Insight Blog
Top Ten Tips for New Advocates
January 16, 2021
Learn who your legislators are and how to reach them. Learn how to track your bill. Decide what the single most important piece of your story is in relation to the legislation you want to support. Be ready to state this in an email or phone call. If you testify, you will have two […] Read more »
Sharing Your Story
How to Share Your Story There are several ways to share your story with lawmakers. You can write (email, snail mail, online contact forms) your representatives, or committee chairs and members, or call their offices, to share your story. In these cases, your story is shared directly with the lawmakers and their staff, and other […] Read more »
Tracking a Bill
Find bill information here. You need to know the bill’s number. Your legislators’ office staff will have this information. Find the bills Forefront is supporting in 2021 here. HB stands for House Bill; SB stands for Senate Bill; SHB stands for Substitute House Bill, etc. If your bill makes it to the second house (usually […] Read more »
What Committees Do
For a detailed description of how a legislative bill becomes law, go to the Overview of the Legislative Process. A Simplified Explanation of the Legislative Process Legislation, or bills, start in the committee that covers the bill’s general topic. A suicide prevention bill could originate in a committee on health care, education, Veterans, or elsewhere, […] Read more »
Contacting Your Legislators
January 15, 2021
How to Contact Your Legislators If you aren’t sure who your state legislators are, use Washington’s District Finder. After entering your address, make sure the toggle for District Type is on Legislative, not Congressional. Washington has 49 Legislative Districts. Your district number and the name and political party of your legislators will pop up: one […] Read more »
Establishing programs and measures to prevent suicide among veterans and military members.
December 22, 2020
House Bill HB 1181 Background Veterans, service members, and their families continue to be at a higher risk of being affected by suicide. Life experiences, moral injury, trauma, culture, and pain and physical injuries play a major role in suicidal behavior. Military and veteran culture in particular can include stigma around help-seeking behavior, emphasize […] Read more »
Parent and Family Guide
October 19, 2020
Introduction to our Parent Guide to Understanding their Students’ Mental Health Challenges Parents, primary caregivers and family members are often a students’ best supporters. They care deeply about their student, and they are invested in continuing to see this young person grow and thrive. However, families can be caught unawares by their student’s mental […] Read more »
Research & Evaluation
October 9, 2020
Forefront is on the frontlines of schools, higher education, workplaces, communities, and health care organizations partnering to save lives. We offer innovative messaging, training, and interventions that are on the forefront of the suicide prevention field. Much of what is learned in research is never implemented or scaled to the population level. The gap in […] Read more »
Forefront Suicide Prevention LEARN® Skills for Social Media
September 1, 2020
Share LEARN® Saves Lives Suicide Prevention Tips via social media with these images. (LEARN is an acronym. We recommend sharing the images and tips sequentially, following the acronym, or the order on this page.) If you share these tips, we encourage you to use the hashtags #BeThe1To, #BeThere, and #SPM20 to raise awareness about suicide prevention […] Read more »
Resources for Families and Schools
August 31, 2020
Youth suicide has been on the rise in recent years, as young people were facing experiencing levels of anxiety and stress even before COVID-19. The pandemic has been particularly hard on them, with the switch to virtual learning for many Washington students, and the uncertainty about what the future will bring for them–especially high schoolers […] Read more »