“Wyoming Needs to Do This!” Looking Back at One State’s First Advocacy Action Day for Suicide Prevention, and the National Advocacy Forum

This year’s annual Advocacy Forum took place May 10-13, 2026 in Washington, D.C. Advocacy Action Days take place in states across the country between January and May. Learn more about advocating for suicide prevention, and how you can get involved, here.

This May, I was in Washington, D.C., to represent the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Wyoming Chapter as part of AFSP’s annual Advocacy Forum. I was one of many Volunteer Advocates from AFSP’s chapters across the country, raising our collective voices as we meet with our Congressional delegation and their staff to support impactful policies and legislation that can help save lives.

Our work isn’t just at the federal level, and advocating in this way for suicide prevention doesn’t just happen at this one annual event. Two months ago, I was among 16 Volunteer Advocates from around the state of Wyoming attending our annual Advocacy Action Day at the Wyoming state capitol, meeting with our state legislators. As I watched my fellow Volunteer Advocates talking with these and other policy makers, I couldn’t help but reflect on Wyoming’s very first Advocacy Action Day, held in 2018 — which came about after I attended my first Advocacy Forum.

Until that 2017 trip to D.C. for the Forum, my involvement in AFSP had been as an Out of the Darkness Walk volunteer and walk committee member. I wasn’t a board member; I was just someone trying to help my community by working to help prevent suicides and support people who’d lost loved ones. I hadn’t planned on attending the Forum. I was asked to fill in when one of the other Advocates was unable to attend.

The Advocacy Forum is action-packed. It brings volunteers together from AFSP’s chapters in all fifty states and Puerto Rico, with several states home to multiple chapters. It’s inspiring to see so many of us who have been affected by suicide, coming together to share our stories with the legislators who can make a difference in the effort to address suicide.

I was hesitant at first. I hadn’t been involved with policy advocacy. But AFSP’s Policy and Advocacy Office ensures we understand the bills we’re supporting. Our meetings on Capitol Hill typically take about fifteen minutes. When we meet with the staffers and legislators, we share the reasons we are dedicated to suicide prevention, and talk about the ways that the legislation we are supporting would help reduce suicides.

At the end of the Forum that year, my fellow Wyoming delegate and I attended a workshop where we learned that states could also host their own equivalents of an Advocacy Forum: events known at the time as State Capitol Days, now known as Advocacy Action Days. I had had such an inspiring experience at the Forum that I was immediately intrigued.

Have you ever been in a situation where you saw something that needed to be done, thought to yourself, “Someone should do something about that,” and then realized YOU are going to need to do something about that?

That’s what happened in 2017 to me and my fellow Wyoming Advocate. Lisa and I looked at each other and said, “Wyoming needs to do this!” We knew we would be bringing this idea back to our chapter. Together, we resolved to host our first AFSP Wyoming Advocacy Action Day.

Neither of us had any idea where to begin, but just like with the national Advocacy Forum, at every step of the process, the AFSP Policy and Advocacy Office guided and supported us. Not only were we able to attend training with other state’s Advocacy Action Day planners; we met as a small state committee with the Public Policy staff as they helped us figure out how to navigate the logistics of setting up our first event, every step of the way: from training our other Volunteer Advocates, to reserving our breakfast room, to recruiting sponsors and creating visual displays.

When the big day arrived, we were nervous, but also confident. That year, our legislative “ask” was for Wyoming to establish mental health parity — in other words, ensuring that health insurance coverage was consistent regardless of the health issue being addressed, whether it be physical or mental. The legislators knew what happened at legislative breakfasts, but this was our first time. We all had butterflies in our stomachs. We encouraged each other, and at the end of the day, we felt so proud. We’d raised our voices, shared our stories, and felt we had had an impact. A few days later, we realized just how large an impact it was: our legislature passed the mental health parity act we had supported, and it was signed into law!

We had tried to be realistic about our prospects: we assumed we’d probably need to come back and talk about mental health parity again the following year. But this meant we could pivot and start working on our next goal for the following year. Now we had a whole year to work on it!

Over the years, many advocates from Wyoming have traveled to our Advocacy Action Days. Every time we hold our event we build relationships and remind our legislators that mental health and suicide prevention are important for their constituents, knowing we’ll be back the following year. Over the years, our wins have ranged from funding for our state’s Lifeline Call Centers, to postpartum Medicaid extension, to the beginnings of our 988 trust fund, and more.

I didn’t expect to embark on an advocacy journey when I flew to D.C. in 2017, but I’ve been following this trail for a decade now. Through my AFSP Advocacy efforts, at the state and federal level, I know I’ve been able to be a voice for mental health and suicide prevention. Working with my fellow advocates, we continue to make a difference that is helping save lives.