Photos: Youth leaders in Northwest Alaska

ExpandAutoplay

Image 1 of 6

Youth leaders were encouraged to hold nothing back when they made posters to represent anger. Training for youth leaders in the Teck John Baker Youth Leaders program was conducted at the high school in Kotzebue on Thursday, Aug. 7, 2014 as part of a three-day session.

KOTZEBUE -- When you talk to Michelle Woods, the fiery leader of the Teck John Baker Youth Leaders program, she will readily admit that when it comes to preventing suicides in Northwest Alaska, she doesn't care about pissing people off.

At times that's put her at odds with communities when she fights to keep them from falling back on old habits, she said.

"Somebody has to stand up for these kids," Woods said.

"I'm offended by suicide," she added. "Let's stop this from happening."

For the last five years, the Northwest Arctic Borough School District had coordinated the Youth Leaders program, training up approximately 120 students to serve as social "captains" at their schools in the 11 villages in the region. The goal is two-fold: To teach the students to be leaders in their communities and to deal with social problems, like bullying, drug abuse, domestic violence and suicide.

Alaska has long struggled to deal with suicide as a state and has led the nation in overall suicide rates. According to the latest numbers from the Alaska Bureau of Vital Statistics, there were almost 22 suicides for every 100,000 people in the state. In the Northwest Arctic Borough it was almost double that. The teen suicide rate, for those between the ages of 15 and 19, was 24 for every 100,000 people. In the Northwest Arctic Borough, the teen rate was seven times that, based on data collected between 2008 and 2012.

While the data continues to catch up, leaders in Northwest Alaska are looking to the program as a success story in preventing suicides. So far they've had phenomenal results: There hasn't been a teen suicide in the borough in four years, according to administrators.

READ MORE: In Northwest Arctic, teens to lead the way in suicide prevention