A Clearwater, Florida nonprofit has built what it describes as a first-ever national directory connecting veterans, military members, first responders and their families to suicide prevention and postvention services, with 492 organizations already listed as of its Wednesday launch. The tool lets users search by state, county or ZIP code and filter results by who needs help and what kind of support they are seeking.
According to mykxlg.com, Red Star Foundation calls the new National Suicide Prevention & Postvention Resource Directory the first national directory dedicated specifically to veteran suicide prevention and postvention, consolidating scattered resources into one searchable platform. The foundation’s own site, redstarfoundation.org, confirms the directory lists 492 organizations serving veterans, military members, first responders and families, with search tools that let visitors filter results by state, county or ZIP code and by the kind of help they are seeking.
What the Directory Covers
The listings span suicide prevention, mental health counseling, peer support, crisis intervention and substance use treatment, per the seed release. They also include housing assistance, financial support, employment services, family assistance and suicide loss postvention — the term the foundation uses for support offered to individuals, families and communities after a suicide death. The site separately describes its offerings as covering grief support, mental health, peer support, children’s resources and navigation assistance.
Red Star Foundation says the directory also connects surviving family members — what the organization calls Red Star Families — with organizations equipped to understand the particular challenges of suicide loss. The foundation describes its broader mission as honoring what it calls the forgotten families left behind after a suicide death, and says it pursues that work through several channels including the directory, its Red Star Service Banner, Red Star Voices, peer-to-peer support and community engagement.
A Starting Point, Not a Complete List
Despite the scale of the new tool, Red Star Foundation is careful to frame it as incomplete. The organization’s resources page describes the directory as a curated national starting directory compiled by Red Star Foundation, language that stops short of claiming it covers every local or specialized service available to veterans.
The foundation also cautions that appearing in the directory is not a guarantee of quality or availability. A listed website is not confirmation of staffing, intake, eligibility, licensure or cost, the organization states on its resources page, adding that Red Star Foundation does not operate any of the listed services itself. Organizations do go through a review process before being added, and the foundation offers a separate Red Star Verified Resource Program to flag groups that have completed additional verification.
Free Listings for Nonprofits
Jerry Shaffer, founder and CEO of Red Star Foundation, said the directory gives smaller nonprofits a national platform to make their services discoverable without advertising costs, according to the seed release. The foundation says it invites nonprofits, community organizations, government agencies and qualified providers to register at no cost, submitting program information, geographic coverage, eligibility requirements and contact details for review. Red Star Foundation says it is offering hundreds more organizations the chance to participate free of charge and is encouraging additional groups nationwide to register and expand the directory’s reach.
Red Star Foundation is registered as a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit headquartered in Clearwater, dedicated to preventing suicide among current military members, veterans and first responders while supporting the families left behind.
The Scale of the Problem
The directory arrives against a backdrop of persistent veteran suicide rates. The foundation’s website cites the VA’s 2026 report as counting 6,488 veteran suicide deaths in 2024, an average of 17.7 per day. A separate VA announcement reported that veteran suicide rates fell 4.8% from 2023 to 2024 among veterans enrolled in VA health care, while rising 3.7% among those not enrolled, according to news.va.gov. A separate figure reported by Military.com found that 61% of veterans who died by suicide in 2023 had not received VA health care in the last year of their lives — a figure the outlet notes is not directly comparable to the enrollment-based rate comparison from the VA’s report.
That gap between veterans connected to care and those who are not has shaped federal spending as well. Military.com reported that the VA awarded $111.9 million in fiscal year 2027 suicide-prevention grants, with the outlet’s own headline citing a different organization count than the figure stated in its report body — a discrepancy the outlet has not reconciled. The grants are intended to help community groups reach veterans who are not connected to VA care, the outlet reported.
Research published in the Journal of Veterans Studies has pointed to a related imbalance in the broader field: a scoping review found there is significantly more dissemination on the study of causes of suicidality than on programs actually being implemented to prevent suicidal behavior.
Other Resource Hubs Already Exist
Red Star Foundation is not the only group pointing veterans toward help. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention maintains its own collection of veteran-related resources, which it describes on its site, afsp.org, as a public service; the organization says it does not run, recommend, endorse or fund any of the groups it lists. AFSP’s page also directs visitors to the National Resource Directory, where users can search by city or ZIP code to find local help.
For anyone in crisis, Red Star Foundation’s resources page directs current military members and veterans to call 988 and press 1, or text 838255, for crisis support, and advises anyone in immediate danger to call 911.
