Stop Soldier Suicide, a social impact organization working to reduce America’s military suicide rate, has partnered with the Advance Auto Parts Foundation (AAPF) to expand access to suicide-specific mental health care for veterans and service members, as part of its Disrupt Military Suicide (DMS) initiative.
At the end of 2022, AAPF gifted $500,000 to Stop Soldier Suicide to support staff expansion in 2023. AAPF states the gift is enabling the nonprofit to deliver direct services to more than 300 at-risk veterans and service members per year so these heroes receive the immediate care they need from a highly focused team. Stop Soldier Suicide’s goal is to reduce military suicide by 40% by 2030.
“The Advance Auto Parts Foundation has identified support of military veterans as one of our strategic priorities and we are proud to have Stop Soldier Suicide among our list of funded nonprofit partners,” said Elisabeth Eisleben, president, Advance Auto Parts Foundation. “Suicide is one of the most urgent issues in the veteran community and Stop Soldier Suicide executes with scientific rigor and compassion, both of which are essential to achieving steady progress in reducing the military suicide rate.”
AAPF’s gift was made possible by generous donations from Advance Auto Parts suppliers.
Stop Soldier Suicide’s DMS initiative also includes the Black Box Project, which utilizes proprietary data science and proven artificial intelligence methods to identify and target at-risk service members and veterans. The DMS initiative also helps the organization leverage validated assessment methodologies to better understand and act on suicide risk through targeted tele-mental health interventions.
In addition to the AAPF gift, Advance Auto Parts will support Stop Soldier Suicide with an in-store fundraising campaign in its stores across the country. From Sept. 1 through Sept. 30, customers at approximately 4,800 Advance Auto Parts stores in the U.S. and Puerto Rico are invited to support Stop Soldier Suicide by donating $1, $5 or $10 at checkout, or rounding up their purchases to the nearest dollar.
“This partnership has been instrumental in our ability to scale our mission to save veteran and service member lives,” said Chris Ford, CEO of Stop Soldier Suicide. “We couldn’t be more grateful for the continued confidence in our team and for the relationship we have with Advance Auto Parts Foundation.”
For more information, www.StopSoldierSuicide.org.
