In a new effort to bring students and parents together, the Community Resource Night was hosted on October 23, in the MPB from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. Many agencies attended the event to support student mental health by giving presentations and setting up their own booths, covering topics from substance abuse prevention to friends and family support. Each booth offered information, free merchandise, and resources to each student and their families.
The event was coordinated by Assistant Principal Mrs. McGraw and Ms. Landeros, our mental health counselor for the school. They worked to connect families with important mental health and social services, while also raising awareness about other resources available in the community.
Landeros said, “It’s a way for families and students to get connected with local and county services for either mental health or maybe there’s other things that families need support with, so just getting in contact with agencies to provide services.”
The main goal of the resource night was to spread awareness to our school and students. Mental health is an important thing to teach our students, but is not something that’s talked about at school.
Landeros said, “We know there’s a need. We know that families need more support, but it’s just a matter of getting agencies in support out to our campus or just more accessible to families. So it’s really just spreading awareness and then providing to families in our community.”
Students were also able to earn pride points by attending booths, and win prizes from a raffle. The police department donated many gift cards from various places, which all had around $25 on each. Landeros reached out to Starbucks as well, and they donated many coffee cups for the students to win. A TV was donated as well by multiple teachers as they worked together to buy it for the students. Additionally, a teacher donated an entire toaster oven as a raffle prize, too.
The night proved to be successful as students and parents explored resources and services many hadn’t known were available near them. As the event was able to get many people to go, McGraw and Landeros hope to make it a yearly event, potentially combining it with other events to get more people to learn about mental health services.
“This is just the start. We want to make it a tradition and prioritize personal health alongside academics,” said Landeros.
For any questions and more information, please feel free to contact Ms. Landeros at [email protected].
