- Finally today, September is National Suicide Prevention Month.

It's a time to address the difficult topic of suicide and offer messages of hope.

A Detroit nonprofit called Caleb's Kids is doing just that.

The organization provides mental health support and resources for middle and high school students.

American Black Journal contributor Angela Brown has the story of how a personal tragedy inspired the creation of Caleb's Kids.

- [Kiesha] Suicide is the second leading cause of death for youth ages 10 to 24.

So I wanted to do something to show our youth that they have options, that they can get help if they're going through things in life, and that they don't have to turn to self-harm, suicide, or other risky behaviors.

Caleb's kids was started in 2016 after I lost my younger brother to suicide.

After he passed away, I really engulfed myself in all things mental health.

And so in doing so, I learned how much of an issue it was for our youth.

The workshops that we do, they teach the youth about mental health.

So they teach them how to recognize how something is going wrong in their life, how something is going wrong in their minds and in their bodies.

It also teaches them different coping skills, so how you cope when something is going wrong.

And when you're coping, if it's not getting better, it gives them the resources of where to go to get help.

- It helped me to feel like, just be patient, everything will be okay.

And you don't have to be sad all the time.

- You're creating your vision board.

You want it to be something that represents you.

So some of the things you can think of... - In my former life, I worked in human resources, so I was an HR manager at like a Fortune 50 company.

And in doing that I focus a lot on wellness and morale and engagement.

So oftentimes, I would have to help my employees work through different stressful activities that may be going on either within the workplace or outside of the workplace.

Or even helping them work through some mental concerns that they have had personally.

Or even suicidal employees who have confided in me that they wanted to end their lives.

So I had some work in helping those employees, but after my brother passed away, I really just want to learn even more about it to prevent it from happening.

Because one thing with suicide, it leaves so many questions unanswered.

So I wanted to just engulf myself in all things mental health so that I would learn, one, how to recognize when someone may be in mental distress, and how to help them overcome.

So with both of those, with my work experience, as well as the research after my brother passed away-- I'm still learning-- but those are the two biggest things that have impacted how much I know about wellness and mental health.

I liked how Miss Kiesha was really easygoing and she explained thoroughly about how her brother died, why, and how it's important to talk about it.

And she showed us examples of why it's important and like, who we can call, what we can do if we're going through things or what her brother was going through.

The biggest "a-ha" moment is just the realization that our youth go through so much.

There's different levels of trauma that our youth go through.

And in the African American community specifically, like, our youth have a higher predisposition to being exposed to some of those stressors that may cause someone to be depressed or have anxiety or have panic attacks or having PTSD.

So that really has been more so eye-opening as I've really delved into all the things around trauma as it relates to youth specifically.

- I am enough because I believe in myself, and I am enough because I know that the power to accomplish anything in life is within me.

- It's amazing.

Like, it's the best experience and it would definitely help you.

- [Woman] One, two, three.

- That'll do it for us this week.

You can find out more about our guests at americanblackjournal.org,