Community organizations across the country will receive $111.9 million in Department of Veterans Affairs grants to provide suicide prevention services, with funding scheduled to become available October 1, the start of fiscal year 2027.
The awards will support 191 organizations through the Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention Grant Program. The program funds services outside VA facilities, including assistance for veterans who have never used the department’s health care system or are no longer receiving care through it.
Those veterans accounted for a majority of veteran suicide deaths in the most recent year covered by available data. According to VA, 61 percent of veterans who died by suicide in 2023 had not received Veterans Health Administration care at any point during the final year of their lives.
VA has designated suicide prevention its top clinical priority, and its health care facilities provide same-day access to emergency mental health care for veterans who need it. The department’s community grants support efforts to reach veterans who may not contact a VA facility themselves.
“Community organizations are critical to reaching Veterans who may not otherwise connect with VA care,” VA Secretary Doug Collins said. “VA’s Fox grant program often serves as a bridge between vital federal resources and vulnerable Veterans in need of help.”
Nonprofit organizations, state and local governments, federally recognized tribes and other community-based organizations are eligible to apply for the annual grants. Applicants must demonstrate the capacity to serve veterans and meet the program’s eligibility and application requirements.
Approximately 17,000 veterans, service members and family members received services through Fox grant recipients in calendar year 2025, an increase of 31 percent over 2024. The department expects the number of veterans served in 2026 to be higher, though it did not provide a final total in the funding announcement.
Grant recipients connected 344 at-risk veterans with emergency mental health care during 2025. VA expects that number to rise in 2026 as well.
The organizations also connected 2,647 veterans who had not previously used Veterans Health Administration services with VA care and resources in 2025. That total was nearly 1,000 higher than in 2024.
The awards come as VA reports increased use of its crisis response services and a higher volume of suicide risk screenings within its health care system.
Through September 20 of fiscal year 2026, the Veterans Crisis Line had answered more than 1.3 million calls, chats and texts from veterans seeking help. VA reported a 7.1 percent increase over the prior year and a veteran satisfaction rate of 97.3 percent. The 1.3 million figure represents contacts with the crisis line, rather than a count of individual veterans.
Clinical screening has also increased. Through August 2026, VA completed more than 5.5 million suicide risk screenings, approximately 100,000 more than the department reported for 2025.
The screenings are conducted through RISK ID, a suicide risk screening and evaluation process launched in 2018 during the first Trump administration. The process helps VA identify veterans at risk and refer them for comprehensive evaluations and care. In May 2026, the department reported that screenings and comprehensive evaluations were being conducted at a record pace.
Outside the grant program, VA provides emergency suicide prevention care for eligible veterans and certain former service members experiencing an acute suicidal crisis. Treatment is available through both VA and non-VA facilities. Almost 50,000 veterans have used the benefit since 2023, according to the department.
VA also reported enrolling more than 280,000 veterans in its health care system so far in 2026. The enrollment effort expands access to department services, while Fox grant recipients work within communities to connect veterans with care and resources they have not previously used.
The department has published the complete list of organizations receiving the new awards. Information about eligibility, funding priorities and application requirements for future annual grants is available through the Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention Grant Program.
Veterans and anyone concerned about a veteran can contact the Veterans Crisis Line by calling 988 and selecting option 1, texting 838255 or using the online chat at VeteransCrisisLine.net.