KELLOGG — The Shoshone County SAVE (Support, Action, Volunteerism, and Education) Coalition is moving into 2019 with the funding and plans in place to make an even greater impact on the Silver Valley than they did in 2018.

SAVE’s two major focus items currently are providing QPR (Question Persuade and Refer) Training for dealing with individuals suspected of being suicidal, allowing community members to help direct individuals in need to seek treatment before it’s too late.

The second program is their voucher program.

After initially rolling out our QPR training, the greatest barrier was finding clinicians to treat those members of our community that are in crisis, and covering the cost of mental health professional services.

To overcome that the SAVE Coalition began fundraising for a voucher program that allows individuals that are experiencing a crisis situation and that require counseling services to receive four free visits.

The program was initially funded by a grant from the Shoshone Medical Center Foundation and has been supported by the local community.

The Dirty Dog Saloon (formally Dirty Ernie’s), hosted a fundraiser day to support the SAVE Coalition with all proceeds from the day to be donated to our organization.

Not only did they donate 100 percent of the proceeds, but they provided donation items for a silent auction and helped promote the event which brought in $2,000.

“The SAVE Coalition is looking forward to 2019 and continuing to grow our resources and getting the community involved,” SAVE member Tara Lodi said. “Our ‘We Care’ program will be rolling out, in which we will be recruiting local businesses to have some resource information so that patrons and passerby’s will know they can find basic information and resources in regards to outreach in our area.”

The Shoshone County SAVE Coalition was established in June of 2014, due to a high rate of suicide that was noted in our community.

Since that time, the group continues to grow and provide outreach services to the community for individuals that experience suicidal ideations, suffer from domestic violence, child abuse, and other tragic events.

They work closely with the Crisis Resource Center, the local schools, hospital, and our faith based community.