Kankakee Times

Bearing a symbolic message, T-shirts are now circulating to recognize war’s traumatic impact on military members, after Kankakee Community College (KCC) launched a suicide awareness campaign coinciding with September’s recent World Suicide Prevention Day.

 

As one of a select few groups chosen to team with Prevention Institute and Movember Foundation in November 2015 to support veterans’ well-being, KCC acted to address issues with potentially adverse effects on former soldiers.

 

Since then, the KCC Veterans’ Association has worked to grow a support network for student veterans in tandem with the Illinois Department of Employment Security and Veterans Assistance Commission of Kankakee County.

 

The veteran group’s most recent initiative entailed distributing T-shirts with the inscription “;IGY6” printed on the back to raise public awareness of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and veteran suicide on Sept. 10.

 

KCC psychology professor Cari Stevenson decoded it for the public by explaining how it stands for camaraderie with vets.

 

“The semicolon symbolically recognizes those who have attempted suicide; the place where an author could have ended a sentence but didn’t,” Stevenson said. “‘IGY6’ stands for ‘I got your six,’ a statement used to convey solidarity. These shirts have been instrumental in engaging the student body, as well as the greater community, in conversations which has led to greater understanding of the issues our veterans face.”

 

To honor the fallen and raise funds for Chicago veterans, student veterans also participated in a 22-mile march in May. Former KCC student Michael Le Buhn shared his own story of PTSD. An Iraq veteran, Le Buhn has worked together with Stevenson.

 

The first World Suicide Prevention Day was held in 2003 as an initiative of the International Association for Suicide Prevention and the World Health Organization (WHO). World Suicide Prevention Day takes place on Sept. 10 annually.