Outlive

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Suicide is the single leading cause of death in young people aged 15-29 in India. Suicide is the result of a unique interaction of different social, economic, cultural, and health-related factors which causes distress to individuals in their specific contexts.

Who we are:

Outlive is a four-year (2020-2024) suicide prevention programme jointly implemented by the Centre for Mental Health Law & Policy, Indian Law Society (ILS), Sangath and Quicksand Design Studio and is supported by Comic Relief, UK. Outlive addresses urban youth suicide in India by engaging young people aged 18-24, in particular youth with experiences related to suicide or self-harm, distress or mental health problems and belonging to marginalized communities in Delhi, Mumbai and Pune.

Our mission: to promote the knowledge that all suicides are preventable and young people too can be active participants for suicide prevention.

We are doing this by:

Outlive is implementing a suicide prevention programme in India consisting of:

A national public engagement campaign to share information and resources to increase awareness and encourage youth to talk about suicide.
A network of youth peer supporters trained by Outlive to provide emotional support through a chat-based mobile platform to youth in distress or having thoughts of ending their life.
10 youth advocates who will be trained and supported by Outlive to engage with policymakers and participate in policy processes for youth suicide prevention.
co-designing workshops with 48 young (18-24 years old) participants to build the Outlive Public Engagement intervention.

LOCATION

New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune

PROJECT DURATION

July 2020 - June 2024

PROJECT GOAL

We believe that those with lived experience should drive the conversation on suicide prevention and be involved in every stage of our work.

We share personal stories by youth, create multimedia resources, and conduct youth-focused public events, awareness workshops and social media campaigns to build dialogue on suicide prevention. Write to us on contact@outlive.in to know more about our programme.

What activities does Outlive conduct?

Public events: Panel discussions, talks, film screenings and art exhibitions to facilitate dialogue and enhance awareness about young people’s mental health and suicide prevention
Workshops: Interactive workshops aimed to build participants’ literacy and awareness of suicide prevention strategies, how to cope with distress, and avenues for help-seeking during crisis

Public poster campaign: Outlive has created a set of posters to de-stigmatise suicide, bust myths and encourage help-seeking. These can be downloaded and printed for use in public spaces or for distribution free of cost.

KEY IMPACT

We have organized 63 events to build awareness of suicide and prevention strategies to reach 3900 youth in colleges, and via partnership with community-based organisations, and through public events between May 2022- May 2023.
6 films were produced with youth based in Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi NCR, and Goa, and received 16 story contributions from youth who have lived experiences of suicide.
Through a multi-lingual poster initiative in colleges and campaigns on social media, we reached 736,286 users online and 600 website visitors.