During this holiday season, I am grateful for a very successful first semester of HIP!
Since the start of the school year, HIP has already experienced significant milestones.
HIP:
- Expanded to new high schools–public, private, charter and parochial
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Educated 60,000 9th graders during this school year
- Returned to in-person kick-off events in September
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Grew the HIP team with 2 new key staff hires: chief of staff and chief program officer
- Added more faculty sponsor coordinators
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Surpassed last year’s Give Miami Day funds raised
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Presented at the Clinton Foundation’s annual women’s conference in Little Rock in early December
But there is much more work to be done!
While it seems that most people have returned to pre-pandemic life, there are still millions of teens who have not recovered.
Depression, anxiety and suicide attempts have hit unprecedented levels among children and adolescents.
Nearly three-quarters of high school students in the US reported experiencing at least one adverse childhood experience in 2021, such as physical abuse, emotional abuse, food insecurity, loss of a parent’s job, bullying, dating violence or sexual violence.
To make matters worse, a large majority of counties in the US – 80% – have no child or adolescent psychologists at all–to treat these children in crisis. Other mental health professionals, such as social workers and school counselors, are in short supply as well.
We know that, in order for kids to be successful in the classroom and in life, we must address the stressors and distractions in their lives.
As we enter 2023, we are extremely concerned about the kids that don’t have HIP in their schools–the ones that are not getting any information about depression, anxiety, stress, eating disorders, drug addiction, abuse, trauma, grief, obesity, bullying and suicide.
These teens do not have a safe space to have discussions about critical physical and emotional health issues. No one is reminding them they are not alone.
But at HIP, we remain hopeful. We are determined to address this urgent need and create a world where every high school has HIP!
With your generosity, we are confident we can bring HIP to more cities and school districts across the US in the coming year!
Thank you for always being a champion for our kids!
-Risa Berrin
HIP Founder & CEO
