Local 2 Global: Circumpolar Collaboration For Suicide Prevention and Mental Wellness
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Issue Date
2025-05-12
Authors
Sustainable Development Working Group
Subject
Abstract
Mental health, life promotion and suicide prevention are urgent priorities across the circumpolar north, where Arctic communities face a preventable crisis. Youth and Arctic Indigenous Peoples are at heightened risk, while families and communities bear the burden of traumatic loss and grief. Though each community’s experience is unique, structural factors such as colonization, rapid socio-cultural change, historical trauma, and social inequity contribute to this challenge. The many strengths in Arctic communities and Indigenous knowledge are a valuable resource that are not always drawn upon to address these challenges.
Stemming from Project CREATeS under the Finnish chairmanship (2017-2019), which built on the Sharing Hope project from the Canadian chairmanship (2013-2015) and the RISING SUN initiative under the U.S. chairmanship (2015-2017), Local 2 Global aimed to facilitate international collaboration and connections between circumpolar communities working to promote life, prevent suicide and support the mental wellbeing of all Arctic youth and communities, including Arctic Indigenous Peoples, where the rate of death by suicide is amongst the highest in the world. The project took a holistic and community-engaged approach founded on the Sustainable Development Working Group guiding principles of collaboration, concrete achievements, and inclusive engagement and activity.