The Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Health Administration awarded Illinois Joining Forces Foundation $444,200 on October 1, 2025, under the Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention Grant Program (CFDA 64.055). This award represents Year Four funding for the recipient, reduced by $150,000 from the initially obligated amount and reallocated to other grantees with greater need.
Illinois Joining Forces Foundation, a veteran-owned nonprofit based in Chicago, delivers community-based suicide prevention services to veterans and their families across Illinois. The organization provides non-clinical outreach, mental health screening, suicide prevention counseling, case management, and referral facilitation to VA and community resources. The services are designed to improve mental health status, well-being, and social support among eligible veterans and their families.
The award covers the performance period from October 1, 2025, through September 30, 2026, with work performed in Illinois. The program aims to reduce veteran suicide by expanding community-based prevention efforts in areas with high suicide rates among veterans, prioritizing rural communities, tribal lands, medically underserved areas, and areas with high concentrations of minority or women veterans. IJF has received four consecutive annual Project Grants from VA under this program, with prior awards issued in September 2022, October 2023, and September 2024.