Expanding the Fight Against Veteran Suicide

As part of the Veteran Suicide Prevention Evaluation (VSPE) program the CDC Foundation has funded a total of 23 veteran-serving organizations (VSOs) over six years to evaluate their work in suicide prevention. In partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Injury Control and Prevention (NCIPC), the program provides intensive technical assistance to build evaluation capacity for upstream veteran suicide prevention programming while helping VSOs build their capacity to engage partners and better communicate and disseminate their evaluation activities and findings.

Over the past six years, the CDC Foundation has awarded over $1.2 million dollars to participating VSOs to develop and implement evaluation projects, demonstrating the positive impact of program evaluation for both the participating VSOs and their communities. Through this program, VSOs have demonstrated the effectiveness of their community-based suicide prevention programming and bolstered upstream suicide-prevention approaches. Of the 17 previously funded VSOs, all reported continued capacity for evaluation practices, improved efficiency and understanding of their programs and increased partnerships and funding.

We are thrilled to announce a sixth year of program funding, providing an opportunity for six new veteran serving organizations to complete formative and process evaluation projects. Each of this year’s cohort awardees demonstrates the unique approaches VSOs can bring to upstream suicide prevention:

• Camp Southern Ground
• Clear Path for Veterans
• CreatiVets
• Great Lakes Dryhootch
• Operation Stand Down Tennessee
• Veterans Recovery Resources

Throughout the year, grantees will also pilot test a suicide prevention programming evaluation toolkit. With their feedback this tool will be adapted to meet the needs of all VSOs working on upstream suicide prevention programs as well as other community-based programs. The toolkit is expected to be published following the completion of the VSPE project in 2024.

This article is supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $500,000 with 100 percent funded by CDC/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by, CDC/HHS or the U.S. Government.