North has a variety of supports and resources to assist with one’s mental health. Counselors, deans, teachers- the list could go on forever. Recently, HOPE Club took the time to put a spotlight on those resources, both inside and outside of school. They executed a presentation on March 4, in the auditorium, during students’ health/gym hours.
“We try to honor the fact that at school, there are so many supports here. Of course, students are dealing with things that are often out of their control, at home or in their friend groups, and there are so many people here at North that want to support students, not only celebrate the successes, but also be there when you’re struggling,” said Julianne Pheney, one of the advisers of HOPE Club, along with Katherine McCleary and Stephanie Stavropolous.
From March 2-6, HOPE week featured posters encouraging people with mental health struggles to get help, a mental health-themed spirit week and a presentation shown to all students at North showcasing support and resources for one’s mental health.
“We did the display case out front, partnered with GSA, and GSA has a display case down closer to the nurse’s office, where they’ve taken the theme and really embraced that whole idea of being mentally strong and emotionally strong and having a team mentality, that it’s more than just you. There’s a lot of people who are around you to support your mental health,” said Pheney.
However, HOPE Week took lots of planning and preparation from the members of HOPE Club, with brainstorming starting as early as January.
“We spent [time] since January, a lot of time, planning it, figuring out who we could ask to speak, because we get all those videos and what we’re gonna ask, what specific topics we want to talk about,” said senior Julia Denson, one of the emcees during the HOPE Club presentation.
Their hard work paid off when the week finally came, as HOPE club received lots of positive feedback and lots of participation in many of the activities, such as the trusted adult google form at the end of the presentation.
“We had 1600 students fill out the trusted adult survey that you took on your phone, which is fantastic…Not everyone did it, but that was a great number to have fill out, and we recognize that there are some students that didn’t identify a trusted adult and so now the social work team is calling those students down,” said Pheney.
However, HOPE Club is still focusing on improving the tradition for next year, with ideas like a live choir performance being brought up.
“The biggest thing, I think, would be maybe including some more videos to break up the writing and speaking from the scripts. [Also], we sometimes have a performance, a live musical performance,” said Pheney.
Overall, HOPE Club is proud of what they have managed to accomplish, with hopes that some of what they have said and done will resonate with students, even if it is something small.
“If it’s one moment or one thing we said, [and] if you could walk away and just be a little more positive, or react to a situation better, or be kinder to people, then I feel that we accomplished our goal,” said Denson.
