Face the Fight Announces New Veteran Suicide Prevention Support

As many states and communities prepare for Veterans Suicide Awareness and Prevention Day on Sept. 22, Face the Fight (FTF) is announcing a new round of nonprofit grant recipients. These grants will support initiatives focused on preventing veteran suicide and breaking the stigma around seeking help within the military community.

The grants total $13.9 million and will fund 27 projects from 23 grantees in communities across the country; to date the initiative has awarded $25 million. The grantees employ strategies capable of being scaled and focus on one or more of the following strategic areas:

• Identify and support people at risk
• Strengthen access and delivery to clinical care
• Create protective environments

Since 2001, over 125,000 veterans have died by suicide, and the veteran suicide rate is 71.8% higher than that of non-veteran adults. Dedicated to supporting every veteran, regardless of their unique needs and challenges, FTF aims to reduce the devastating rate of veteran suicide dramatically by 2030.

Through philanthropic grantmaking, a coalition, and a robust public awareness campaign, FTF is taking meaningful steps to ensure that no veteran, survivor, military family or caregiver feels alone in their struggle.

Chef Robert Irvine, known for his work as host of Food Network’s “Restaurant: Impossible,” says he’s proud that his charitable foundation is one of the recipients. “Face the Fight, its founding members and the entire coalition are an inspiration to the veteran community and those of us devoted to supporting our nation’s defenders. I always say, ‘Nothing is impossible,’ and here, no words could be more true with Face the Fight’s support. This funding means we’ll be able to add suicide prevention strategies to our food and wellness programs for veterans,” says Irvine.

FTF was launched in 2023 by founding partners USAA, Reach Resilience and the Humana Foundation, with strategic support from the Elizabeth Dole Foundation and the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

Face the Fight Grantees

The grantees, their base of operation, and details about how the funds will be applied are below:

America’s Warrior Partnership (Augusta, Georgia): Expand the impact of proactive suicide prevention strategies across the U.S. by identifying and supporting high-risk veterans; focus on veterans in rural and tribal communities.

Centerstone Military Services (Nashville, Tennessee): Support ongoing training for clinicians to expand and scale suicide-specific evidence-based treatments for veterans and families.

Cohen Veterans Network (Stamford, Connecticut): Support the Cohen Veterans Network Suicide Prevention Fellow program; other funding will focus on the increased suicidality among military-affiliated women.

The Columbia Lighthouse Project (New York City): Enhance and expand current efforts to use the Columbia Protocol for suicide prevention across Veteran Service Organizations (VSOs) and other professional and community organizations.

Combined Arms (Houston): Support Combined Arm's secure, scalable, and user-friendly platform that intelligently curates resources based on individual needs and eligibility, directly connecting veterans to high-quality service providers in their communities and nationally.

Crisis Text Line (New York City): Expand and enhance its free, bilingual, text-based crisis intervention support specifically for veterans, active military and families/caregivers.

Denver Research Institute: Support veteran suicide prevention experts within VA Rocky Mountain Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center for Veteran Suicide Prevention across three projects. Implementation of computerized therapies for suicide prevention and depression as well as lethal means safety policies and identifying and supporting veterans at risk.

The Headstrong Project (Boston): Support clinical care efforts, emphasizing suicide screening, referral to Headstrong's clinical providers trained in evidence-based suicide-specific treatments and continuous training for mental health therapists.

Objective Zero (Sioux Falls, South Dakota): Enhance suicide prevention through suicide risk screening and training peers in evidence-informed strategies.

Onward Ops (Washington, D.C) Expansion of national military transition program to priority areas with high numbers of incoming younger veterans with increased rates of suicide; expand reach of Veteran Sponsorship Initiative and Veteran Cultural Competence Training.

Overwatch Project (Surfside, Florida): Expand proven suicide prevention program with comprehensive peer-based training and education initiatives specifically focused on firearms suicide prevention.

PsychArmor (San Diego, California): Enhance and scale a comprehensive suicide prevention education system through the PsychArmor-developed FTF training portal.

Robert Irvine Foundation (Tampa, Florida): Enable innovation of programs and events by integrating evidence-informed suicide prevention strategies.

Rush University Medical Center (Chicago): Pilot project aimed at addressing veteran suicide prevention by equipping clinicians with advanced artificial intelligence-based training tools to enhance their skills in cognitive restructuring.

Stop Soldier Suicide (Durham, North Carolina): Expand clinical footprint and accelerate life-saving impact on veterans and service members at the highest risk for suicide.

Syracuse University, D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families (Syracuse, New York): Implement the Veterans Social Needs Index and comprehensive platform for FTF grantees to enhance their data and better guide the support they offer.

University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Penn Center for the Prevention of Suicide (Philadelphia): Support infrastructure development to scale high-quality training for clinicians on the Stanley-Brown Safety Planning Intervention, a frontline evidence-based suicide intervention.

University of Washington Center for Suicide Prevention and Recovery (Seattle, Washington): Scale the Caring Contacts program through innovative enhancements in digital resources for veterans in clinical and community settings.

University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio-STRONG STAR Training Initiative: Enhance access to high-quality suicide prevention training in evidence-informed strategies to expand the skills, abilities, and expertise of clinical providers, peers and VSOs.

Veteran Spouse Network (Austin, Texas): Enable Veteran Spouse Network to scale its peer support and suicide prevention efforts nationally, equipping spouses and families with communities of support and evidence-informed strategies to engage in discussions about suicide risk and lethal means safety.

Vets4Warriors (New Brunswick, New Jersey): Expand and scale Vets4Warriors capabilities to provide 24/7 services to locations identified with higher rates of suicide and areas with limited resources.

Worldmaker Resilience Institute (Cedar Rapids, Iowa): Expansion of evidence-informed suicide prevention and resilience training program, scaling via a train-the-trainer model.

Wounded Warrior Project (Jacksonville, Florida): Accelerated the rapid deployment of Wounded Warrior Project's suicide prevention strategy to include systematic suicide screening of veterans, expand data evaluation and program surveillance and provide ongoing suicide prevention training.

About Face the Fight®

Launched in 2023 by founding partners USAA, Reach Resilience and the Humana Foundation, Face the Fight has made strides by bringing together a like-minded coalition of organizations to help reduce veteran suicide through a multi-pronged approach that includes charitable giving, public education and awareness. Face the Fight is committed to supporting every veteran, regardless of their unique needs and challenges, and aspires to dramatically reduce veteran suicide. wefacethefight.org