Jennifer Savner Levinson is one of seven people in the greater Kansas City area to be chosen as The Independent magazine’s 2019 Class of Rising Stars. The honor is a result of the work she does as community outreach facilitator for Speak Up (Suicide Prevention Education Awareness for Kids United as Partners Foundation.)
“It’s really exciting to be recognized because Speak Up is only three years old,” said Levinson, an active member of Congregation Beth Torah.
The Leawood single mother of two teens, ages 15 and 17, has been with Speak Up since its inception in 2015. She was originally on the board of directors as well as a full-time volunteer. In July 2018, Speak Up created a paid position for her, so she is now contracted through the Jewish Community Foundation, which is the 501(c)(3) organization Speak Up falls under.
In addition to her work with Speak Up, Levinson is a board member of Suicide Awareness Survivor Support (SASS) MO-KAN, Blue Valley Well, and has been on the board of Marillac, now Cornerstones of Care, for several years. She also is a team member of Johnson County Suicide Prevention Coalition and a Mental Health First Aid Trainer.
“Jennifer works tirelessly in the field of mental health,” Bonnie Swade, SASS board chairman, told The Independent. “Jennifer is without a doubt a go-getter and knows no strangers. She is an involved young woman, one that can be relied on.”
With Speak Up, Levinson visits communities and schools, educating parents, students and faculty about teen suicides. As a suicide attempt survivor herself, she is well aware of the many problems facing teens today. She was 15 when she first attempted to take her own life.
“I’ve had attempts since then,” she said candidly. “I continue to circle the suicidal ideation and every day is a struggle. I’m very transparent because how could I do this job and break down the stigma if I don’t share my own story. There’s definitely a need because this has become a public health epidemic.”
She said last year the reported number of teen suicides in Johnson County was 15. But “that number wasn’t even accurate; there were more than 15. In the Blue Valley School District we lost five high schoolers. We’ve already lost kids in 2019.”
Speak Up was founded by the Arkin and Doss families who each lost a child by suicide in 2015. The two families “are united in breaking the silence and reducing the stigma surrounding all mental illness and suicide,” according to Speak Up’s website.
Through Speak Up, Levinson said she surveyed 478 middle school and high school teens in Lee’s Summit. Teens said the number one thing they wished their parents knew, and one of their biggest struggles, is that they cannot get adequate sleep.
“Part of it is on [the teens] because of social media; they are never very far from their phones,” she said. “But the other thing is that everyone thinks they need to take AP classes and honors classes and be in all these extracurricular activities. A lot of kids have jobs or responsibilities within their families that are like jobs.
“There just aren’t enough hours in a day to get everything done. And we expect our kids to be good at every single thing. Nobody’s good at everything.”
In the Lee’s Summit survey, kids were also asked who they would go to if they had a problem. Their parents rated third. Levinson said they would go to a friend or try to solve the problem themselves, but not go to their parents.
When asked why, the teens said they felt the parents weren’t available to listen.
“We’re not very good at turning away from our tech devices — phones, computers — and just giving them our full attention,” Levinson said. “They think their parents don’t understand, don’t have time or may blow it out of proportion. A lot of us go right into problem-solving mode and kids sometimes just want to be heard. They don’t want 18 different ideas; they just want to vent and move on.”
She said parents also need to know it’s OK to let your kids “skin their knees” — or make mistakes. That’s how they learn and how they develop resiliency and coping skills.
“I never thought raising teenagers was going to be so difficult because everything is of such huge consequence,” Levinson said. “Every decision they make is huge and they don’t know the impact; they haven’t had the life experiences.
“I say to my kids all the time, ‘we can work anything out; the one thing we cannot change is the decision for you to take your life.’ ”
Many parents think there’s a stigma attached to talking about suicide so they’re hesitant to even learn the warning signs. While Speak Up offers opportunities to educate the community, some parents don’t want to be seen at these meetings because others will think they’re worried about their child. Levinson’s response is “you should be worried about your kid; I’m worried about my kid and your kid.”
“People don’t like the word ‘suicide,’ it’s uncomfortable,” she said. “I’m more uncomfortable not talking about it than I am talking about it. And if adults are so hush-hush and don’t want to talk about it then why would kids come and open up to us about it? We’re conditioning them to believe it’s not OK to talk about it.”
Keeping an open dialogue is most important, which Levinson said can be hard because teens don’t want to tell you anything. But some red flags to watch for are changes in behavior, the door always being shut, dropping out of activities, not hanging out with friends or a change in their group of friends, a drop in grades and risk-taking behaviors like drinking and driving.
Sleeping too much is a huge sign of depression, she said.
“But again, high schoolers don’t get enough sleep, nor do college students, so it’s really hard to cipher out what is a red flag and what is just adolescence,” she said. “That’s why it’s so important to have that open dialogue with them and to let them know that there’s nothing they can ever do to make you not love them.
“I know what it’s like to struggle; I don’t know what it’s like to be a teen now. All I know is we’ve got to keep talking about it, we have to normalize it. Our whole goal is to bridge the gap between community, schools and parents; there has to be a wraparound. We all have to be talking the same language.”
In the Blue Valley School District, Speak Up has started a training program called Sources of Strength. She said it is the only evidence-based, peer-led campaign that teaches mental health resiliency and suicide alert behaviors.
All the services offered at Speak Up are provided at no cost. For more information, go to speakup.us. Speak Up is located at JFS, c/o Speak Up, 5801 W. 115th St., Suite 104, Overland Park. You can text their trained crisis counselors free about anything that’s on your mind, 24/7. To send a confidential text, go to 741741.
You can also contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255.
