Source: Heidi Marchant, Kindersley Composite School Facebook, March 23, 2016
The Kindersley Composite School SLC recently held their first ever “Bounce Back” week to raise awareness of mental health and self care strategies.
This took place from March 15-18. The concept of this initiative came from our student leaders who attended the Canadian Student Leadership Conference in the fall. They were passionate about bringing Bounce Back week to our school. Bounce Back Week is an attempt to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health issues and promote self care strategies to ALL students. A lot of our students struggle with mental health issues to some degree (or are a support person for someone who does). ALL of our students experience anxiety to some degree. ALL of our students deal with stress in their lives. These messages apply to everyone. Bounce Back week was an attempt to provide our students with the resources to Bounce Back from episodes of anxiety or stressful situations.
We had over 13 presentations throughout the week on topics ranging from personal stories of mental illness and how to cope, anxiety, grief, the science behind mental illness, suicide awareness, meditation, life coaching, yoga and PiYo exercise. Teachers showed videos created to reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness. Our SLC members covered the mirrors in the school with paper covered inspirational sayings for “Mirrorless Monday,” and placed positive messages on the bathroom walls. This activity was aimed to remind students and staff that their beauty is so much more than what’s in the mirror. Our SLC members also created posters with mental health facts and self care strategies and hung them throughout the school. All in all we feel that the week was extremely successful!
Thank you very much to all of presenters who took time to come out to speak to our students during the week!
