HU Student Counseling Center Promotes Suicide Awareness

The Hampton University Student Counseling Center is hosting a KEEP ON LIVING suicide awareness campaign 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Oct. 28 in the Student Center Theater. Entitled “Choose You” the speaker is Gina Marie Smallwood, the mother of Kelvin Smallwood-Jones who committed suicide two weeks before his 20th birthday.

Ms. Smallwood founded the “Kelvin Mikhail Suicide Awareness Campaign” after her son’s death. She has connected with the National Organization of People of Color Against Suicide (NOPCAS) to raise awareness about depression and suicide among college students. HU Student Counseling Center Director Linda Kirkland-Harris said the event is an opportunity to focus on an issue that is somewhat hushed in the black community. At the time of his death, Kelvin was a 4.0 sophomore at Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA.

“Suicide is a reality among African-Americans, but there is help and hope for recovery from suicidal despair,” Kirkland-Harris said. “Because suicidal thinking blocks realistic thinking about its impact on loved ones, I also want the audience to hear Ms. Smallwood’s journey of grief, including her decision to keep on living by working to prevent suicide through the awareness campaign.”

Smallwood was invited to speak as part of the suicide prevention initiative that began with a grant HU received in December 2007, from the Historically Black College and University (HBCU) National Resource Center at Morehouse School of Medicine. The grant is funded by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

For more information contact Kirkland-Harris at 757.727.5617 or linda.kirkland-harri@hamptonu.edu.