The Fall 2025 tour for Send Silence Packing is kicking off, bringing a vital message of mental health and suicide awareness to communities across the country. Following a successful Spring 2025 tour that reached 18 schools, the SSP team is hitting the road again to bring conversation and resources around suicide prevention to communities everywhere.
What is Send Silence Packing? It’s an immersive and powerful display featuring one hundred backpacks, each representing a life lost to suicide. The exhibit is a direct link to mental health professionals and support systems, creating an approachable space for discussing suicide and mental health. From hundreds of stories of hope and loss, to a hope wall where visitors can write positive messages of support and encouragement for everyone to see, Send Silence Packing allows for conversations around suicide prevention and mental health to take center stage.
When Send Silence Packing visits a school or community, it’s done hand-in-hand with local community organizations and mental health professionals to inform visitors of crucial local resources for mental health. Any Send Silence Packing event always features national resources and has mental health professionals on-site to provide immediate support and ensure that anyone who is emotionally triggered by the content is properly cared for.
It’s More Than an Exhibit, It’s a Lifeline
Send Silence Packing is a catalyst for change; the exhibit creates an approachable space for discussing mental health. While the role mental health and suicide may play in someone’s life may vary, mental health challenges are a reality everyone faces at one point in their lives. That reality is clear when people come up and share their experiences with mental health. Visitors often disclose their own struggles, find similarities in the stories on display, or even share positive stories of overcoming their challenges.
I often think of a specific moment during an exhibit at a school in Florida. A student came up to the resource table and casually remarked, “I’m having suicidal thoughts and I plan on ending my life later today.” While it’s not uncommon for visitors to make remarks that they’re struggling with their mental health, there is no way to ever be fully prepared to hear a statement like that.
Here’s where the presence of Send Silence Packing made all the difference. The infrastructure we had in place, including an on-site mental health professional, allowed us to immediately connect that student with the resources they needed. This intervention was only possible because SSP was there that day. It makes you wonder: What would have happened if we hadn’t been on campus? Would that student still be alive today?
In a rural Kansas county of just over 4,000 residents, the pain of six suicide deaths in the previous year, three of which were youth, was palpable. Our SSP exhibit, set up at the county fairgrounds, drew around 600 community members — a massive chunk of the local population. We found that nearly every person who came had been personally affected, sharing stories of someone they lost to suicide or how they almost lost themselves to it.
When the county’s high schoolers started coming in by the busloads, there was a massive shift in the dynamics. We witnessed a powerful outpouring of emotion as teenagers burst into tears, finding comfort and solace in their friends. Many felt they couldn’t reach out to adults for help, fearing the stigma associated with mental health struggles. That day a wound was reopened, but SSP brought along the resources and dialogue necessary for the community to start healing.
Bring the Movement to Your Community
Hosting the Send Silence Packing exhibit is a powerful step toward creating an open dialogue about mental health. While it serves as a proper introduction to addressing stigma, we believe it should be the start, not the end, of your community’s commitment to awareness.
To learn more about bringing Send Silence Packing to your school or community, please review our Interest Guide or contact us directly at sendsilencepacking@activeminds.org.
Take the first step. Bring Send Silence Packing to your community and begin a lasting movement for change.
