Action Plan
Our action plan is composed of many steps in order to raise awareness on our project and our ultimate mission: to create a healthier Ridge student body through the creation of a more comprehensive freshman mental health unit, a decompression lounge, and a friendlier guidance department. After months of preparation, data collection and analysis, and discussion in the community, the rallying public support was beyond successful. The last portion of our plan includes the actual implementation of our Proposed Solution- a solution made by students, for students.
Step One: Influencing the Community
Visual & Social Media Influence
As a group of 21st century teenagers, we of all people understand how to garner the attention of the youth and our fellow classmates. For our first step of educating the community, we made an Instagram in order to explain our mission to the public, promote positivity and advocate for proper education of mental wellness. Our Instagram, @ridgementalwellness, provides information about our plan, our team, our project, and statistics about the issues. Amassing over one hundred followers and hundreds of views, our instagram promotes healthy ways of coping and signs of mental illnesses for teens to view.
Second, we scattered posters around the walls of our school to increase awareness of the solutions and problem, including statistical research from our survey and motivational sayings to promote change. In doing this, we hope to subtly encourage the student body to become more educated, and to begin integrating proper mental health awareness as a standard in Ridge High.
Petitioning & Involvement within the Community
Our team then created a petition, which currently has over 200 supporters, to present to our Superintendent- Nick Markarian- and assistant Superintendent- Sean Siet- both of which have tremendous weight in the implementation of our solution. In doing so, we hope to portray how many people this issue affects and how our community is able to come together to combat an issue that is so prevalent in even our local adolescents.
Likewise, on May 7th 2018 at 7:00 p.m., four of our members attended and spoke at the Bernards Township Board of Education meeting. We expressed our passion about our topic and explained what we hope to accomplish along with what we have done thus far. We believe that the Board of Education will support us in all of our future endeavors from taking the time to listen to our factually based and detailed presentation. We proposed our policy to allow them to begin considering the impacts it may have on the functioning of our school system and wellbeing of our youth.
In discussing with the Board of Education, we gathered the attention of Board member Ms. Bev Scwerner who expressed support of our Proposed Solution and excitement for the implementation, as well as the belief that it is highly feasible to go through with.
As a group of 21st century teenagers, we of all people understand how to garner the attention of the youth and our fellow classmates. For our first step of educating the community, we made an Instagram in order to explain our mission to the public, promote positivity and advocate for proper education of mental wellness. Our Instagram, @ridgementalwellness, provides information about our plan, our team, our project, and statistics about the issues. Amassing over one hundred followers and hundreds of views, our instagram promotes healthy ways of coping and signs of mental illnesses for teens to view.
Second, we scattered posters around the walls of our school to increase awareness of the solutions and problem, including statistical research from our survey and motivational sayings to promote change. In doing this, we hope to subtly encourage the student body to become more educated, and to begin integrating proper mental health awareness as a standard in Ridge High.
Petitioning & Involvement within the Community
Our team then created a petition, which currently has over 200 supporters, to present to our Superintendent- Nick Markarian- and assistant Superintendent- Sean Siet- both of which have tremendous weight in the implementation of our solution. In doing so, we hope to portray how many people this issue affects and how our community is able to come together to combat an issue that is so prevalent in even our local adolescents.
Likewise, on May 7th 2018 at 7:00 p.m., four of our members attended and spoke at the Bernards Township Board of Education meeting. We expressed our passion about our topic and explained what we hope to accomplish along with what we have done thus far. We believe that the Board of Education will support us in all of our future endeavors from taking the time to listen to our factually based and detailed presentation. We proposed our policy to allow them to begin considering the impacts it may have on the functioning of our school system and wellbeing of our youth.
In discussing with the Board of Education, we gathered the attention of Board member Ms. Bev Scwerner who expressed support of our Proposed Solution and excitement for the implementation, as well as the belief that it is highly feasible to go through with.
Step Two: Influencing Representative Lance & Educators
We discussed with various important educators in Ridge High School, including Katherine VanDerStad, an academic school counselor of twenty-three years, and Laura Rieder, a teacher of twelve years who annually discusses mental illness and treatment with her AP Psychology students. We asked their opinions on topics such as the current high school environment- specifically in stress, mental wellness, competitiveness within the community, and our proposed solution- and garnered their support.
Two members of our team got a very valuable opportunity to speak with Representative Lance of the 7th district. During their encounter, they explained to him the premise of Project Citizen: Ridge Mental Wellness and educated him on relevant data to impact his decision on voting for mental health reform. In educating Basking Ridge's local government representative on mental health within Ridge High, we are promoting a message beyond that of what we have discussed only in school and are reaching an even broader audience. Our early step was not focused on influencing Lance, however this great opportunity came about and hopefully addressing these issues at our school as a pilot program can influence other schools in NJ as well. |
Step Three: Proposed Solution Implementation
After finalizing our data, exposing the public to our solutions, bringing attention to our issue, and calling on officials for help, Project Citizen: Ridge Mental Wellness requires immediate action to take place to carry out our mental health reform.
PART A: MENTAL HEALTH CURRICULUM
- We will begin by reaching out to the Basking Ridge Parent Teacher Association (PTO) and gather their valuable opinion on our proposal. By gaining their approval, we would be given more influence within our community and in the school due to their tremendous power to sway policymakers.
- The next public official to influence is Brian Heineman, the Bernards Board of Education Director of Instruction and Curriculum. Meeting with Mr. Heineman will allow our group insight into the curriculum writing process as well as understanding rules, guidelines, and boundaries with teaching such a highly sensitive topic.
- We will then receive teacher training from resources such as the National Alliance on Mental Illness to educate the staff on the sensitivity of the topic, as well as to broaden the spectrum from only students being educated to the entire school.
- Next, we would continue by discussing in a group with Student Assistant Counselors, Superintendent Nick Markarian, guidance counselors and freshman health teachers to present the issue at hand. From there, with our influence and recommendations to the Physical Education and guidance departments, these officials will begin to remodel the 9th grade semester long mental health unit to be more comprehensive to the town in which we live and its residents. After talking to the Head of the Physical Education Department Mr. Shello he informed us that this summer, summer of 2018, the Physical Education Department is rewriting there 9th grade health curriculum. With that news we want to talk to the teachers helping to create the new curriculum and give them our ideas. This new curriculum will be initiated in fall of 2019, this would give the staff enough time to write the curriculum, get it approved, and participate in training.
- The rewritten curriculum would be finalized and reviewed for the upcoming school year. Some of the largest complaints about the current class is that it feels a) insensitive, b) rushed, c) impersonal and d) lacks applicability to the lives of students. General guidelines for our rewritten curriculum would include a more in-depth look at suicide awareness and signs of self harm/suicidal behaviors, ways to reach out to those who are suffering, a conversation on substance abuse, an in depth look at common mood and anxiety disorders, and healthy ways of coping with/recognizing student stress.
PART B: DECOMPRESSION ROOM
- We will begin by reaching out to Mr. Krause, our school principal, in order to discuss the steps we must take and the people we must reach out to in order to make this room possible and operate to the best of its ability.
- The next step we must take is to reach out to other schools in the area that have a decompression room already in place in order to gain feedback as to what works and what doesn't, and to make our room the best it can be.
- Next, we would use the feedback from both our school principal and from other districts in the area to create a system that is smooth and accommodates the schedules of all students. We would figure out how much money we must raise in order to pay for all materials.
- We will connect with other clubs in school, such as the Meditation Club or the Therapy Dog club, and gain their insights and maybe do joint fundraisers in order to raise money for all of the materials we would need in the decompression rooms (i.e. play dough, string and beads, paint, coloring books). We would also figure out which teachers would be willing to be in the room during their off periods by conducting a service or sending out an email.
- Finally, we would use the tutorial center room in the back of the cafeteria as a test run in the beginning of the school year to get an idea as to how many students demonstrate interest in going to the room during their lunches, if we have enough materials, and if the system proves to reduce the stress in students at our school. We would gain feedback from students and teachers as to how well they think this new room is working and any recommendations as to how we could improve it.
- We would use the information gathered from the pilot program in the tutorial center to make changes as need and make it more official. For example, the school may need to budget money towards this, have more staff members open up their rooms, create passes like a study hall system, etc.
PART C: GUIDANCE DEPARTMENT
- Our first step is discussing our concerns about the guidance department layout with our school principal, Drew Krause, and the necessary steps we must take.
- The next step we must take is receiving feedback from our survey, to see how the Ridge High Student Body views our guidance department. By gaining this feedback, we will be able to see how the guidance environment affects students from all grade levels.
- Our next step would be to research other guidance departments in the area or look up examples online to see different layouts, gather ideas, and gain insight as to what creating a comfortable environment for students to be in entails.
- Lastly, after conducting our research and talking to our principal, we will come up with the top necessary components we feel will better our guidance department as a whole. Whether we find this is getting rid of the college banners, or getting more couches, we will discuss with our principal again to see what he feels is necessary for the betterment of the students.
PART D: State Expansion
- After getting our solution implemented in Ridge High School, we want to expand it to the whole state of New Jersey. This can be done by getting involved with some mental health interest groups, such as the National Alliance on Mental Health, and Anxiety and Depression Association of America.
- In addition, we will use Ridge as a pilot program on our solutions, and lead other High Schools in making these same changes. If other schools see that these solutions are having a positive impact on our school they would want to make the same changes to their school, because mental health is a problem that it affecting all schools not just Ridge. By trialing our solution at one high school, we can treat Ridge High School as a laboratory of democracy, and modify our plan as needed, before expanding it state wide. This would hopefully allow us to resolve any issues that may arise in the initial implementation and provide data that would encourage public officials to endorse our ideas.