Editor’s Note: This article contains mentions of suicidal ideation in teens and young adults. The Collegian’s editorial board wishes to inform readers that help is available if you or someone you know is struggling with mental health matters. Larimer County has a list of available resources on its Crisis Mental Health Services website, and anyone experiencing a mental health crisis in the United States can call or text 988, a suicide and crisis lifeline.

Colorado has one of the nation’s highest suicide mortality rates. In the 15-19 age demographic, Colorado’s suicide deaths per 100,000 people is nearly double the nation’s average.

The Fort Collins Teen Self Care Fair, which will be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 18 at the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery, is one of the ways community organizers have come together to combat these rising numbers. 

“In 2023, … Larimer County saw a 25% decrease in suicide over the previous five-year period,” said Bryan Simpson, the museum’s communication and marketing manager. “So the numbers show that progress is possible, but it takes a lot of work (and) a lot of community and commitment, and that’s really what the fair is about.” 

The Teen Self Care Fair is a partnership between the Museum of Discovery and Alliance for Suicide Prevention of Larimer County, a local nonprofit focused on preventing suicide through mental health training, education and offering support resources. 

“Teens nowadays are doing a better job at talking about their mental health, but it’s still challenging to find a supportive space that speaks about suicide openly,” said Lawrence Hermance, program coordinator at ASP for Larimer County. “It’s such a stigmatized topic that many times, even though teens are … more comfortable talking about their mental health, they’re still not comfortable talking about suicide.”

Each year since its founding, the event has successfully hosted hundreds of participants. 

“We typically get more than 700 folks come through on this day,” Simpson said. “It’s a free day. It’s really important for us to make sure that everybody has access.”

This year’s event will feature close to 30 participating organizations and 10 sponsors, including various therapy nonprofits and health associations that will host booths providing resources and activities. 

One of the other main focuses of the event is the promotion of fun ways teens can practice self-care. Events like yoga, medieval longsword, therapy-dog petting, dancing and free food trucks will all be available to participants.

One organization that will be present is Dandelion Arts Collective, a nonprofit of artists and creatives founded in 2023 by Mimi Ferrie Lee and Kristel Jelinek. The collective began as a collaborative initiative between friends to utilize the arts to build up the community through addressing key health-related issues.

“We sort of put our heads together and wanted to create a collective of artists who were similarly value-aligned and interested in promoting health equity through performing arts and using the performing arts as the tool to … work toward dismantling health injustices and create community building and connection,” Jelinek said. 

Recently, the collective has partnered with FCMoD for initiatives focused on early childhood education through Anima Arts, another organization founded by Ferrie Lee, to promote arts-based movement education. 

Through this collaboration, the museum became aware of the collective’s health and sexuality education branch and offered them a spot as one of the Teen Self Care Fair’s partners. 

“One of the activities (we’re) going to do is focusing on how does it feel to figure out in your body what an embodied yes versus a no feels like and where does yes live in your body versus no, and how can you tell the difference, and just spending some time tuning into that,” Jelinek said. 

While the event will include activities that will give teens and young adults an opportunity to explore what self-care can look like in their own lives, event organizers said they hope to convey a more direct message surrounding self-care and teen mental health. 

“One of the most impactful messages is that you are not alone out there,” Simpson said. “There are (places that offer support), and there’s a community that cares about you and wants to help; … this day will help introduce (teens) to many of the really excellent service providers we have in the area.”

Reach Lilly Vollmar at life@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegian.