Langdon School is hosting its first ever Headstrong Summit focusing on mental health for the Grade 6 through Grade 9 students Jan. 27.
“I think it’s a very powerful and positive way to connect,” said Assistant Principal Gwen Dawes Harker.
The summit will bring together students, staff and mental health professionals to start a discussion at the school about mental health.
“Our focus with this is to help kids identify what the…normal things that they might expect to go through developmentally, socially and the feelings that they might get normally…at the different age groups,” she said.
This will hopefully give kids the tools to know whether what they are feeling is a normal part of their development and to make them feel alright to ask for help if they think there is a problem.
The summit will be a combination of large group forums with all the Grade 6-9 students and breakout sessions with each home room class.
The summit has been student driven, Students in the Langdon Leaders group attended the provincial Headstrong Summit in October.
Part of what was presented there was the challenge to bring what they learned at the summit and bring it back to their community.
Everything from the topics that will be presented to the format of the day has been inspired by Headstrong and the students.
“We sent out a survey and said what are your concerns, what would you like to learn more about…and based on their answers we were able to bring community members in to help answer some of those questions they might have,” said Harker.
The summit will include guests from Alberta Health Services, The Mental Health Commission of Canada and Synergy.
The event will also include an action plan for students to implement.
Through the summit, students will be identifying stigmas and stereotypes and will then be guided through brainstorming activities on ways to remove those stigmas.
“We’ll take them through some brainstorming and planning as to how we can, in a school environment…do our part as individuals and collectively to break down the stigmas,” she said.
Harker hopes that students will learn the power that they have to break through stereotypes and be a positive influence on others.
“We really want them to recognize that everything they say and everything they do has an enormous impact on their environment,” she said.
“They can be very powerful change agents for how people experience their day to day encounters,” said Harker.
