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Hope Squad Targets Mental Health Sophia Li
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ver the past two years, students have battled the mental toll of COVID-19 on top of traditional high school burdens. Now, Greenhill is launching an Upper School Hope Squad to facilitate community awareness and communication about mental health. Hope Squad is a Utah-based program with about 1,200 groups nationwide. According to the organization’s website, Hope Squad is a “peer-to-peer suicide prevention program” comprised of teachers and nominated students. There are three faculty advisers for the new group: Genie Burke, who teaches Upper School history; Allie Chase, an Upper School speech teacher and associate speech and debate coach; and Director of Social Emotional Learning and Wellness Shanti Majefski. For Majefski, addressing suicidal thoughts begins with educating students on healthy coping mechanisms. “I have been in the mental health field for over 20 years, and one thing I feel like the mental health field does not do well is providing education and strategies to e v e r y o n e ,” Majefski said. “It seems like you have to be in a crisis to get the tools for social and emotional development.”
Campus Conversations Since the Hope Squad’s official introduction to the Greenhill community in November, the advisers have been working behind the scenes to assemble a strong student-oriented program. “In order to bring a Hope Squad to a school, you have to partner with a local mental health agency,” Majefski said. “The agency we are partnering with is the Grant Halliburton Foundation. They are providing us the support and resources needed to bring Hope Squad to Greenhill.” The Halliburton foundation works with the national Hope Squad, which helps advisers with suicide prevention training, newsletters and monthly meetings.
Squad Members Student representatives play a key role in a successful Hope Squad, Majefski said. The hope is that students will face fewer mental health challenges behind closed doors if they have trusted peer representatives in which they can confide, Majefski said. “[The Hope Squad members’] responsibilities are really just to connect with peers and be visible by being someone that peers may come to,” Majefski said. “The key piece with Hope Squad is really embedding it within the culture of our student body and getting our student body to a place of, ‘I share this struggle with someone, and then I take the steps to get help.’” The selection process began with a survey asking all Upper School students to nominate three peers who they would feel most comfortable talking to. Hope Squad advisers contacted nominated students and invited them to an introductory orientation. Hope Squad advisers are currently finalizing the list of nominees and scheduling Hope
Squad meetings. Hope Squad advisers will hold bimonthly meetings to help the nominated squad members fulfill their duties.
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I have been in the mental health field for over 20 years, and one thing I feel like the mental health field does not do well is providing education and strategies to everyone. It seems like you have to be in a crisis to get the tools for social and emotional development.”
“Initially, they will get some pretty intense suicide prevention training. Our Hope Squad members will be trained on how to recognize signs that someone is struggling with suicidal ideation,” Majefski said. “One meeting will be focused on the Hope Squad curriculum. The other meeting will be dedicated toward community awareness activities and using time to plan those.” Although students take the reins with activity planning, Greenhill hopes to extend activities to students across all grade levels. Possible community activities include creating a compliment board or a gratitude wall, sending positive quotes and writing supportive letters. “We may have some activities that are schoolwide, so preschool until twelfth grade,” Majefski said. “We may have some activities that are division-specific. Ultimately, it will be up to the students on how to bring about community awareness.”
Student Response Some Greenhill students have high expectations for this new initiative. “I think it is rare that a school has a specific program dedicated toward suicide prevention,” sophomore Iyad Mohammed said. “Just knowing that there is a support system where students can talk about mental health is really assuring.” Other students have expressed dissatisfaction with some aspects of the creation and rollout of the Hope Squad. “It just turned into a popularity contest, and it is going to be hard to open up to someone who runs in a very different social circle than you do,” sophomore Andy Simpson said of the nominating process for student representatives. O t h e r students expressed similar concerns. “If I am not feeling great, I will usually talk to a close friend or counselor,” senior Rachel Wegener said. “I do not know why I would talk about it to a person that I’m not even close with. Mental health issues are usually pretty private.” Majefski says she understands these concerns and notes that Hope Squad members are not the only communication outlet students have. “Hope Squad shifts the culture so that people reach out to get the support they need, whether Graphic by Emma Nguyen they are reaching out to a Hope Squad member, an adviser or just another teacher that they trust,” Majefski said. Students envision alternatives with a similar goal as Hope Squad to ensure the mental wellness of Greenhill students. “As a way to make it more helpful to people who are struggling, a chat room on MyGreenhill that is anonymous on both ends, as well as sharing outside resources, would be better,” Simpson said. “That would be a lot better than publishing names and saying, ‘Oh, you can talk to them.’” Although there is some uncertainty in the community about the Hope Squad, Majefski says that its end goal is simple: to foster a healthy community environment where people feel empowered to seek mental health support. “There are a lot of people that are okay with talking about their struggles, but not okay with taking the next step and getting help from others,” Majefski said. “Hope Squad focuses on developing a lot of skills that will be useful just in dealing with life in general and beyond Greenhill.”
For the Hornets This Week !"#$%&'()*+,-.*/0 Southwest Preparatory Conference Winter Championships in Fort Worth
+$1&'()*+,-.*// SPC Winter Championships Winter Break (School Closed)
2'3#$&'()*+,-.*/4 SPC Winter Championships Winter Break (School Closed)
2#5&'()*+,-.*/6 Winter Break (School Closed)
785&'()*+,-.*/9 Winter Break (School Closed) Valentine’s Day
:,&5,%&'()*+,-.*/; Senior Moms’/ Special Friends’ Breakfast Brunch
This Month * +,-.*/< Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District Softball Tournament
+,-.*/= Greenhill Auction Coffee Meetup Texas Private School Music Educators Association Band Clinic CFB ISD Softball Tournament
+,-.*/> Winter Formal at Christie’s Banquet Hall TPSMEA Band Clinic CFB ISD Softball Tournament
+,-.*46 Executive Committee meeting
+,-.*49 Primer Play
+,-.*4; TPSMEA North Solo/ Ensemble Contest Hope Squad