September marks Suicide Prevention Awareness Month

ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. — After 15 years of teaching in the public school system, Erica Colick made her way into civil service and her role as supervisory community support coordinator for Robins Air Force Base and its Integrated Prevention & Resilience Office (IPRO). She has worked in that position for almost two years, supervising the office under the direction of installation Vice Commander Col. Sergio Rios.

Colick said her experience in education along with being the spouse to a retired military veteran played a part in not only getting her foot in the door for her position on base but also helped in her understanding of some potential struggles of military members and their loved ones.

“So one thing about teaching was, you love working with children because they need you, and you can help them grow and nurture them — so on and so forth,” she said. “With the job I currently have, I’m still helping people. I’m just helping mostly adults that, actually, I’m able to touch the lives of multiple family members across the installation through our program.”

She continued on this topic of assisting the needs of Airmen, highlighting the goals of IPRO.

“The mission of IPRO is to promote integration and provide resources to support building and sustaining resilient Airmen and families, eliminate interpersonal and self-directed violence and enhance organization work climates,” Colick explained. “There are multiple mission partners across RAFB and the more resilient the employees are, the better accomplished the missions will be. We support both active duty and civilians.”

Since Suicide Prevention training is mandatory and her office facilitates the program, everyone on base is impacted by her work at some point during any given year, she added.

“Wingman Saves” and “safeTALK” are examples of programs offered by IPRO that focus on suicide prevention efforts. “Wingman Saves” is a recognition effort that grew out of the Air Force’s Wingman Intervention Program, offering a coin for Commanders, Directors and First Sergeants to present to individuals for their intervention roles.

“The goal of the Wingman Intervention Program is to encourage intervention in situations where personnel recognize at-risk behavior and turn them into teachable moments while encouraging similar behavior in others,” Colick said. “We have received so many stories where our people have intervened during situations that could have been extremely high risk.”

The safeTALK program is a four-hour face-to-face workshop taking place quarterly and upon request that features presentations, audiovisuals and skills practice. ASIST training operates under a similar role, acting as a two-day option.

“Students learn how to prevent suicide by recognizing signs, engaging someone and connecting them to an intervention resource for further support,” she added.

Colick said the office is looking to, at some point, offer a virtual training option for people that telework, all with a goal to “meet people where they’re at.”

The office utilizes “Let’s Connect” events — including a Teen Leadership Summit, a quarterly Integrated Resilience Training Assistant course, Peer Support Program, Community Resilience Marketing Corners as well as Leading at the Speed of Trust training to name a few — to deliver “deliberate and meaningful” discussions to the workforce on base, the military members as well as their families. She said they see loads of success with these events and even receive requests from other installations, both nationally and internationally, asking for training techniques on how to better their own people there.

“This is a holistic approach to strengthen individual resilience, reinforce protective factors and reduce unwanted behaviors,” Colick said. “Focusing on our mission, building a shared purpose and strengthening our connections will aid in the further development of our most vital resource — our people.”

Colick’s staff consists of 14 individuals with various roles, such as: violence prevention integrator, community resilience program manager, multiple community resilience coordinators and a resilience program manager. She said the staff is made up of individuals from different backgrounds, including retired First Sergeants, civilians with some or no active duty experience, military spouses as well as veterans from the Army and Navy.

She added she feels blessed to work with hardworking and thoughtful individuals, but she wanted to give a shout-out to one person in particular: Community Resilience Coordinator Crandall Lewis. Colick said Lewis has provided outstanding support to affected personnel on base during challenging times, offering encouragement, resilience skills, connection and compassion in everything he does.

She said the H.O.P.E. campaign — an initiative that began at Robins in early 2020 — is used to symbolize the Community Action Team and its helping agencies on base.

H.O.P.E. stands for “Help is available; Opportunity exists; People care; Expect good things.” Colick said if the H.O.P.E. diamond is on the shirt of someone on base, that person has been educated about the helping agencies on base, and if they are not able to help directly, they can refer you to the proper resource.

She said a “No Wrong Door” policy is in the works and should soon be signed by the base commander. This is an effort to provide a seamless process in finding appropriate resources to specific problems, no matter where one goes searching.

Greg Purvis, violence prevention manager and suicide prevention program manager for the installation, spoke on his career as a licensed professional counselor and working most of his career as a clinician. He worked previously as a military family life counselor for the past seven years, saying he fell in love with this community through the process of working with his clients, leadership and Community Action Team at Robins.

He said September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, and his office has some events in the works.

“We are really trying to come up with ways to keep our community intentional about taking care of each other and recognizing that connectedness is kryptonite to all forms of violence,” Purvis said.

A “Voices of Hope” ceremony will take place in the H.O.P.E. Garden on Sept. 22 at 10 a.m. This program will feature relevant testimony, music and a ceremonial ribbon signing. Office personnel will be teaching suicide prevention classes that are open to service members and their spouses as well as civilian and contractor employees.

Purvis said his Community Action Team would be offering an Outreach and Gate Blitz campaign throughout the month in order to make contact with various units around the base and remind people of the office and its efforts.

“We’ll end the month with a Gate Blitz, where we hang out by all of the gates and hoist some uplifting and light-hearted signs to remind our wingmen they are appreciated and hopefully send some people home with a smile,” he said. “Research has repeatedly shown that these seemingly small moments of connectedness can have a huge impact and even save lives — and that’s ultimately what we’re here for.”

IPRO is located in Building #560 at Robins. Contact Erica Colick by emailing Erica.colik.us.af.mil or calling (478) 222-9661.

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