Aid the Block is a Sibling Support Network initiative launched to provide Adult and Youth Mental Health First Aid training to community members to establish front-line care for people who have lost siblings to violent crime. In the beginning phase of the initiative, the goal is to get two to five households in the City of St. Louis, St. Louis County, and the Metro East area to become Mental Health First Aiders. 

People who lose either blood-related or fictive kin siblings to a violent crime become at risk for various mental health and emotional well-being challenges. Since there is not much social discussion about people who lose either blood-related or fictive kin siblings to violent crime, which the Sibling Support Network is working to change, this segment of the population goes unnoticed, thus leaving those people without proper support. 

Adult and Youth Mental Health First Aid training is a powerful tool to support community members who are struggling with mental health challenges as the course materials equip trainees with the knowledge and skills to identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental health and substance use challenges. It covers the common signs and symptoms of mental health and substance use challenges, provides detailed content on trauma, substance use, and self-care, and teaches you how to connect a person with appropriate care and interact with a person in crisis.

Sibling Support Network believes that people who lose either blood-related or fictive kin siblings to violent crime may not have the depth of their loss understood. Yet, they deserve to have the necessary access to someone within their community who can help assist them in times of mental health crisis. Adult and Youth Mental Health First Aid is a pathway to help communities heal and thrive, Block by Block.