Post 68 members spoke to Brunswick County officers about its website that houses 65 resources to help veterans in immediate need.
The John E. Jacobs American Legion Post 68 in Leland, N.C., has been leading from the front with the national organization’s Be the One the mission to reduce veteran suicide. The post has formed a Be the One team, led by former post commander John Hacker, to raise awareness about veteran suicide, make conversations about suicide more open, and connect individuals with critical resources to support prevention.
As part of this effort, Post 68 recently conducted a shortened Be the One training course for law enforcement officers with the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Department. The training consisted of educating officers about Post 68’s betheoneconnects.org website that provides 65 local and state resources for food, housing, employment, addiction, VA support and mobile apps. The one-stop location for needed services will help veterans who the officers may interact with. Hacker also gave each officer a plastic card featuring an American flag with a QR code that links to the website.
“It's a card that they can keep on hand to help anybody who is looking for assistance, such as food. Food is probably the biggest need,” Hacker said. “They can scan the QR code (or download the website to their phone) and it takes them right to the website (betheoneconnects.org) to access the food tab that gives them several food agencies in the area. It gives them all this information they need in one click on their phone.”
Hacker said the Wilmington Police Department and the Leland Police Department are also interested in the training.
“I think we’ve broke ground with the law enforcement in the community that this is a program they all want to see and use,” Hacker said. “One of the things we talked to them about is that this is an outreach program. The sheriff said ‘this is an outreach to our community. This is what we want.’”
As officers support encounter a veteran who asks for a service but don’t know where to go, “this kind of fills that gap,” Hacker emphasized. “It helps them. It helps our community.”
Along with its betheoneconnects.org website, the Post 68 Be the One team continues to educate on the suicide prevention mission by encouraging people to take the free 90-minute Columbia Protocol training and educating what Be the One is about.
“Our first mission is to get (Be the One) training to everybody we can. And if we are talking to a group that may not understand the power of what’s going on with suicide awareness, that’s what Be the One does for us. We use the resources from national to convey this information to the public.”
Hacker shares that for Post 68’s Be the One training that they have used resources provided by National Headquarters available at betheone.org. These resources include customizable brochures, wallet cards, social media graphics, posters and more.
“I get a lot of feedback from people from asking, ‘How should I design this?’ I say don't design anything. National has everything done for you. All the (Be the One) marketing material, it's all there.”
- Be the One