RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) - A Rapid City council member says he’s deeply hurt by the city’s decision to stop funding a support group for relatives of people who take their own lives.
The Front Porch Coalition played a crucial role in helping Councilman John Roberts and his wife make it through the loss of their son, he told the Rapid City Journal (https://bit.ly/2i4ripN ).
After a committee recommending annual Human Services grants opted to stop funding the coalition, Roberts spoke to council members this month about how the local nonprofit impacted him and his wife.
He recalled that when he was first elected to the council, he said someone suggested he serve as the liaison for the Front Porch Coalition, but because it didn’t directly affect him at the time he dismissed it.
“And then three years later, my son committed suicide,” he said. “So when people are affected by it, it changes the priorities.”
Roberts added that he is sad to see “even $3,000 being taken away from a group that (changes) people’s lives.”
The $15,000 grant requested by the coalition to expand its youth suicide prevention training was rejected.
The organization’s executive director, Stephanie Schweitzer Dixon, said she was disappointed to find out the work the coalition does isn’t a priority to the council.
“It’s unfortunate that the city council and the committee had to make the decision they did, and that this state’s leading cause of death of our youth is not their priority,” Dixon said.
Roberts told the council that the small organization’s impact is wide-reaching and too important to those affected to be dismissed.
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Information from: Rapid City Journal, https://www.rapidcityjournal.com
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