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NEW YORK – The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) and the Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR), have announced an expanded collaboration to scale the Hard Hat Courage initiative.

This means they will align on suicide prevention standards and leverage NABTU’s training infrastructure to “reach millions of craft professionals across the construction industry,” explains a release. “This expanded collaboration will bring consistent, evidence-informed suicide prevention education to even more craft professionals through NABTU’s extensive training and engagement network, which spans three million members.”

The goal of Hard Hat Courage, which was founded in a partnership between AFSP and Bechtel, is to embed mental health and suicide prevention into everyday jobsite practice because construction continues to face one of the highest suicide risks of any industry.

In 2023, Bechtel announced a $7 million commitment to AFSP to “catalyze the initiative and accelerate construction‑specific suicide prevention education.”

Through this latest collaboration, AFSP, NABTU and CPWR will work together to:

• Develop core standards, including common criteria and learning objectives, for suicide prevention awareness training and education.
• Explore supplemental standards for peer-based suicide prevention training aligned with jobsite roles.
• Partner with additional industry organizations to expand awareness and adoption across the sector.

“Our members build America. We must also build a culture where it’s standard practice to talk about mental health and take action early,” said Sean McGarvey, president of NABTU, in a statement. “By recommending baseline standards across our affiliates and beyond, we’re making that expectation clear and consistent.”

“Common training criteria rooted in research and jobsite experience will help owners, contractors and unions apply a unified approach to suicide prevention training and evaluate what works in practice,” added Chris Chain, executive director at CPWR.