Grand Forks Public Schools hosted a meeting in January 2019 in which civic leaders, mental health providers, concerned educators, and interested citizens came together to discuss the broad topic of mental health. This inaugural meeting developed as a community call to action in response to the 13 confirmed deaths by suicide in Grand Forks in 2018. During late spring 2019, this group engaged in strategic planning to develop a mission, vision, and goal-oriented work groups. During this process, our group acknowledged that supporting the mental health needs of the area will be an ongoing collaborative effort that must be driven by the entire Grand Forks community. Our Grand Forks Community Collaborative is now recognized as Mental Health Matters, with the shareable hashtag, #GFCARES.

The Mental Health Matters steering committee has representation from Grand Forks Public Schools, Grand Forks City, Altru Health Systems TEARS program, Grand Forks Police Department, Grand Forks Public Health, and the Mountain Plains Mental Health Technology Transfer Center at the University of North Dakota, and our community collaborative invites members from nearly 40 different organizations to our meetings.

These monthly gatherings are focused on our group’s mission:

And we aspire to achieve our collective vision: