+ Mental Health Capacity Building Projects My Place and HUG Project Facilitator: Carolina Hall

+ MyPlace and HUG MyPlace and HUG are school based mental health promotion, prevention and early intervention programs for both elementary and middle years’ students in the Medicine Hat Public School District. Our projects offer mental health information to students through classroom presentations and school wide activities. They also offer mental health information sessions to parents, teachers and community partners who play an integral role in the capacity building for children and youth.

+ Prevention Our main focus is prevention through the use of universal mental health supports that incorporate skill building and education. MyPlace and HUG school success and wellness coaches provide support for all students in order to foster self- esteem, appropriate social skills, and community connections. The success and wellness coaches offer afterschool activities for students to access community resources, to learn about positive mental health wellness, and to make positive and healthy connections with other students.

+ Early Intervention Our projects also offer early intervention supports….. Both the HUG and MyPlace projects offer support within the schools. This support can be accessed through our Mental Health Consultants, as well as our Addictions Counselor. These supports are very important as they provide students with mental health issues supports right in their school environment. On site support is offered in an inclusive and student friendly manner that fosters a supportive environment and promotes individual resiliency.

+ Overall Goal….. The MyPlace and HUG projects have a goal to establish a mental health safety net for all students and to offer on site support that is both inclusive and respectful to the students that we work with. We also want to connect students and families to community resources. This allows them to access supports throughout the year and make connections with different individuals in the community.

+ Highlights This year, one of the highlights of our projects has been the great turn out at family nights. For our “Welcome Back BBQ,” we had over 300 people attend. At this BBQ, we offered a mini wellness fair with laughter yoga, family vision boards, information/resource centers etc… It was great to see families making connections and learning about positive mental health. Our afterschool programs have also been a great success. This year, the turn out has increased by over 30%. We are offering fun recreational activities for students, with a mental health focus. For example, we will have craft days where we will make stress balls and other calming strategy tools.

+ Additional Highlights We appreciate the support we receive from the schools and teachers. To show our appreciation, we have offered teacher wellness breaks, mental health minutes (staff meeting educational moments on mental health related topics), and coffee breaks. This allows the teachers to learn about self-care, feel appreciated, and take a much needed break. Lastly, we have been working more and more with the community. We have partnered up with the community on initiatives such as; Random Acts of Kindness Day, International Youth Day, the Community Parade, and the Community Initiative to raise Hampers for families in need.

+ Future Plans….. We hope to continue offering our afterschool programs and family nights. However, we hope to increase student engagement by having them be part of the decisions for afterschool programming. Our plan is to develop a student advisory group. This group will help us plan family nights, after school activities, school wide initiatives etc… We also hope to have more parent engagement. We hope to do this by offering more activities targeted to parents such as “Parenting with Love and Logic,” Parent Nights (coffee groups), and community kitchens.

+ Our Goal….. Our goal is to continue to provide universal supports for all students. By offering 6 week sessions in ALL the classrooms around anxiety, anger management, stress management, and building healthy relationships, we are able to “catch” all students. Especially those who would not normally be identified as needing such supports. We also have a goal of supporting teachers and parents. We are doing this by providing them with activities that are engaging for them, (coffee groups, wellness breaks) and at the same time providing them with positive mental health information.

+ We are passionate….. Our HUG and MyPlace team are passionate and love the work that we do. We hope to continue to offer students, families, and teachers with universal supports and services.

+ Thank you so much for your time. For more information, please contact me at (403)