-A Brief History of School-Based Wellness Centers -Overview of the initiation of the Wellness Program in SRCS -Challenges & Successes of building “a system within a system” -Cultural & Community reception and perception of mental health -Hopeful Future Goals for Wellness in Schools
Take-aways will include an overview of:
-How to manage funding challenges -How to navigate staffing challenges -How to respond to/manage staff, student & parent ideas about wellness/mental health -How to build a strong program that will last
● Participants will learn the background of Dynamic Mindfulness (DMind), a research-validated movement-based mindfulness practice. ● Participants will have the option to join in an experiential practice of Dynamic Mindfulness, which includes moving the body, breathing intentionally and centering the mind. ● Participants will learn how DMind is a trauma-informed practice and how to share it with others using trauma-informed delivery. ● Participants will learn strategies for how to integrate Dynamic Mindfulness into their workplace, school and classroom settings. ● Participants will walk away with a new set of tools to reduce stress in their personal and professional lives.
- Developing Sustainable Wellness Programs: Learn how to lead the creation and implementation of sustainable wellness programs by engrafting mental health interns, strengthening community partnerships with local universities, and fostering long-term mental health support structures in schools. - Leading Efforts to Address Racial Inequities: Understand the role of clinical supervisors in promoting mental health programming that addresses racial inequities and prioritizes culturally responsive care, creating an environment where all students feel supported and valued.
Mental Health continues to be a top priority for employers and employees across the country. Organizations have an opportunity to move toward a proactive approach to support teachers, administrators and staff by incorporating a mindset of mental fitness. Mental fitness is a combination of activities, habits, and attitudes that contribute to overall emotional health and wellness. Like physical fitness requires activity to get and stay fit and prevent health risks, mental fitness means actively doing things to manage and respond to stress and keep our emotions and mental state healthy. We will focus on how incorporating mental fitness into your organization’s culture can lead to greater workplace well-being, satisfaction and safety.
This Social Emotional Learning & the Arts Professional Development session explores how to use the arts as a vehicle for social-emotional learning (SEL). Participants will discover the five social-emotional learning competencies while integrating the arts with SEL. Participants will examine art lessons combined with SEL competencies conducive to a variety of instructional times.
Additionally, strategies and activities for arts-based SEL across visual and performing arts will be explored. At the culmination of the session, participants will be able to create or transform their own existing lessons to reflect SEL competencies taught through the arts.
Mentis is passionate about providing equitable, accessible, and effective mental health care to the youth in our valley. Our mission is based on educating, inspiring, and supporting the mental health needs of the community, including those with limited access to care. This presentation will focus on how our continuum of care is supporting the mental health needs of migrant youth and their families. The presenters will discuss the impacts of migration on mental health, barriers to accessing care, and share Mentis’ approach to supporting youth and families during this period of transition. Furthermore, the presenters will discuss the importance of caregiver engagement to create a culture of mental wellness across the family system. The primary takeaways for this presentation include raising awareness on the mental health needs of migrant youth, the importance of providing resources and engagement for caregivers, and the inclusion of bilingual/bicultural care to support youth with navigating this challenging life transition.
Session topic will cover best practices for teaching and supporting students who have experienced trauma, the impact of trauma on the brain and learning process, and the power of healing student/educator relationships in learner outcomes.
Building Community, showing empathy and a degree of self-disclosure is key to earning the trust of families to understand, see the benefits of and consent to counseling and mental health services for their students. Showing how at Cerritos we have used parent workshops, presentations, and Wellness Room visits we have seen great strides in getting parents on board with mental health services and helping to break the stigma of these important servives. We educate families by providing key facts and data about mental health, describe the response to intervention and 3 tiers of mental health supports at our site, we allow for open communication, address their concerns directly, highlight positive aspects of seeking help, and community engagement. We provide a tour of our Student Wellness Room so they parents can see what we are doing to help support mental health and social emotional learning. As a community school we have partnered with local mental health agencies to bring the mental health services to our student at our school site. We also link and refer tier three cases with wrap around services if needed.
In this session, participants will learn about Effective Classroom Practices to encourage equity and belonging within the classroom community. Participants will gain knowledge on the 18 Effective Classroom Practices and the concepts behind each, connections of the practices to student culture, current research behind the practices, and how to implement the practices within the classroom effectively. These Effective Classroom Practices will specifically facilitate equity, belonging and a stronger classroom community for historically marginalized groups.
This session will explore how schools can create nurturing learning environments that enhance student well-being and academic success. Participants will examine survey data trends from the Challenge Success Student Experience Survey, administered to over 350,000 middle and high school students and focused on student well-being, belonging, and engagement. They will gain valuable tools and strategies to improve student well-being and learn how schools across the country have used critical insights about the student experience to change policies and practices.
