Firearm Injury Prevention - Leadership Engagement and Development

SpeakUp ReachOut Brings Regional Leaders Together for Firearm Injury Prevention Training

On July 22, SpeakUp ReachOut hosted Firearm Injury Prevention – Leadership Engagement and Development (FIP-LEAD) at Colorado Mountain College in Edwards. Led by the Firearm Injury Prevention Institute team, the full-day workshop brought together 23 participants from Eagle County and surrounding counties to learn, connect and build confidence around firearm injury and suicide prevention.

The training brought together professionals, community partners, firearm owners and advocates with different backgrounds and perspectives. Throughout the day, participants learned about firearm-related data, prevention strategies, thoughtful language and ways to have respectful conversations about firearms and safety.

At SpeakUp ReachOut, we know that suicide prevention takes all of us. Creating safer communities means being willing to have difficult conversations, listen to different perspectives and give people practical tools they can use to help prevent suicide. FIP-LEAD gave local and regional leaders an opportunity to build those skills together.

Participant evaluations reflected strong learning and increased confidence following the workshop. Every respondent reported increased confidence discussing firearms and firearm-related issues with others, while 93% reported a better understanding of firearm-related harms and increased knowledge of prevention approaches.

Participants also left feeling more prepared to turn what they learned into action. 93% felt prepared to engage their organizations and community partners in firearm injury prevention efforts, and also said they would recommend FIP-LEAD workshops to leaders in other professional fields.

Feedback showed that participants especially valued group discussions and community collaboration, hearing directly from firearm owners, learning about language, confronting biases and exploring firearm-related data and statistics.

One participant said the most valuable part of the training was “talking through the perspectives of community members with various points of view on firearm ownership and values.”

Another participant highlighted the opportunity for connection, sharing, “I loved hearing from actual gun owners. The opportunities to connect and collaborate and brainstorm were awesome.”

These responses reflected one of the workshop’s central strengths: creating space for people with different experiences and perspectives to learn from one another while working toward the shared goal of preventing firearm injuries and suicide.

Participants also shared what they would like to learn more about in the future, including how to start conversations about firearms, how language can shape those conversations, what has worked in other communities and how to put these ideas into practice within their own organizations.

For SpeakUp ReachOut, this work is about more than one day of training. It is about building connections, increasing understanding and giving more people in our communities the tools and confidence to help prevent suicide. By bringing different voices to the table, we can continue working together toward a safer, more hopeful Eagle County and surrounding region.