2024 was another amazing year for keeping communities across the globe safer from suicide. The entire LivingWorks community – from our incredible team members to our hard-working Trainers – got one step closer to making our vision and mission a reality. Thank you to everyone who has helped LivingWorks in 2024 and contributed to our commitment to creating suicide-safer communities connected by Networks of Safety.
Our Training Across the Globe
The LivingWorks Global Trainer Network have been busy in 2024, bringing gold-standard suicide prevention training to global communities. LivingWorks safeTALK and LivingWorks ASIST workshops were delivered in 38 different countries and/or territories this year.
The number of LivingWorks safeTALK and ASIST workshops in 2024 is more than 11,300, meaning more than 181,000 individuals have received face-to-face suicide intervention and prevention training this year!
The LivingWorks Global Trainer Network – made up of more than 7400 LivingWorks program Trainers – have made these numbers a reality. LivingWorks CEO, Lance Armstrong, says we can’t do it without them.
“I sat through parts of both a LivingWorks ASIST and LivingWorks safeTALK workshop in the past couple weeks and the Trainers were unbelievable – and that’s a global theme,” says Armstrong. “I want to continue to do more to support the Global Trainer Network. Their work is fundamental to what we’re able to accomplish.”
On top of our LivingWorks ASIST and LivingWorks safeTALK workshops delivered in 2024, more than 31,000 individuals took our online training program, LivingWorks Start. This means the number of individuals who received LivingWorks suicide prevention training around the world exceeds 212,000!
2024 – Building Capacity and Capability
Armstrong says 2024 has been a year of building capacity and capability across the LivingWorks organization. He believes the work that has been accomplished this year will allow LivingWorks to have an even bigger impact in 2025.
“We’ve been blessed with a really amazing way to impact the world – through our training programs. But it’s not good enough to sit back. I believe everyone wants to finish their time with LivingWorks saying ‘we took something good and made something great’ and I think that’s truly what is happening here,” says Armstrong. “Everything we’re doing is designed to support our global organization and all our stakeholders.”
LivingWorks COO, Kendra Kruger, believes LivingWorks showed up with intention in 2024, promoting and providing suicide prevention and intervention training to all communities we serve.
“A lot of our LivingWorks Team Members are gaining momentum in their roles as Suicide Prevention Managers and Regional Training and Delivery Managers,” says Kruger. “We really believe everyone has a role to play, and to know this year alone we have provided over 200,000 individuals with suicide prevention and intervention training – that’s the largest impact and biggest celebration of 2024.”
Conferences and Events Across the Globe
LivingWorks attended and sponsored many conferences and events around the globe this year, which include:
- 2024 National Suicide Prevention Alliance Conference (United Kingdom)
- 2024 American Association of Suicidology Conference (United States)
- 2024 Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention Conference (Canada)
- 2024 National Suicide Prevention Conference (Australia)
- 2024 VA/DOD Suicide Prevention Conference (United States)
- 2024 International Association for Suicide Prevention (United States)
LivingWorks’ United Kingdom Suicide Prevention Manager, Joann Hitchen, attended a variety of events throughout the year. She says making new connections and building new relationships where people discover our training programs is a highlight.
“It’s great to connect with organisations and individuals who we work with and make those connections stronger,” says Hitchen. “It’s wonderful when we go to these events because we’re learning from each other and there’s lots of collaborations that happen on those days.”
Kruger believes 2025 will be another year in which LivingWorks will have opportunities to share our vision and mission.
“As we progress into 2025 with intention to promote the stories of how our training has impacted organizations and impacted communities, I think that is where having people understand LivingWorks and the good that happens from our training, it’s important for us to be able to sing this story of our mission and our vision,” says Kruger.
Many LivingWorks Trainers celebrated training milestones in their community. This year, VIVAT celebrated 25 years of delivering suicide prevention training in the country of Norway.
Always a highlight on the calendar for many LivingWorks Trainers – ASIST NL hosted their 29th annual Trainer Conference in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
LivingWorks and Suicide Prevention Research and Evaluations
LivingWorks’ Executive Vice President, Innovation, Dr. Pete Gutierrez, has also attended conferences and events on behalf of LivingWorks this year. Most recently, Gutierrez attended the inaugural 2024 IASP Pan-American Conference and presented on “What is known about suicide prevention gatekeeper training and directions for future research.“
Gutierrez co-authored the recent journal article on which the presentation was based with Dr. Morton Silverman and Dr. Sarah Spafford. Dr. Silverman recently authored a report which highlights all peer-reviewed studies and evaluations involving LivingWorks programs from 2010 onwards. Gutirrez says 2024 provided a great opportunity to leverage the evidence-based findings.
“That report has allowed LivingWorks to speak with great authority to say, ‘here’s how we know our programs work’ and we can really speak to the evidence,” says Gutierrez. “It’s been great hearing the rest of the field acknowledge what LivingWorks has been saying for a quite a while – we need Networks of Safety, we need an integrated approach to suicide prevention, we need everyone in the community to know what role they have and be trained to function in those roles.”
LivingWorks’ suicide prevention programs are all evidence-based – with Dr. Silverman’s report examining peer-reviewed research and literature. A study conducted in 2024 by Monash University found 38.8% of LivingWorks safeTALK trained helpers and 43.4% of LivingWorks ASIST trained helpers used their skills at least once in the 30 days since completing training to help someone experiencing thoughts of suicide.
“To have independent evaluation data that says, ‘people are using their skills’ – that’s always super exciting,” says Gutierrez. “That is the kind of data we need to truly say to the world ‘our programs make a difference.’”
Looking Ahead to LivingWorks in 2025
2025 is shaping up to be another impactful year for LivingWorks. LivingWorks’ Executive Vice President, Commercialization, Shayne Connell, has been with the company for more than 20 years. He says he is more excited for 2025 than he has ever been.
“This is where we start to move from stabilizing ourselves and engaging with our community to now empowering those people and demonstrating our impact,” says Connell. “What I’m most excited about for 2025 is starting to see the fruits of our labor. It’s about not just broadcasting what we do, but really making sure we leverage the expertise and experience we have, to have influence on suicide prevention agendas across the world.”
Connell believes LivingWorks programs began to become more embedded into structure systems in institutions in 2024, setting us up for an even more impactful 2025.
“LivingWorks will be seen in the Victorian Government Schools Mental Health Menu – where schools can draw on funding to roll out training for their teachers and students,” says Connell. “Not only does our training work, but we’re also a part of organizations that see us as an essential component of creating suicide safer communities.”
Armstrong says he is excited for 2025 and believes LivingWorks is right on the edge of being able to fulfill our vision and deliver on our mission even further.
“If we continue to make some of these big shifts, we can tell more people a story they can understand, more people can get onboard with what we’re trying to accomplish, and more lives will be saved.”
Holiday Office Closure Information
LivingWorks global offices are closed for the holidays on December 25, 2024, with normal operations resuming on January 2, 2025.
Remember this holiday season, help is always close by. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, head to our Find Safety Page for local crisis lines in your region.
Thank you for your continued support of LivingWorks and our collective mission to help keep communities around the world safer from suicide. We wish you a safe holiday season, and a happy and healthy New Year.
