The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) Office of Suicide Prevention (OSP) is excited to continue hosting our Community of Practice webinar series. The purpose of these meetings is to bring together our OSP partners to connect, collaborate, share, and learn from one another’s successes and challenges working on suicide prevention efforts at the local and state level. For the December OSP Community of Practice, we will highlight suicide prevention efforts for Veterans and Service Members. This webinar will feature a presentation from Dr. Mike Anestis, Executive Director of the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center and professor at Rutgers School of Public Health. Dr. Anestis will discuss the various ways in which messaging can play an important role in facilitating secure firearm storage and suicide prevention for Veterans and Service Members. Leveraging recent research findings, Dr. Anestis will discuss communication at the public health, community, and individual level, highlighting important considerations regarding trusted messengers, effective message content, and impactful message delivery channels. The presentation will demonstrate that even the most powerful prevention tools will lose their value if they are presented in the wrong place, in the wrong way, or by the wrong people. The presentation will conclude with a discussion of existing national resources to facilitate firearm suicide prevention both within and beyond veteran communities. Additionally, Dr. Jonah Cox, with the CDPH Office of Suicide Prevention, will provide a brief overview of 2023 Veteran suicide data in California and the OSP program team will spotlight local suicide prevention efforts for Veterans.