Shayna Klassen, national training director for the QPR Institute, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast for Trades Day to discuss the QPR for Ironworkers Program, the partnership between QPR and IMPACT — the labor-management partnership of the Iron Workers — and the evidence-based suicide prevention training now being implemented across Local Unions in the United States and Canada.

Klassen is a suicide attempt survivor and a suicide loss survivor who has been in long-term recovery since Feb. 1, 2003. She shared her personal story to provide context for the work she does and to explain why lived experiences are central to how the program reaches union ironworkers. She described a moment at an IMPACT Conference in Florida when a one-hour presentation turned into hours of active conversations about loss, crisis and need, which became the catalyst for the curriculum called QPR for Ironworkers.

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