Perry Township School Enjoys a Successful Summer SEL-ebration
Students and families at Glenns Valley Elementary enjoyed a Summer SEL-ebration on May 15 thanks to the planning and preparation of Glenns Valley Elementary SEL Specialist, Miranda Mellendorf, and Glenns Valley Elementary Social Worker, Amanda Craig, along with support from the GVE PTA, GVE teachers, and additional members of the A&C SEL team. Attendees made tie-dye t-shirts, slime, decorated some petunia plants to take home, added to the GVE Gratitude Banner, helped with a collaborative sticker mosaic, played outdoor games, and discovered how all of these fun activities can help promote SEL. The event was free for students and their families and was made possible by a Family Engagement Impact Grant from the Perry Township Education Foundation.
Perry Township Education Foundation Grant to Support “Summer SEL-ebration” in May
Adult & Child’s School Based Service Line recently received exciting news about new funding to engage Perry Township Students leading up to the summer months. Adult & Child’s Miranda Mellendorf, School Based SEL Specialist, worked in collaboration with Glenns Valley Elementary School Social Worker, Amanda Craig, to apply for a Perry Township Education Foundation Grant. This is a competitive in-district grant that selects projects to fund within Perry Township Schools to create innovative ways to support students. Pictured during the check presentation are Glenns Valley Elementary Principal, Dave Rohl; PTEF Executive Director, Mary Blake; GVE SEL Specialist, Miranda Mellendorf; GVE Social Worker, Amanda Craig; GVE Assistant Principal, Lindsay Smith; PTEF Secretary, Monica Ponce; and SEL Team Lead, Jaymee Cummings. Grant funds will support a “Summer SEL-ebration” family night at Glenns Valley Elementary School in May. The event will be free of charge and guests will be able to enjoy activities such as tie dyeing, flower planting, a gratitude banner, a physical movement station, a collaborative sticker mosaic, slime, and more.
Mission Moment: School Based Interventions Lead to a Major Comeback
When a high school student was experiencing anxiety, depression, and trauma symptoms in January of 2023, Adult & Child’s School Based Services and Lola Mahner, LSW, were there to provide support. Lola quickly learned that despite the past trauma, current trauma was still ongoing. This client and their family were facing possible homelessness, along with a lack of access to healthcare and food. Considering all of these experiences, Lola’s first goal was to help the client regain a baseline and control over their emotions. This involved psychoeducation, providing their family with weekly case management and family sessions (which led to stable housing, healthcare, and food access), targeting peer and social functioning, and utilizing components of CBT and DBT to target thought monitoring and emotional control. This required the client to test their limits, to learn new coping skills and communication strategies, and to develop a different outlook on life. “This was no easy task and resulted in the client leaving the office due to intense emotions more than once, and them wanting to quit therapy on several occasions,” explained Lola. “I never gave up on them. Eventually, I was able to help the client learn that it is okay to have bad days, but these bad days did not define them. Through our therapeutic relationship, they learned how to cope, to communicate, to have more control over their thoughts and emotions, and this hard work paid off.” This client was nominated by their school for the “Comeback Kid” Award, given each year to a student who faced adversities and hardships that impacted their school functioning and abilities, and who demonstrated resilience in overcoming these obstacles by remaining successful in their academic career. Lola had the honor of being one of three individuals present at the award ceremony to support her client. “The smile on their face when they saw me there to support them is something I will never forget. When they gave their acceptance speech after receiving their award, my client introduced me proudly and stated, ‘My therapist is here for me today, and I just want to thank her for all the things she has helped me with over the past year. There were a lot of things I didn’t think I would make it through, and I did it with her help.’ This recognition is rarely something that mental health providers receive, and it will be a moment that I will remember forever,” said Lola. “This moment encompassed all the hard work that we did together. The validation and recognition that my client and I felt that day reminded me of my purpose in this job and was certainly a mission moment for both of us.”
Mission Moment: Reducing Anxiety to Help a Student Stay in the Classroom
Late in September of 2023, Dorian Villanueva, Skills Development Specialist, received a referral for a student experiencing severe separation anxiety that was impacting their ability to come to school and allow their parents to leave. The student eventually stopped attending school altogether. During this student’s intake, Dorian involved the student in coming up with a plan to attend school and spend a couple of hours with her for skills sessions. After a challenging first session, they worked out a schedule that utilized classroom visits where the student’s parents remained in the A&C office and Dorian attended class with the student. Over time, they were able to increase the student’s classroom time and school time, while decreasing Dorian’s classroom and session time and the parents’ presence in the building. “There really wasn’t anything we didn’t try with this student and their family,” Dorian said. She and the student worked together to build up coping skills and implement them into a morning routine to reduce anxiety before school. They modeled a classroom environment and completed activities to improve self-awareness, self-esteem, positive thinking, identifying triggers, self-calming ability, and problem-solving. Dorian was also able to coach the student’s parents on positive and negative reinforcement, extinguishing behaviors, psychoeducation on anxiety, and possible reasons for the student’s increase in anxiety. As of late January 2024, the student had been attending full school days without reporting any separation anxiety and even asked to go to bed earlier so school could come sooner. “This is really a testament to how much students across all backgrounds might benefit from our service,” said Dorian of the student’s success.
