SPM

For 2025, San Mateo County and partners are promoting the statewide theme: “Support, Your Way.”

What if suicide prevention could feel human, honest, and self-assured, all while being inclusive of the different ways people can find support. Rather than centering fear, crisis, or clinical language, this theme is about agency, particularly at vulnerable moments when people feel like they have none. It reflects a cultural truth that people want help on their own terms, and flips the understanding of asking for help not as a loss of control—but as a regaining of it.

It’s not about prescribing what help should look like. It’s about validating the choice to reach out for help, understanding that support can look different for everyone, and reframing the act of asking for support as taking control—not losing it.

Support, Your Way- Tips and Reminders:

• Getting help means taking control. Asking for support isn’t a breakdown. It’s a breakthrough—and it can look like whatever you need it to.
• Support looks different for everyone. Some people talk to a peer. Some text 988. Some open up to a friend. Some start therapy. For some, it’s a mix of all of these options. There’s no one-size-fits-all. You get to choose what feels safe.
• You don’t need to wait for a crisis. Reaching out before things spiral is just as valid as reaching out in an emergency. It’s always the right time to check in or ask for help. 
• There’s no wrong way to ask for help. Even if you don’t know what to say. Even if it’s messy.

Each year, San Mateo County Behavioral Health & Recovery Services’ Office of Diversity & Equity (ODE) and Suicide Prevention Committee (SPC) promotes free events throughout the month of September to promote Suicide Prevention Month. All events are free and open to the public. This year’s events will be in-person and/or virtual.

Keep visiting this site for updates on 2025 Suicide Prevention Month.

Download the Suicide Prevention Month flyer here. 

SPM Mini-Grant Application

There will be ten $300 mini-grants to help fund ten events. The application will have details on qualified applicants, event criteria, qualified expenditures and required deliverables. 
 
We would like SPM to reach our diverse communities in San Mateo County. Some groups you may reach out to include, but are not limited, to the following:  

• 0-17 and 18-25 years old (children, youth and young adults)
• 55+ years old (older adults) 
• Identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community 
• Identify as men or boys 
• Identify as women or girls 
• Identify as a people of color or racial/ethnic minority 
• Who are veterans 
• Who were born outside of the United States (immigrants) 
• Without stable housing 
• Teachers, educators, or student population

If you would like to apply for a mini-grant, please note that this mini-grant application is open through Friday, August 20th or until all 10 grantees are selected. 

Application found here.