Central Cass TreeHouse Technology is helping Central Cass Public Schools meet the basic needs of its students. Through an app, students can confidentially request food, clothes and mental health services. The idea is to reduce the stigma of asking for help while aiding students and families in need. By Tom Gerhardt, NDU Communications
Outlined by historic trees and prairie blue sky, Central Cass Public School in Casselton is picture perfect. But like any community or school, there’s more than meets the eye. That’s why what’s behind this door is so important. This room houses the Central Cass TreeHouse – an on campus pantry with a 21st Century twist. “We started the Central Cass TreeHouse, which is an on-campus pantry as well as a technology app which empowers our middle school and high school to tell us about any physical, mental or social need. And we’ve done a number of other specialty services that we provide to students; we do haircutting, we provide free feminine hygiene products in every middle school and high school girls bathroom. We do athletic totes to provide food for food insecurity for our athletes, all sorts of things we contribute to the school so teachers and administrators can meet the basic needs of students without using their own personal finances,” said Central Cass TreeHouse founder 16
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Heidi Domier. The app allows students to confidentially request items like food, clothing and hygiene products. In addition, they’ve connected with Cass Hope – a youth mental health and suicide prevention group in Casselton. “Students from the app can also tell us about a mental health emergency, tell us if they’re worried about a friend, they can schedule time with a school counselor, they can talk and text with FirstLink. We really want to take a lot of the amazing work other organizations are doing and build upon it and put it in a single-source solution for our students,” said Domier. Besides the TreeHouse, in-school pop-up shops like this allow students to confidentially shop for items they need. The Central Cass TreeHouse has been up and running for about a year and a half, and educators say it’s making a difference in the lives of students. “We had a student who, their shoes had holes in their shoes, and we brought the child down to the TreeHouse, and I got to see how excited they were
