For the past 25 years, Congress has celebrated Mental Health Awareness Week. This year, from Oct. 3 to 7, the event came to a Sonoma school for the first time.
At Sonoma Valley High School, student leaders (all class officers, Student Voice, GSA leaders, Dragones Latinos leaders, PLUS leaders and Link Crew leaders) came together to plan and execute (with counselor and administrative support) the school’s first “Each Mind Matters” event.
The team, pictured at right with bilingual SVHS counselor Luis Bravo, organized events throughout the week.
“This was a proactive, positive outreach to students and the organizing student leaders were very excited about putting this on,” said SVHS Principal Kathleen Hawing.
There was a table at lunch several days with outreach and support services information.
The designated national/state color for the event was lime green so the campus was festooned with color-coordinated ribbons, pins, balloons and posters. “A counselor was with the groups of students each day last week,” said Hawing.
Veronica Leyva from the county Crisis Assessment Prevention Education provides outreach and education at Sonoma Valley High and is on campus two mornings a week.
She believes that Sonoma High was the only school in the county to promote the week in support of awareness around mental health and its importance.
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