NJAMHAA-70th-anniversary-publication

59 feature in NJAMHAA News. A partnership between NJAMHAA and AIR was a natural next step. Beginning in 2013, the organizations have collaborated on presenting annual suicide prevention conferences, and NJAMHAA honored AIR with the Inspiring and Innovative Partners Award in 2014. “I was immediately impressed with and inspired by Tricia and Kurt. They founded AIR soon after los- ing their son to suicide, embarking on a mission to eliminate stigma through education. I’m proud to be working with them and NJAMHAA as our missions align and are so vital,” said Moses, who has been volunteering as an AIR Board member since January 2013. “We greatly appreciate our partnership with NJAMHAA. Deb saw qualities in our programs and has supported us, and we are grateful that Shauna joined our Board. We’re a small nonprofit and we accomplish a lot. Much of this is due to our partnership with NJAMHAA on the suicide prevention conference, which has led to many educators reaching out to AIR for presentations,” Tricia Baker said. She has developed mental health education programs for students in kindergarten through college. The programs are tailored for the different age groups, and suicide risk factors and prevention strategies are part of the programs for older students. “AIR was only a few years old in 2013. NJAMHAA connected us with organizations of all sizes in the mental health world, and we followed up and built relationships with them. The conferences open a lot of doors for us,” Kurt Baker said. “I’m so grateful for the opportunity to learn about AIR and support its efforts to save lives by providing mental-health and suicide-prevention education, and I’m very proud of AIR’s impact,” said Dr. Wentz, who was honored by AIR with a Mover & Shaker award in 2013 and a Partner in Hope award in 2016. “Our partnership with NJAMHAA allowed many people to trust our program, to know we’ll bring value to their students. We’re small and NJAMHAA made us bigger in impact. There is a lot of trust put into our nonprofit because of our partnership with NJAMHAA,” Tricia added. AIR is a member of NJAMHAA’s Integrated Healthcare Council, and NJAMHAA recently expanded its part- nership network specifically for suicide prevention by welcoming the Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide to this Council. “Our partnership with NJAMHAA allowed many people to trust our program. We’re small and NJAMHAA made us bigger in impact. ” - Tricia Baker, Attitudes in Reverse “AIR and NJAMHAA’s conferences open a lot of doors for us.” - Kurt Baker, Attitudes in Reverse