each session to try to reach their ultimate 5k goal. Each season, though, we try to throw in team-building activities to help build our participants' social support.

After doing the goals check in, we decided to divide our participants into two groups for a relay race and upped the ante a bit by telling them we'd provide a special incentive to the winning team. One of our consistent walkers told me that she'd be running that day because she didn't want to let her teammates down. In fact, this was the first day that every single one of our participants ran the whole workout. The social support I gained during my years running competitive cross-country is, by far, the best thing the sport has given me, so I was especially proud to see eight smiling participants jumping up and down and cheering with wild abandon as each of their teammates completed their leg of the relay.

Social Environment and Suicide Prevention in LGBT Youth

On Monday, the Los Angeles Times covered a recent study in the journal Pediatrics that found that LGBT youth are at much higher risk for attempting suicide than their heterosexual peers (22% vs 5%). We have known this for a long time. However, this study offers new information about how the social environment contributes to this risk. A supportive, positive environment (such as schools with anti-bullying and anti-discrimination policies and gay/straight alliances) was significantly associated with fewer suicide attempts among LGBT youth. In fact, these supportive environments were also associated with fewer suicide attempts among heterosexual youth.

Supportive environments in schools may reflect the broader supportive environments of the communities in which these youth live. As part of a broad, multi-level approach to suicide prevention, it is important to consider community - and school-level policies and programming - that will lend to a more supportive enviroment for LGBT youth.

For more information on suicide prevention for LGBT youth, visit: http://www.thetrevorproject.org/

New guidelines released today for reporting on suicide

New guidelines for journalists reporting on suicide were released today as a combined effort of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), and Suicide Awareness Voices of Education (SAVE). This report and other information is available at http://reportingonsuicide.org/.

According to SAVE executive director Dan Reidenberg, "Research shows that one of the best ways to prevent suicide is through safe media reporting. So in developing these recommendations, it was vital to work not only with suicide prevention experts, but also journalists to create a useful, straightforward tool that reporters and news media organizations can turn to when reporting on suicide."

A primary recommendation of this report is to include suicide warning signs and what to do if you know someone exhibiting any warning sign in these stories. Since the outset of STRIDES, one of our goals has been to increase awareness about suicide prevention. We hope that by reducing the stigma of talking about suicide prevention through media and community-level outreach, individuals who are in need of help will feel more comfortable and supported in doing so.

To see a list of suicide warning signs and suggestions for how you can help, visit their website here: http://reportingonsuicide.org/warning-signs-of-suicide/.