Loyola’s HOPE Squad: Reaching out to peers before they reach a breaking point

SEVEN OUT OF TEN ADOLESCENTS experiencing depression or suicidal thoughts will confide in a trusted peer before approaching an adult. To help these teens before they reach a breaking point, Loyola Academy and other schools across the country have implemented a nationally recognized suicide prevention program called the HOPE Squad. Loyola was selected to serve as a HOPE Squad school by Elyssa’s Mission, which provides resources to bring suicide prevention education into schools.

To prepare for the program’s Spring 2020 launch, our Counseling Department staff participated in an Help and hope for struggling students: In Spring 2020, Loyola was one of the first schools in Illinois to implement a nationally recognized, school-based, peer-to-peer suicide intensive training prevention program called the HOPE Squad. program and then asked students to nominate caring and compassionate Ramblers to be trained as the HOPE Squad’s inaugural members.

“HOPE Squad members are nominated by their peers because they are trustworthy, good listeners, easy to talk to and approachable,” explains Counseling Department Chair Sheila Blanchfield. “Since the program’s launch, they have become the eyes and ears of our school. They see things on social media that adults don’t. They see kids eating lunch alone. They are trained to identify students or situations that require adult intervention and seek out the help of a trained HOPE Squad advisor.

“Many safeguards are already in place at Loyola Academy to help Ramblers who are struggling emotionally,” she states, “but the HOPE Squad formalizes the process and casts a wider net. It also builds on the innate strengths and values of our students, faculty and staff—and Loyola’s longstanding Jesuit tradition of cura personalis, or care for the whole person.”