1. Cheryl Benefield, Family & Community Engagement Specialist – GaDOE
Tammi Clarke, Project AWARE & PBIS Director – Muscogee County Schools

2. Increase awareness of mental health issues among school-aged youth.
Provide training for school personnel, families and other adults to detect and respond to mental health needs.
Connect children, youth, and families who have behavioral health needs with appropriate and timely services.
11/15/2018

3. History 1998 Teens not involved in teen suicide prevention
Statistics and trauma stories
Risk factors, warning signs
How to get help
How to get better

4. Upstream Prevention
Primary mission – far upstream – increase coping, help seeking, and using strengths
Secondary benefit – waterfall – four fold increase in peer referrals
Postvention – connect students to support and strengths

6. Research
2005 – American Public Health Association’s National Public Health Practice Award
Randomized trial study in 18 schools – Georgia, New York, North Dakota
Peer Leaders change population level health norms
University of Rochester
University of Manitoba
Johns Hopkins
Stanford
Australia’s Black Dog Institute

7. Social Network Theory Disease, behavior, attitudes, beliefs
Smoking, binge drinking, obesity
Positive norms, behaviors, ideas
Hope, resilience, help seeking, mental health
Peer Leaders
Adult Advisors

10. Module 6 pp. 45-50 Applying strengths within the wheel to their own life
Module 7 p. 51 Dyad Sharing
Share 2 strongest areas
Share 1 they would like to strengthen within the next few weeks

11. Peer Leader Mission
Hope, Help, Strength
Sad, Shock, Trauma

12. Peer Leader Campaigns
Getting the Word Out – posters, text, media, assemblies, lunchroom
Naming Trusted Adults – Post-its, wall of trust, Thank You Cards, Mentor Stories, Awards, Posters, Videos
What Helps Me
Thankfulness
Sources of Strength Week/Strength of the Month
Breaking Codes of Silence
Reaching Isolates – personal actions, lunch outreach, activity nights, mentors

13. Strategic Levels of Messaging
Awareness
Interactive
ENGAGE
INTERACT
APPLY

14. Example of Positive Opposite Messaging
Positive Norming
What if we flipped statistics to highlight the positive norm and behavior rather than pointing toward the negative and false norm and behavior.
81% of High School Seniors don’t smoke.
31 s
Example of Positive Opposite Messaging

15. Tell Stories of Strength
Positive Norming
Encourage Peer Leaders to tell stories of strength.
10% about the difficulty or struggle they faced 90% about what helped or strengths they drew on
1 m 45 s
Tell Stories of Strength

16. Peer Leaders = Agents of Change & Connectors to Help

17. Core Mission & Messaging:
- Breaking secrecy and Silence
- Promoting Connection
- Spreading hope, help, strength

18. What is “Connectedness”?
“Connectedness” is a term increasingly used to describe a healthy, protective relationship between youth and the environments in which they grow up. It is increasingly clear that opportunities to experience a sense of place, belonging, and trust during adolescence promotes wellbeing – not just for individual youth, but also for the environments in which they live. Feelings of collectivity, belonging, respect, and sharing engender trust and promote individual and civic health.

19. MANY SMALL WAVES BUILD BIG WAVES
An effective Sources of Strength team seeks to build a big enough wave to change social norms and behaviors
Name & Thank your Trusted Adult

20. What Peer Leaders are Saying about Sources of Strength
1 m 57 s

21. What is Sources of Strength?
3 m 9 s

22. Adult Advisor Training
The Power of Social Networking Theory
Messaging Levels
Activities & Campaigns
3 Key Reminders for Adult Advisors
Flowvella presentation

23. The Happy Secret to Better Work
Shawn Achor
TED Talks:
The Happy Secret to Better Work

25. Georgia Project AWARE Family & Community Engagement Specialist
Cheryl Benefield
Georgia Project AWARE Family & Community Engagement Specialist
Georgia Department of Education
Tammi Clarke Director of Project AWARE & PBIS
Muscogee County School District