Staff photo / Ed Runyan Laura Haas, clinical social worker with Jewish Family and Community Services and facilitator of the Survivors of Suicide Support Group, was keynote speaker Wednesday at a World Suicide Prevention Day event at the Campus of Care on Countyline Road in Austintown.

AUSTINTOWN — A World Suicide Prevention Day event took place Wednesday afternoon at the Campus of Care on Countyline Road in Austintown. It was organized by the Mahoning County Mental Health and Recovery Board and its intent was to honor those who have died by suicide and those who survived.

Lee DeVita, a MCMHRB program coordinator, said “This year’s theme is ‘Change the narrative,’ and it urges us to rethink how we talk about suicide.

“Too many times the stigma and the silence surround the issue,” he said. “How we speak about it can make all the difference. By changing the way we talk about it, we can create a space for people to reach out, to feel seen and to believe that healing is possible.”

The keynote speaker for the outdoor event was Laura Haas, clinical social worker with Jewish Family and Community Services and facilitator of the 10-week Survivors of Suicide Support Group for those who have lost a loved one to suicide. The next group begins Sept. 30 and runs from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center on Gypsy Lane in Youngstown. For more information, call Haas at 330-746-7929 ext. 243 or email at or lhaas@jewish youngstown.org.

She urged her audience to consider some of the concepts she has shared with her support group. She talked mostly about hope.

She said hope is “the understanding that our loved ones are still with us, in the lessons they taught us, in the memories they left behind, in the way they shaped who we are.”

She said hope is “in the small things that we often overlook — the sunrise, the warm embrace of a friend, the laughter of a child.

“There are days when hope feels like a distant memory, a concept that belongs to someone else. But I assure you, hope isn’t just about waiting for things to get better. It’s about actively seeking out the good, even in the most challenging times.”

She said, “Sometimes hope is a gentle hand reaching out when there is the feeling like we can’t go on. Sometimes it’s the simple act of sharing the pain and knowing that it doesn’t have to be carried alone. And sometimes hope is in the willingness to be vulnerable, to say ‘I’m struggling, but I’m still here and I’m not giving up’,” she said.

To the many other social workers and others working to help people overcome their challenges in attendance, she said, “Hope is why we speak out about mental health. It’s why we work to create a world where no one feels alone, where no one feels like they are running out of options. Hope is the fuel behind our desire to help others, to prevent another life from being lost.”

She said that when someone loses a loved one to suicide, is “like a storm that sweeps through lives, leaving behind wreckage, a sense of disbelief and an unanswerable question: Why?”

“And this question is part of the journey of healing. It’s part of the human condition, our natural response to loss. But even in the face of this question, I want to remind you of one thing: Hope is still possible. Resilience is within.”

She said resilience “doesn’t mean you have forgotten. It doesn’t mean you have moved on as if nothing happened. Resilience is not about erasing the pain, but rather about finding ways to live with it. It’s about learning to carry the weight, to move forward with it, and to honor the memory of a loved one, even in the midst of grief.”

She said grief, “particularly from suicide, has a way of creating feelings of isolation. It can create a silence and a barrier from the world. But I urge you to break that silence, to lean in to the people who care for you. You don’t have to go through this alone.”