The NLine

End of Year Recap The NAN Project team has been super busy this school year with our Peer Mentor presentations, professional development trainings, and parent presentations. Since the beginning of this school year, we have presented for 16 schools to over 1,350 students and 770 caregivers, parents, and community stakeholders. That’s a total of 2,120…

Each of our partner schools is using a unique blend of in-person and remote learning this year, which means all of our presentations have been adjusted to their scheduless to best accommodate our student audience. This December, we had the opportunity to completely reorganize our typical presentations while working with the senior class of Medford…

When I was laid off from my receptionist job in March due to COVID-19 (with the promise of unemployment insurance), I was relieved. I had dreamt of shutting myself in, opting out of being perceived, only to venture out for food – and suddenly, when the lockdown began in March, to live like this was public safety. It was recommended. I breathed a sigh of relief – I could take off my carefully curated, public-facing mask for a while.

Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, The Nan Project will not be holding our annual fundraising event, A Night for Nan. However, we know the need for suicide prevention and mental health education is more important than ever.

Though Suicide: The Ripple Effect engages with some heavy subjects, it is not a somber film. Kevin Hines teaches us that some good can come out of the trauma and tragedy of suicide. We feel the “ripple” of suicide for better and for worse: a whole community grieves one fatal attempt, but one recovery can inspire hope in so many struggling people. The Ripple Effect is an earnest, tender, enlightening watch — and Kevin hopes that it’s the beginning of a movement.

Last Friday, The NAN Project Peer Coordinators Lizzie MacLellan and Shilpa Thirukkovalur sat down to speak virtually with Mayor of Cambridge Sumbul Siddiqui about suicide prevention, mental health, and COVID-19.

The ED-SAFE study, published in 2018 by the Massachusetts DMH, echoes some truths about suicide prevention that The NAN Project brings to high school classrooms: 1) the first step in suicide prevention is detecting risk; 2) persistence is the key to supporting a person at risk; and, 3) intervention led by the person at risk is most successful.

The NAN project knows that in a society where depression and suicide are still heavily stigmatized, fostering honest discussion about mental health can literally save a life. These are sentiments of HBO’s new documentary The Weight of Gold, a must-watch for sports fans and mental health advocates alike.

While COVID may have slowed down many industries and left folks physically isolated, The NAN Project and our Peer Mentors kept hard at work and socially connected all summer! One of our major initiatives during the typically slower, sunny months of school vacation was our 2020 Senior Peer Mentor Training! The goal of these 8…

The NAN Project’s End of Year Recap

Presentations to Medford Senior Class

My Anxiety and Self Image Got Weird in Quarantine

A Night for NAN 2020

Grief Ripples Out, But So Does Hope

You Are Not Alone: What Local Experts Want You To Know About Suicide

ED-SAFE: A Study in Suicide Intervention

The Weight of Gold: Athletes and Mental Illness

A Different Kind of Summer with The NAN Project