The Nate Chute Foundation (NCF) is a non-profit organization that promotes mental wellness and suicide prevention in Western Montana.

Nate Chute Foundation started in 1999 as an all-volunteer grassroots organization supporting community needs as they arose. Now, it offers suicide prevention and mental health training and education programs to schools, workplaces, and community organizations, financial aid towards the cost of behavioral health therapy for families in need, and provides care packages for those recently bereaved by suicide. In 2022, they trained over 3,000 people across all their programs, and 119 students were connected with additional support as a result of participating in a Nate Chute Foundation training.

Previously, NCF had worked with other organizations to deliver their suicide prevention trainings. They approached Forefront in the summer of 2023, to explore whether we could partner on bringing Forefront in the Schools to Montana. However, as we weren’t ready for our FIS to cross state borders, we suggested using our Forefront Suicide Prevention LEARN® trainings instead, using our Community LEARN for their general community trainings and our School LEARN trainings for parents and Educators.

One of the unique aspects of LEARN is our emphasis on lethal means safety information. We include this because reducing or removing access to an individual’s chosen method during a time of crisis can help prevent suicides and save lives. Nate Chute Foundation’s team were delighted to find that the way we talk about this is effective for their communities in Montana.

“The Nate Chute Foundation began collaborating with Forefront and the LEARN curriculum after searching the nation for a program with a strong evidence base, approachable staff, and modern materials,” says Jenny Cloutier, NCF Program Director.

After working with us last summer to customize our curriculum for their organization and undergoing Training of Trainers, they started presenting LEARN to the communities they support in September 2023. So far, feedback has been extremely positive!

Jenny Cloutier says, “The feedback we have received from our community has been overwhelmingly positive, with many testimonials on how useful the skills they learned were, and that many individuals have felt they have the knowledge to reach out to those in need.” For our part, Forefront is thrilled to partner with the Nate Chute Foundation to share our LEARN curriculum and suicide prevention messaging with Montanans.

Emma Mallonee, Forefront Deputy Director and Training Director, said, “We’re thrilled to partner with Nate Chute Foundation because our organizations’ missions align so well. We are both focused on education and support to the communities we serve, to help them reduce suicide. The Nate Chute Foundation’s mission ‘supports, educates, and empowers our community to promote mental wellness and reduce suicide,’ while ours is ‘to help people take action to prevent suicide in their communities.’ We look forward to continuing our partnership to share our message of hope and help more Montanans learn how to prevent suicide in their communities.”