BeWell is a virtual wellness space that offers evidence-based practices, resources, tools, and strategies for education professionals to support their emotional regulation and well-being. Strategies are organized into three categories – calm yourself, activate yourself, and increase your well-being – that users can choose from based on their mental or emotional state. BeWell offers activities for listening, watching, reading, doing and learning that support a calm, centered, and engaged mindset. Bookmark this site and visit any time you need to regulate or learn about how to improve your overall well-being.
Behavioral Support Strategies
Calming Spaces in Schools and Classrooms
As the places where young people spend a significant amount of their lives, schools have an immense opportunity to attend to the social, emotional, and mental health needs of students on a regular basis. Calming spaces can be integrated as part of a school’s comprehensive strategy to provide nurturing environments that foster positive student development and prevent harmful and persistent distress.
This brief describes calming spaces and the potential positive impacts that offering such spaces in schools or classrooms can have on students’ mental health and learning. It features several examples of calming spaces and related resources from California and beyond, provides an explanation of how calming spaces align with other initiatives for supporting student well-being, and offers practical guidance for educators to consider when setting up their own calming spaces.
Engaging the School Community in the Transformation Process
The perspectives of diverse school community members are integral to school climate improvement efforts and ensure that a shared vision for safe and supportive learning environments is authentic and effective. In this audiocast, you’ll hear how San Diego Unified’s Horace Mann Middle School has engaged in team-based climate and connectedness improvement work to promote supportive student-staff relationships.
Featured Speakers:
- Dr. Nea Hearn, District–level Instructional Coordinator San Diego Unified School District
- Sarah Schulte, Site–level instructional coordinator at Horace–Mann Middle School
- Nate Leboff, Math teacher at Horace–Mann Middle School
- Catherine Fox–Copeland, English teacher at Horace–Mann Middle School
- Gladys, 7th grade student
- Ahn, 8th grade student
View the transcript for this audiocast.
Download the Horace Mann brief.
A Community-Based Approach to Student and Family Well-Being
School districts that implement whole-community supports incorporate the needs of families and caregivers in their approach to student well-being. In this audiocast, you’ll hear about how Pajaro Valley Unified School District prioritizes community voice to provide responsive supports that promote multi-generational wellness through their Family Engagement and Wellness Center.
Featured Speakers:
- Dr. Michelle Rodriguez, Superintendent
- Christine (Christy) MacLane, Coordinator of Counseling Programs and Coordinator of PVUSD Family Engagement and Wellness Center
View the transcript for this audiocast.
Download the Pajaro Valley brief.
Overview of Promoting Student Resilience (PSR) Grant Program
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Education awarded $4.75 million in Promoting Student Resilience (PSR) grants to three local educational agencies (LEAs): Baltimore City Schools; Chicago Public Schools; and St. Louis Public Schools. The communities in these three LEAs had experienced recent significant civil unrest (i.e., demonstrations of mass protest that involved law enforcement).
The funds supported LEAs’ efforts to build capacity to address the comprehensive behavioral and mental health needs of their students by supporting systems-wide approaches that link schools, mental health service providers, and community-based organizations.
This resource provides a brief overview of the grantees, their activities, support provided, and lessons learned.
Management Factors for Successful Program Implementation
The team tasked with evaluating the California Safe and Supportive Schools (S3) Grant created this brief document to outline what is known from research about management factors that contribute to a program’s success. Activities and mindsets that contribute to successful program implementation are organized into 4 key areas:
- Day-to-day project management
- Administrative-level support
- Training
- At-risk student referral systems
While this document was intended to guide implementation of school climate improvement programs, the key tenants can be applied to other school-based program implementation scenarios.
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