The Cameron/Elk Suicide Prevention Task Force is Collaboratingwith Author/Artist John Schlimm on His New Artist’s Book “988/END THE STIGMAS”to Launch a Year-Long, Regional Awareness Campaignfor the 988 National Suicide & Crisis

The Cameron/Elk Suicide Prevention Task Force is collaborating with international award-winning author, artist, advocate, and educator John Schlimm to launch a year-long awareness campaign throughout Cameron and Elk Counties for the 988 National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

The campaign’s first major project is Schlimm’s new artist’s book “988/END THE STIGMAS”, which is currently available on Amazon and will also be distributed in limited quantities for free throughout the region by the Task Force.

This year-long, small town and rural 988 initiative also includes a partnership between the Task Force and the creative collective of St. Marys Area High School’s Dutch Manufacturing students, Schlimm, and the Community Education Center of Elk & Cameron Counties. As a follow-up to the “THE SMILE COIN” that they created in 2023, the DM x JS x CEC collective has begun work on a sequel project for which they will conceptualize, design, and create a 988 coin.

The Task Force will distribute thousands of this new powdered metal coin to citizens of all ages throughout Cameron and Elk Counties beginning around April/May 2025 in conjunction with Mental Health Awareness Month.

“As a mental health advocate, it’s important for me to use whatever platforms and talents I have to raise awareness and focus a spotlight on issues and the people impacted by them,” said Schlimm, whose first artist’s book—”THE SMILE THAT CHANGED THE WORLD (is yours)”—was published earlier this year by the Kane Area Children’s Museum.

“In this case, the format of an artist’s book is allowing me to shift public attention towards 988 and ending stigmas around mental health in a creative, colorful, interactive, and welcoming way that will hopefully inform and inspire folks of all ages. And, by offering ‘988/END THE STIGMAS’ as a print-on-demand work—which excites me as a conceptual and visual artist because it’s a very contemporary and accessible medium—that means every copy is essentially a one-off work of art created just for the person who receives it.

”As of July 16, 2022, 988 became the new dialing code for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which is now called the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. This toll-free, three-digit dialing code immediately connects individuals by phone call or text to a 24/7 national network of local and state crisis centers throughout the U.S.

Trained counselors answer the calls and texts, assess callers for suicidal risk, provide support and counseling, and offer referrals to behavioral health and emergency services if necessary.“988/END THE STIGMAS” is a 26-page, 5” x 8” color paperback that is designed to take a very serious and hard-to-discuss topic and present it in a gentler, nonjudgmental, and unintimidating format that encourages awareness, sharing, and conversation for all ages.

“I’ve spent the past several years talking to people across the country and here in Cameron and Elk Counties, from kids to those in their nineties, about mental health issues, including suicide, and I’ve learned how every age group is impacted,” Schlimm continued. “These first-hand interactions and the range of folks sharing their stories with me made it even more important to create an artist’s book that will be impactful for all ages, which the 988 coin will also be when it launches next year.

”In addition to the artist’s book and forthcoming coin, the Cameron/Elk Suicide Prevention Task Force’s other 988 awareness campaign projects include portable community banners and a digital public artwork that will be unveiled early in 2025.

While Schlimm donated his work and time to create “988/END THE STIGMAS” and it’s offered on Amazon at-cost to make it as available as possible to everyone, hundreds of free copies are also being made available by generous grants and other funding from such sources as The Doris E. Stackpole Foundation, the American Legion Riders Post 103, and others. Dickinson Center, Inc.’s Signs of Suicide® (SOS) Prevention Program and the Elk County Commissioners are sponsoring the production of the 988 coins, with plans to distribute them throughout Elk and Cameron Counties.

“The mission of the Cameron/Elk County Suicide Prevention Task Force is to reduce stigma and instill hope, start meaningful conversations while offering prevention, intervention, and postvention support,” said Jim Baumgratz, Board President for the Task Force.

“We will provide links and support to Cameron and Elk Counties with resources and training opportunities for all community members.”As a multimedia artist who has created work using numerous mediums and formats, such as murals, painting, sculpture, performance art, digital billboard, time capsule, stickers, powdered metal coins, backpack tags, posters, cookies, short film, graffiti alter ego, zines, and more, artist’s books are just the latest way Schlimm is seeking to share his advocacy work with the public.

For those unfamiliar with this genre and medium, an artist’s book is a publication, or other work, that creatively plays with the concept of a “book” and is constructed by an artist using any variety of conventional or unconventional materials, and then released as a mass-produced work, a limited-edition work, or a singular piece.

Likewise, the genre and medium of the artist’s book allows the concept of a “book” to take many different forms of expression, ranging from a traditional book, or codex, format with bound cover and pages to such famous alternative versions as the twenty-five-foot, accordion-style “Every Building on the Sunset Strip” (1966) by Ed Ruscha; the sculptural pop-up book “[2,3]” (2011) by Tauba Auerbach; the whimsical, toylike “A hypothetical analysis of the twinkle in stars (as told by a child to a teacher)” (1994) by Katherine Ng; and “Betonbuch” (1971) by Wolf Vostell that was made of concrete.

For more information about the Cameron/Elk Suicide Prevention Task Force, you can visit the group’s Facebook page—the one that currently has the Cameron/Elk Suicide Prevention Task Force logo profile pic—at: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558535093194.If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, immediate and nonjudgmental help is available. Please call or text 988.