119 Organizations Received $112 Million

The Department of Veterans Affairs announced that it is awarding $111.9 million to 191 community organizations through the Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention Grant Program. The grants, announced in September for fiscal year 2027, go to groups that reach veterans who are not connected to VA care. “Community organizations are critical to reaching veterans who may not otherwise connect with VA care,” VA Secretary Doug Collins said in the announcement.

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Related: The VA Is Giving Away $112 Million in Suicide Prevention Grants. Here’s Who Can Apply and Why It Matters

Who Got the Money

The program is open to nonprofits, state and local governments, federally recognized tribes, and other community-based organizations, according to VA’s funding notice. Awards range from $100,000 to $750,000 a year for a one-year period starting Sept. 30, 2026. The notice expected 150 to 160 awards, and VA announced awards to 191 organizations. Of them, 77 received the maximum of $750,000.

VA’s funding notice says decisions favor areas with need, such as rural, tribal and medically underserved areas, along with U.S. territories and communities with high rates of veteran suicidal behavior or deaths.

What the Grants Pay For

Every grantee must provide baseline mental health screening. Other allowable services include outreach, education, case management, peer support, help with VA and other benefits, emergency clinical treatment and nontraditional approaches. Clinical care is generally not funded, apart from emergency treatment. The program is authorized by the Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act of 2019 and governed by 38 CFR Part 78.

What VA Says the Program Has Shown

VA said that in calendar year 2025, about 17,000 veterans, service members and family members received services through Fox grantees, a 31% increase from 2024. VA said 344 at-risk veterans were connected to emergency mental health care, and grantees connected 2,647 veterans who had not used VA health services to VA care and resources, nearly 1,000 more than in 2024. VA’s program page says more than 90% of participants who complete services report improvement in one or more areas. VA says the program has awarded $322 million to 218 organizations since it began.

VA’s release also says 61% of veterans who died by suicide in 2023 were not receiving VA health care in the last year of their life. That is the gap the program is built to reach.

What the Numbers Show

The measures VA sets for grantees are about services and risk factors:

• How many veterans were served
• How many were new to VA
• Whether participants report improvement.

The funding notice sets targets of:

• 40% of participants unaffiliated with VA
• 75% referred to VA
• 85% of those who finish showing improvement in at least one area

None of the reports reviewed for this article connects the grants to a change in suicide deaths among the veterans served.

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