Help Us De-stigmatize Mental Health on Campus
Funded Jun 26, 2023We are so grateful for our sea of squishmallows! We bought them to use as incentives for students to participate in health and wellness programming at our high school. We polled students for their favorite prizes, and the responses were overwhelmingly squishmallow, which we can understand! Students report that holding onto soft, squishy friends helps them feel safe and comfortable and helps them regulate if they're feeling stressed. We specifically chose mini squishmallows so that students can be discreet and can regulate without too much attention.
In September, our counseling department delivered classroom presentations on the topic of suicide prevention and awareness, in line with national suicide prevention month. The presentation consisted of watching videos and using the think-pair-share model to reflect on the content. We brought squishmallows as prizes for student participation, and we found that students were super engaged and excited for a chance to win the prize. In some of the classes, we had 100% participation, which is rare! I think we owe it to the squishmallows.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Gold