In difficult times, we all need a source of strength. A group of high school students and staff spent time recently learning how to be that source.
Tough times will come for everyone, but it’s how we navigate those challenges that truly matters. The students participating in the training were selected as peer leaders, recognized for their potential to make a meaningful impact at Carroll County High School.
“One of the issues from our community meetings last spring was to help make our students more accountable and to provide resources for social and emotional support. Sources of Strength allow us to help develop these skills for all students,” said Carroll County Schools Superintendent Casey Jaynes.
Blake Konny, a Sources of Strength trainer from the Division of Student Success at Kentucky Department of Education, told the teens, “We hope to empower you all to spread hope, health and strength to all parts of your building.”
Student and adult leaders engaged in several games to understand the core components of Sources of Strength. They also talked about sources of stress and how they can help their peers leverage strengths to overcome and deal with those feelings. “Sometimes we have problems we face, but don’t see a way out, but we ask for help and we find the way out,” Blake said. “One message you can help spread is the ability to ask for help.”
Sara Abrams, a junior at Carroll County High School, has been very involved in mental health initiatives at the school for the last couple of years. “I hope this will help more kids open up about their mental health instead of hiding and using bad coping mechanisms to deal with their mental health,” Sara said.
In small groups, the students identified personal sources of strength and explained how they use those sources to help get them through difficult times.
Sources of Strength utilizes an eight-piece wheel to help identify places in a teenager’s life that could help them. They include family support, positive friends, mentors, healthy activities, generosity, spirituality, physical health and mental health.
“Sources of Strength asks you to be thoughtful and interested in how we build these things on the wheel into our own lives,” Blake said. The teens were encouraged to participate in a 21-day thankfulness challenge with the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. This encourages them, and others, to focus on things for which they are grateful.
A key point to Sources of Strength is the upstream approach to dealing with mental health. In short, deal with it before it gets too big. “This upstream model strengthens multiple sources of support, or protective factors, for young people so that when times get hard, they have strengths to rely on,” according to the Sources of Strength website.
Laura Beth Neff, a school counselor at CCHS, said “I am excited to see how empowered these students are today after identifying their own sources of personal strength. I can’t wait for these student leaders to share how this preventative approach can empower their peers.”
Armed with their newfound knowledge, the students will engage in prevention campaigns in their schools aimed at helping friends navigate difficult times and identifying supportive individuals. “Your job is not to be the solution. You are a connector for help,” Blake told the group.
The students involved include Brooklyn Rose, Jayda Dale, Gregory Humphrey, Nick Brock, Maverick Johnson, Madelyn Sanchez, Molly Young, Alex Bolton, Audrey Carli, Miley Dickerson, Nathan Mazza, Konnor Snow, Lucas Taylor, Blake Webster, Hannah Weedman, Sara Abrams, Brinley Couch, Cloie McGuire, Amaya Owen, Jody Switzer, Patrick Parker, Houston Parker, Landon Warren, Ashlen Yaritza Sanchez, Macy Coghill, Mallory Noble, Cierrah Schaub, Hemi Dickerson, Celia Tuttle, Daihana Zacarias-Franco, Trinity Doolin, Quinn Willhoite, Jordan Raisor, Bryson Chadwell, Sheridan Crutcher, Victoria Crutcher, Honey Anderson and Macyn Walters.