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Happy end of summer!
I have been writing on the theme that each of us can elect to promote mental health and wellness. A new example of this is illustrated by the photos in the header. The first photo is from the AWI celebration in March (Winter Blues/Spring Awakening). If you were able to attend, you were met by teens who introduced you to a mood-color activity to normalize a conversation about mood.
As you can see in the other photo, one of my guests, Fiona Almeida, went on to introduce that activity to school leaders in India, along with slides about depression and suicide prevention. Over a dozen schools there elected to implement the Break Free From Depression curriculum. To help their success, t
he Rotary Foundation will fund for their communities (in the greater Hubli area of Karntaka state):
- train-the-trainer workshops
- increases in provider capacity
- ideas for program sustainability
Obviously, Fiona is a remarkable young woman who initiated mental health and wellness promotion that will greatly help more than a thousand children in the current school year, and each year of their lives thereafter. At the same time, Fiona is regular person:
wife to her husband, Chris, and a student herself, now back at Tufts. My
point is that you can also elect to promote mental health and wellness.
Anywhere in the world, you can
participate for the train-the-trainer webinar
hosted by Boston Children's hospital.
Here in Massachusetts, you can also
encourage a teen to attend the live
train-the-trainer workshop on September 17
where they will learn
how to co-facilitate the Interact wellness project for peer leadership and depression prevention. The teens participating in the Interact wellness project provide communities the unique advantage of allowing any size grade to break into small group discussions that allow every youth to speak. One benefit to the teen leaders from India, Puerto Rico and the United States who elect to participate in Interact (which stands for International action) is that they are invited to
teleconference
to share ideas and experiences with their peers in the other countries.
How is the teen training
funded? Private donors like you and me give to area
Rotary
clubs or to
AWI, a 501c3 non-profit. The most recent AWI
donor is
nineteen year old Thomas Capozzi, a 2015 graduate of the Rotary Club of Wellesley-sponsored Interact club for teens. Thomas donated to benefit Interact all of the
$1,500 scholarship awarded him by the Hannah Storm Randolph Memorial Fund, Inc. located in Wellesley, MA.
Hannah died from a ski accident in 2012; her
memory is honored by Hannah's Fund by gifting scholarships to recognize students who exhibit:
- caring
- empathy
- a willingness to work hard
- the courage to reach out to others, and a
- passion for their interests in life.
The current Interact teens are inspired by and grateful for this gift.
Best regards,
-Bob Anthony
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