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The SCCoop
Words on Wellness
Late June 2020
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Unlike many things this spring and summer, our SCC year ended with a high with our retooled Middle School Forum. We are proud of and grateful for all our YAC kids and adults who made it happen. Read about it below.
Instead of our usual end of year open board meeting, we Zoomed in to see each other virtually, wrap up our year, say farewell to outgoing board members, and to look ahead, welcoming new board members. Please read our
Annual Report to catch up. While we'll take the summer off from meetings and newsletters, we'll continue to post interesting and relevan
t materials on Facebook and Twitter, so be sure to follow us @mcleanscc. Looking forward we are investigating developing webinars for parents — perhaps monthly on certain topics or just maybe just drop in support groups —
and having our canceled spring speaker to do something for us on the “new normal.” The pandemic has provided many opportunities for wellness!
Please note we are still in need of board volunteers to manage Sixth Grade Ethics Days, to represent Langley HS pyramid, and to represent elementary and middle schools students and parents. Please contact us if you are interested!
As always,
let us know how the SCC can help in your community, school, and home!
Elizabeth Hale, President
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Youth Advisory Council/Middle School Forum
Our Youth Advisory Council "Quaranteens" ran a Virtual Middle School Forum via Padlet, an interactive and collaborative tool students are already using in school. Fortunately, questions from Cooper and Longfellow eighth graders had been collected in the winter. The students used these questions to create a structured and comprehensive tool to deliver the answers. The YAC sent sets of videos and other media to Cooper and Longfellow counselors for distribution to eighth graders. Thank you to everyone who contributed. We hope eighth graders feel good about entering high school this fall (however that works out).
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SCC Board Member Comings & Goings
Each spring the SCC Board meets to review the year and say hello to new members and goodbye to other. This year we are pleased to welcome two new members — Laura Skeen and Chrissie Lavin, both former PTA presidents of Langley High School and longtime school volunteers who bring a wealth of experience and contacts to the SCC board. Welcome aboard!
Stepping off the board is our longest serving member, local psychologist Melissa Sporn, who has been with us for 15 years and has been a guiding force for the SCC for as many years. Melissa's leadership and institutional knowledge are a big reason the SCC continues to thrive in its 25th year. We are grateful that Melissa will continue her involvement on the mental health committee and will continue to be a leader of 6th Grade Ethics Day.
Margaret Alessi leaves the SCC after six years on the board. For many years Margaret organized the SCC's annual spring Administrator’s Supper — a thank you for our school-based supporters. Margaret embodies the ethic of the hardworking volunteer, always willing to educate the public about the work of the SCC at information tables, selling tickets to our events and supporting the SCC in any way she can.
We also bid farewell to Maria Barnett, who spent four years on the board and served in a variety of roles. Most recently Maria put her formidable organizing skills to the task as logistics coordinator for 6th Grade Ethics Day. That is a sizeable undertaking and in Maria's capable hands we never missed a beat. Thank you, Maria!
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WeCoach:Student2Student
The Safe Community Coalition is supporting a summer pilot of a program designed by and for students: WeCoach:Student2Student (S2S) is a program two local brothers, one a rising senior and the other in college, designed to help kids during the pandemic.
Is your student bored during the pandemic? Is he or she service-oriented and wanting to do something to give back to the community? Are your older teens in need of someone to talk to and want to be part of a team? At WeCoach: Student2Student (S2S) we may have just what they are looking for. This program is for young adults to get help from other young adults during Covid-19. Becoming part of a peer circle is a great opportunity for them to build problem-solving skills and expand their network of trusted relationships. The program can help with anything from school stress to boredom and lifestyle changes.
The commitment is short. The pilot will be once a week for 60-90 minutes for 4 weeks via Zoom beginning in mid-July. Each week a different member of the circle will raise an issue or challenge important to them and receive help from their group. It's a great opportunity both to get support and give support to others during this tough time.
Each circle will be facilitated by a peer who has been trained, mentored, and is being supported by adult certified coaches. Our adult coaches are graduates of
International Coach Federation-accredited coaching programs and have specialized expertise in facilitation and peer coaching methods. They also have decades of experience coaching leaders at all levels in organizations in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.
Registration is open until June 29. Parents can call one of our lead coaches/facilitators, Betsy Quint-Moran, at 703-501-2857. If your students are interested, have them reach out to Adriano at 703-477-4254 or Camillo 703-401-8471.
*Disclaimer*
Note: This is not therapy or a program for “at risk” kids so clinical issues like severe anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, or OCD are beyond our scope. That said, our peer circle leaders will be trained to spot these issues and connect peers with other great counseling and mentoring resources like the ones available
here
.
Our program is just students helping students using a structured, problem-solving approach.
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Zoom Wellness Groups
A member of our Mental Health Committee, Corinne Coppola, is leading wellness groups during the pandemic. She has a 5 day workshop on
Compassion starting this week, plus weekly
drop in groups for teens and young adult
s.
Known for her contagious uplifting energy, Corinne creates a healing space to empower adults and children of all ages with the tools they need to transform from the inside out. By helping families slow down and learn new ways of relating to themselves and each other, Corinne helps her clients build greater resilience and wholeness to live their best life. The SCC does not endorse any particular wellness program.
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IndieFlix Free This Week Only
From the IndieFlix newsletter,
#MyMonday
, this week at IndieFlix is a week of FREE events, conversations, screenings and activities. Gather your kids, friends and family members to watch movies (
"Angst" Tuesday 9 am
,
"Nevertheless" Thursday 2:30 pm
,
)and join the conversation about mental health (Nevertheless, Wednesday 4 pm) (10yrs+), ask questions about sexual harassment at our
"Nevertheless" town hall, Wednesday 7 pm
(13yrs+) and find steps to move forward. Lastly, download the
Array 101 Learning Companion
(9th grade and up) to learn about social justice and how we can grow.
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The SCC thrives in its 25th year as an all-volunteer organization with funding from community grants and individual donors including the New Dominion Women’s Club, Rotary Club of McLean, McLean Community Foundation, the Zavela Foundation, and through the SCC Mental Health Committee. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and welcome all donations.
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Safe Community Coalition | mcleanscc.org
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