Youth outreach effort starts this week
Published 1:38 pm Thursday, October 6, 2016
Bainbridge Healthy Youth Alliance is launching an eight-month campaign to address depression, anxiety and increased drug use among island teens.
“Beyond the Report Card: Cultivating What Matters” will run from Oct. 4 through May 2017 and will feature printed booklets mailed to all district households, weekly blog and Facebook posts, monthly podcasts and guest speakers.
“This will be a community-wide learning adventure for all of us who are interested in fostering the conditions that help youth thrive,” said engagement director Cezanne Allen.
The campaign focuses on letting kids know they are cared for as a whole person and not just for what they achieve in the short-term.
“We are widening the spotlight of our collective attention to cultivate the internal resources that matter for long-term well-being,” Allen said. “When we do so, we are listening to a significant number of teens who tell us that one local risk factor for teen anxiety and depression is a community culture that over-emphasizes grades and test scores over other aspects of development.”
The campaign will use the Compass Advantage framework created by local developmental psychologist Marilyn Price-Mitchell.
Each month, one of eight interconnected developmental attributes — empathy, curiosity, sociability, resilience, self-awareness, integrity, resourcefulness and creativity — will be highlighted with practitioners identifying practical ways that these attributes can be nurtured by parents or guardians.
“These strengths allow youth to grow into adults able to creatively respond to the career and life challenges they inevitably will face along the way to their own goals,” Allen said.
Sign up for the Alliance’s weekly newsletter at www.bihealthyouth.org/beyond-report-card.
The first lecturer, Michele Borba, author of “Unselfie,” will speak at Bainbridge High on Nov. 9.
