Hope Squad
Prevent youth suicide with education, training and peer intervention.
Bring a Hope Squad to your district.
For over a decade, AASA, The School Superintendents Association, and Sourcewell, our government cooperative procurement partner, have collaborated to bring grants and awards to AASA members who are also Sourcewell account holders to assist districts with specific needs.
This year, for the first time, AASA and Sourcewell are proud to offer the opportunity to bring a Hope Squad to your district.
Hope Squad is a school-based, peer-to-peer, suicide prevention program that empowers trained and mentored students nominated by their peers to perform acts of intentional outreach. This comprehensive program supports elementary, middle, and high school students through an evidenced-based gatekeeper curriculum.
AASA and Sourcewell will be awarding 5 districts the opportunity to install a Hope Squad into three schools* – one high school, one middle school and one elementary school – with the awards going to one district in each of the following time zones: Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific, and additionally, one in Sourcewell’s Minnesota five-county service area, including Cass, Crow Wing, Morrison, Todd, and Wadena counties.
We are accepting applications through 11:59pm PT on April 15, 2024. Awardees will be announced on May 6, 2024.
Thank you to Sourcewell, AASA's government cooperative procurement partner, for its support of AASA and the goal of preventing youth suicide with the Hope Squad program.
*Awardees may have the opportunity to install a Hope Squad in three different types of schools, including (a) two elementary schools and one middle school, (b) three elementary schools, (c) one elementary school and two middle schools, (d) three middle schools, or (e) two high schools with no elementary school or middle school. Please be sure to describe your desired configuration in your application.
To be considered, the applicant must:
- Be a current AASA member in good standing.
- To check if you are an AASA member or retrieve your AASA member ID, please log in to your AASA account or contact membership@aasa.org.
- Be part of a school district with a registered Sourcewell account. Public school leaders can register for a Sourcewell account at no cost or obligation.
- To check if your school district has a registered account with Sourcewell or to retrieve your Sourcewell account ID, please click here.
- To create a free registered account with no obligation to buy, click here.
Sourcewell offers accounts to all government agencies, public and private schools/colleges, tribal governments, and nonprofit organizations. For more information, visit https://sourcewell-mn.gov.
In Partnership with Sourcewell
Questions?
In my 22 years of education, I have never been involved in a program with the impact Hope Squad has had. The program truly brings a community together. The number of students we have saved both inside and outside of our school district is beyond life changing.Holly Ferguson