What it means for you
A 2020 law created VA grants that pay community groups to find and help veterans at risk of suicide and their families. For fiscal 2027, the VA awarded $111.9 million to 191 organizations.
Who benefits: Veterans and service members at risk of suicide, along with their families, who get help from one of 191 community organizations the VA funds for fiscal 2027.
This law created a VA grant program that pays local groups to reach veterans at risk of suicide before a crisis. Nonprofits, tribes, and state and local agencies that win grants offer outreach, mental health screening, suicide prevention education, case management, peer support, and help getting VA and other benefits. They also connect people to mental health treatment. The program is named for Staff Sgt. Parker Gordon Fox.
Veterans don’t apply to the VA for this. You go to a funded group near you. At-risk veterans who weren’t dishonorably discharged can get help, and so can some former service members with other-than-honorable discharges, along with their families. Each group can receive up to $750,000 a year. The first grants were awarded in September 2022, and for fiscal 2027 the VA awarded $111.9 million to 191 groups.
Sens. John Boozman and Mark Warner led the IMPROVE Well-Being for Veterans Act grant proposal, and Rep. Jack Bergman introduced its House companion with Rep. Chrissy Houlahan as an original cosponsor. Their work helped shape the community-grant provision in a broader veterans mental health bill introduced by Sens. Jon Tester and Jerry Moran. The bill is named for John Scott Hannon, a Navy SEAL who died by suicide in 2018. The Senate passed it unanimously in August 2020, the House cleared it that September, and President Donald Trump signed it on Oct. 17, 2020. The current extension runs through Dec. 11, 2026. The House passed a bill on Nov. 11, 2026, that would extend the program through Sept. 30, 2029, but the Senate has not yet approved it.
VeteransHealth care
Where it stands, and how we know
Source for this status, checked November 11, 2026.
Sources
- Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act of 2019U.S. Government Publishing Office, October 17, 2020
- The Hannon Act and the Veterans COMPACT ActCongressional Research Service, July 19, 2021
- VA announces grant funding for community-based suicide prevention effortsU.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, September 19, 2022
- VA awards $112 million in suicide prevention grantsU.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, September 29, 2026
- Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027 (Pub. L. 119-103), sec. 4104U.S. Government Publishing Office, September 2, 2026
- H.R. 9237, Take Care of America's Veterans ActCongress.gov, November 11, 2026
How we checked this
Drafted by Claude Opus 5.5 (Anthropic) on November 11, 2026. Checked against its sources by GPT-5.6-sol (OpenAI) on November 11, 2026, which corrected it. Confirmed the law, award amounts, eligibility, legislative history, and current authorization. Corrected the unsupported launch date, overstated credit language, and a same-day status change after the House passed the proposed extension.
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