Staying Alive: Suicide Prevention Awareness Summit 2026

The QPR & MHFA Instructor Collaborative invites you to the inaugural Staying Alive: Suicide Prevention Awareness Summit! During this half-day summit, we aim to raise awareness, promote hope, and encourage open conversations about mental health. This free community event will provide information, resources, and tools to strengthen our collective community response to mental health challenges. We can all help prevent suicide. Let's learn how together.

The event will include a resource fair, presentations, wellness activities, and the opportunity to attend one of the following workshops:

1. QPR Suicide Prevention: QPR stands for Question, Persuade, and Refer — the 3 simple steps anyone can learn to help save a life from suicide. Just as people trained in CPR and the Heimlich Maneuver help save thousands of lives each year, people trained in QPR learn how to recognize the warning signs of a suicide crisis and how to question, persuade, and refer someone to help.
2. Community Resiliency Model (CRM): CRM is a practical approach to understanding how trauma and stress impact the nervous system. It teaches six wellness skills designed to help individuals learn to track their own nervous systems in order to bring the body, mind and spirit back into greater balance. CRM skills have been demonstrated to help you strengthen your ability to support yourself and others in navigating life’s challenges.

Coffee and continental breakfast is included. 

Vendor Information

If you will be attending the event as a vendor, please select the Vendor ticket type. Up to 2 individuals can sign up per vendor table. Additional individuals are welcome to sign up as participants.  

Please plan to arrive by 8:00am and stay until 10:30am. The workshops will begin at 10:30am and you are welcome to stay and join either one. 

IMPORTANT: Please send your logo to recastmecklenburg@mecknc.gov for inclusion in participant materials.

More details will be sent via email after registration.

About the QPR & MHFA Instructor Collaborative

Led by Mental Health America of Central Carolinas and Mecklenburg County Public Health, the QPR & MHFA Instructor Collaborative exists to create a community of practice among certified trainers of QPR Suicide Prevention and Mental Health First Aid (MHFA). The Collaborative supports consistent, high-
quality delivery of suicide prevention and mental health literacy trainings across the region while fostering peer support, professional growth, and shared accountability.