SPEAK

SPEAK Would Like To Welcome You To Our Website

Every 1 hour and 53 minutes in the U.S. we lose another young person by suicide, that's a Columbine a day.

For every completed suicide by youth, approximately 100 to 200 attempts are made.

Suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death for 15-24 year olds.

For every 2 homicides their are 3 suicides in the U.S.

Children as young as 6 have died by suicide.

We hope this site will enlighten you by bringing these tragedies to the forefront. The lives of four women, Lisa Hurka Covington, Lee Tolzman, Betty Schmedes, and Marie McLaughlin, were brought together at a meeting, in 1999, they never expected to or wanted to attend; a support group of survivors in the Baltimore, Maryland area who lost a loved one to suicide. Under the leadership of Lisa Hurka Covington, they organized the advocacy group, SPEAK (Suicide Prevention Education Awareness for Kids).

SPEAK is an independent organization in the state of Maryland, moving forward with our mission:

To promote the prevention of youth suicide and working to dispel the social stigma surrounding suicide and depression through a campaign of education and awareness at the community level.

SPEAK is the leader of suicide prevention in Maryland

Our accomplishments include some of the following:

Getting the Maryland Youth Crisis Hotline Number on student photo id cards, beginning with Baltimore County. Since then, we have now added Baltimore City and five other counties. We continue to expand this project throughout the state.

SPEAK was instrumental in getting 20 emergency phones and the Maryland Crisis Hotline number on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and six on the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Several bridges in Southern Maryland have also followed suit and we continue to move forward with this endeavor.

SPEAK was the liaison between Delegate Simmons who co-sponsored HB740, Safe Schools Reporting Act 2004, with Governor Ehrlich's office; pushing for the first time bullying legislation that was passed successfully in Maryland.

We continue our community outreach by speaking to various groups, including police, schools, emergency rooms, medical professionals, faith based organizations, the political arena, as well as offering assistance to survivors.

We also provide a survivors panel each year for the Maryland's Annual Suicide Prevention Conference and, this year, SPEAK was acknowledged for its dedication to creating a "culture of hope."

We will continue to make major strides in the area of suicide prevention in Maryland and the rest of the nation.