In its second year, the GFOL made progress towards the goals for the grant. Significant strengths include continuing partnerships with various community organizations and government agencies to recruit and train individuals as natural supports and for workforce development. GFOL exceeded its goal of training natural supports and made significant progress toward achieving its goal for workforce development training during 2021.

The partnership with UOG resulted in the continued award for the 4 fellows identified in Year 1 who will engage in research to expand data on individuals with lived experiences. This research will identify risk and protective factors, barriers and supports among CHamoru and Micronesian youth. The fellows have made progress toward data collection for their research project.

With the development of a Zero Suicide (ZS) Plan and the formation of the Suicide Prevention Task Force in Year 2, GFOL has laid the groundwork for introducing and implementing the ZS Framework at GBHWC and working toward creating processes and protocols within and among organizations that are suicide-safer and integrated to other services.

With the uncertainty of the pandemic, the challenge will be continuing to be adaptive and innovative to deliver training, conduct outreach activities, and implement the ZSF in Year 3. It is recommended that the team focus on identifying programs and partnering with organizations to begin screening at-risk youth, carrying out the goals outlined in the ZSF implementation plan including training GBHWC staff, and completing the needs assessment with the Suicide Prevention Task Force in Year 3.

In addition, maintaining contact with individuals trained as natural supports or direct service staff will be critical to collecting follow-up data and evaluations in Year 3.