Notice
Pay attention when something changes. Look for shifts in behavior, communication, connection, mood, routine, or circumstances.
The Veterans Phalanx
Standing Watch
Stronger communities help protect the people who have served them.
Standing Watch is a community-based veteran suicide-prevention program that prepares the people surrounding veterans and service members to notice concern, respond with dignity, reduce isolation, and connect someone to trusted support. Notice. Ask. Stay. Connect.
Why Standing Watch Exists
Standing Watch exists to strengthen the communities around veterans and service members.
Service members and veterans receive years of information about available resources, crisis services, support programs, and where to turn when life becomes difficult. The people around them often receive none. Yet when something changes, it is often a spouse, friend, coworker, employer, bartender, barber, pastor, neighbor, coach, or community member who notices first. Standing Watch prepares the people already standing nearby. We help communities recognize concern, respond with dignity, reduce isolation, and connect someone to trusted support.
The line is all of us.
We are not asking communities to become clinicians. We are helping communities become better neighbors to the people who have served them.
What It Is
Community Readiness Built Around Practical Action
Standing Watch gives people a clear and responsible role. Participants are not expected to diagnose, provide therapy, manage a crisis alone, or have every answer. Standing Watch is:
- Basic suicide-prevention readiness
- Community and peer response
- Practical education
- Direct-conversation practice
- A bridge to qualified resources
- Continued support for community partners
- Prevention and responsible postvention guidance
What It Is Not
Our lane is connection.
You can care deeply without pretending to be a clinician. Standing Watch is not:
- Therapy
- Clinical assessment
- Crisis counseling
- Emergency response
- Medical advice
- Legal advice
- Official military training
- A replacement for professional care
The Standing Watch Model
Notice. Ask. Stay. Connect.
Standing Watch gives participants four practical actions they can remember when something does not feel right.
Ask
Speak directly, clearly, and without judgment. Asking someone if they are thinking about suicide does not create the idea. It gives them an opportunity to answer honestly.
Stay
Remain calm and present. Listen. Do not argue, shame, lecture, or promise secrecy when someone may be in danger.
Connect
Help create a real connection to qualified support. A phone number alone is not always a connection. Stay involved long enough to help the person reach the next safe step.
Who It Prepares
The People Already Standing Nearby
Veterans and service members live, work, worship, gather, volunteer, raise families, and build relationships throughout their communities. Standing Watch brings practical readiness into the places where life already happens.
Businesses & employers
Owners, managers, and teams responsible for the well-being of the people they work with.
Churches & faith communities
Congregations walking alongside veterans, service members, and families.
Veteran & military organizations
Groups already serving the veteran and military community strengthening their readiness.
Restaurants, breweries, gathering places
Everyday third places where people relax, talk, and are seen.
Civic groups & local governments
Elected officials, service clubs, and local leaders committed to their communities.
Libraries & community centers
Public spaces where neighbors quietly rely on trusted staff.
Schools & colleges
Educators, counselors, and staff in daily contact with students and families.
Coaches, neighbors, friends, families
The people who see someone often enough to notice when something changes.
Veterans & active-duty members
Those who have served, strengthening their own communities from the inside.
Standing Watch Tier 1
Basic Suicide Prevention Readiness
Tier 1 is the entry point into Standing Watch. The approximately two-hour training prepares participants to notice concern, ask directly about suicide, remain steady, and help connect someone to appropriate support. Participants receive practical instruction, guided discussion, scenario practice, clear boundaries, and trusted crisis-resource information.
Curriculum
What Tier 1 Covers
- Safe and responsible language
- Protective factors
- Risk factors
- Warning signs
- Immediate concern
- Asking directly about suicide
- Staying present
- Creating a real connection to support
- Community and partner responsibilities
- Watchstander care
Participants leave knowing:
“I am not a clinician, and I do not have to fix this alone. But I can notice when something is wrong, ask directly, stay steady, and help connect someone to support.” Standing Watch training is available for businesses, nonprofits, churches, civic organizations, veteran groups, local governments, community spaces, and other organizations committed to strengthening the line.
What Partnership Means
Training Is the Beginning
A Standing Watch partner is not simply an organization that hosted a presentation. Partners help make suicide prevention visible, practical, and easier to act on in the places people already trust.
A Partner May
Ongoing, practical, and responsible presence.
- Display trusted crisis and veteran-support resources
- Share responsible prevention information
- Create low-pressure opportunities for connection
- Host future training or refresher sessions
- Help identify local training and resource needs
- Use safe communication after a suicide loss
- Request additional materials or support
- Continue showing up over time
Already completed or scheduled Standing Watch training?
Visit the Standing Watch Partner Hub at /programs/standing-watch/partners. The hub supports organizations and people who have hosted, scheduled, completed, or are actively supporting Standing Watch training — refreshers, practical action guides by organization type, postvention guidance, verified crisis and support resources, and a direct partner support request line. No login required.
Prevention & Postvention
Standing Watch Before and After a Crisis
Postvention is part of suicide prevention because grief, exposure, silence, and isolation can place additional people at risk.
Prevention
Preparing people to notice concern, respond directly, reduce isolation, and connect someone to trusted support before danger grows.
Postvention
Helping organizations and communities respond after a suicide death or suspected suicide death with dignity, privacy, safe communication, practical support, and long-term connection.
Public Resources
Clear, practical, and easy to use.
Standing Watch resources are designed to support the people already standing nearby. Additional printed and downloadable materials are released to community partners through the Partner Hub as they are finalized.
Veterans Crisis Line
Crisis support for veterans, service members, National Guard and Reserve members, and those who support them. Dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255.
Notice. Ask. Stay. Connect.
A quick refresher on the four actions at the center of Standing Watch — the model taught in Tier 1 training.
Partner Hub
The ongoing home for trained partners: refreshers, action guides by organization type, postvention guidance, and material requests.
The line holds because we hold it together.
Standing Watch is a program, not a moment. It works when communities keep showing up over time — noticing, asking, staying, and connecting the people around them to trusted support.
If someone is in immediate danger, call 911.
If someone is in suicidal crisis or emotional distress, call or text 988 and press 1 for the Veterans Crisis Line. The Veterans Phalanx and Standing Watch do not provide crisis counseling or emergency response. We help connect people to trusted support.
Request a Standing Watch Training
Tell us about your organization, community, or group. The Veterans Phalanx will follow up to discuss the audience, location, training needs, and next steps. Submitting a request is not a request for emergency or crisis support.
More Programs
Other ways The Veterans Phalanx shows up.
Hold The Line
The advocacy arm of The Veterans Phalanx — veteran dignity, access, accountability, and steady nonpartisan public voice.
The Muster
Relaxed veteran-centered gatherings built around conversation, community, and belonging.
Continuing Service
Practical service projects and community outreach where veterans, families, and supporters serve side by side.
Shoulder to Shoulder
Peer-to-peer connection around transition, VA navigation, and life-after-service conversations.
Homefront
Practical support, visits, and steady presence for older, disabled, isolated veterans and surviving spouses.