There is a dire shortage of behavioral health nurses in Michigan at a time when need for behavioral health services has escalated. This need is created due to the COVID pandemic, increasing societal violence and other stressors.  Kirkhof College of Nursing (KCON) and the nursing team at PineRest Christian Mental Health Services has partnered to develop an innovative Nursing Academy program to increase the number of behavioral health nurses in the west Michigan community.  The purpose of this partnership is to provide tuition support for nursing students to offset the cost of their nursing education and allow KCON to increase their student numbers in two of our undergraduate nursing programs.  Secondly, the program team is working collaboratively to create innovative learning opportunities designed to prepare a better educated behavioral health nurse.  This includes workplace opportunities to develop needed skills to effectively practice in different behavioral health environments that include variability in patient acuity, workplace violence and bullying and development of resiliency.  The goal of this strong academic practice partnership is to increase the pool of behavioral health nurses in west Michigan that are better prepared to provide behavioral health services to the community.