Summer 2010

SAVE Welcomes New Director of Survivor Programs,* Expands Grief Support Services

by Franklin Cook

I am Franklin Cook, SAVE’s  Director of Survivor and Bereavement Programs,* a new position recently created to “proactively reach out to suicide survivors and develop and implement ways of engaging the community, and to continue the process of dialog and healing.” SAVE has  positioned strengthening suicide bereavement programs, outreach, resources, and systems as one of the organization’s  core priority areas in the new strategic plan and I am responsible for, in the words of Executive Director Dan Reidenberg, “making SAVE an organization (survivors) can count on to help them in their time of need and beyond.”

Of course, helping people bereaved by suicide and offering survivors an opportunity to be part of the national movement to prevent suicide have been key components of SAVE’s mission for more than 20 years. My job, in a nutshell, is to assess the good work that SAVE and others have been doing on behalf of people who have lost a loved one to suicide and then to figure out -- by listening to survivors and to the people who care for and about them -- how to take that work to the next level of effectiveness throughout the nation.

Tragically, we lose just over 90 people a day in this country to suicide and every person left behind to grieve each of those losses deserves a compassionate response from the community in which they live to help them cope with one of the most painful and difficult tragedies that can befall anyone. That seems like a rather ambitious goal, but the leadership of SAVE believes that the time has come to make a real investment in getting survivors, according to our Executive Director, “the help they need, when and where they need it, in a manner that is most useful to them.” We are committed to strengthening existing services and developing new ones that will surround survivors with resources and support immediately after a suicide, in the weeks and months beyond the death, and at every point during their lifelong journey.

My work in the field began with the Black Hills Area Survivors of Suicide in 1999, and by 2001, I was involved in the start-up of a grassroots community task force in Rapid City, called the Front Porch Coalition. I served as FPC’s first Executive Director, until 2005 when I went out on my own as a consultant in suicide bereavement support and community-based suicide prevention. I am a co-author of South Dakota’s state suicide prevention strategy, and I supervised the state’s first Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act grant project, the Suicide Awareness Partnership, from 2006 until just this spring.

I am proud to have walked in the first American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Out of the Darkness Overnight Walk in 2002 in Washington, D.C., and I served on AFSP’s Survivor Council for many years. I was also a support group facilitator trainer for AFSP and have enjoyed working with dozens of facilitators across the country. I’m a longtime member of the American Association of Suicidology, I served for six years as a board member for SPAN USA (Suicide Prevention Action Network), and I continue to serve on the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline’s Consumer Survivor Subcommittee.

I am not only looking forward to getting to know as many of you as I can as I begin working on this new endeavor, but in fact, I feel as if I’m a person who has found a home, so to speak, for this is work that I love, and my heart is truly with those who have lost a loved one to suicide and are looking for a helping hand and a listening ear. In keeping with that spirit, please feel free to contact me by email at fcook@save.org or on my cell phone, 605-209-0292, if I can answer any questions for you or otherwise be of service.

*Addendum (March 1, 2011): See updates on SAVE's Survivor and Bereavement Programs at www.save.org/nextsteps.