Hello Sources of Strength Partners,

We hope your school year is off to a great start! We've completed most of our Adult Advisor trainings and have started the second phase of Sources training: Peer Leader training!

Got questions? Need technical assistance? Join us for our Oct. 1 Zoom Video Conference. Our Sources trainer Mandi Dornfeld has lots of great campaign ideas and tips on how run Peer Leader meetings.

And we hope to see you Nov. 21 at our Sources Learning Community dinner (see details below). This is a great opportunity to meet Adult Advisors from the 17 schools in our region implementing Sources! 

Wendy Magas, Project Coordinator
Healthy Teen Minds, The N.E.W. Mental Health Connection

Help your Peer Leaders Hit the Bullseye!

Your role as an Adult Advisor is to help your Peer Leader team to move positive ideas to the next level, by incorporating strength-based language and activities into their campaigns.

Every Sources of Strength message should be positive and should raise awareness of the stengths. AND every campaign must also be interactive and engaging, helping people apply strengths in their own lives. 

Campaigns that hit this "bullseye" have the power to create deep and lasting behavior and culture change, where people are truly putting strengths into action and sharing stories of resilience! Click here to check out some campaign examples.

Do You Know Your School's
Suicide Intervention Protocol?

Knowing how to respond to a distressed or suicidal youth is CRITICAL for effective prevention and intervention. As students increase their trust for adults in your building and grow their help-seeking behaviors (which are among the key objectives of Sources of Strength), you can expect to become aware of more students who are experiencing mental health struggles. 

So if and when a student comes to you, whether they are struggling or they are concerned about a friend, you need to be one who connects that student to help and know exactly what to do. 

We strongly recommend that all school staff review and know their school's suicide intervention protocol. This could be done at an all-staff meeting: a review of the policy so each and every adult in the building knows how to respond to a student in crisis or distress.  

Click here for a template protocol, developed by Sources of Strength. This protocol review document includes basic suggestions to include in your policy and protocol, and in-staff and volunteer training. This is not intended to supplant effective protocols that already exist, but to be used as a checklist and guide.