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Episode 14: Raise Your Voice - Supporting Student Leadership in School Mental Health
135 Plays11 months ago
Today’s episode features a conversation between Mary Kate Riley, Youth Program Coordinator with NAMI Wisconsin, and Kathy Markeland, Coalition Board Member and Executive Director of WI Assn of Family & Children’s Agencies. Mary Kate tells us about Raise Your Voice, student-led mental health clubs focused on awareness, advocacy and acceptance. Learn what Raise Your Voice clubs do, how to start one at your school, and solutions to challenges you may encounter. We often hear about the student mental health crisis, and Mary Kate shares how change can start with the students themselves!
Show Notes
Coalition for Expanding School-Based Mental Health in Wisconsin
Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction - Comprehensive School Mental Health
Wisconsin School Mental Health Framework
Wisconsin DPI Social Emotional Learning Curriculum
NAMI Wisconsin Raise Your Voice
NAMI Teen and Young Adult Resource Directory
The Voices of Wisconsin Students Project
Wisconsin Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS)
Continuing Education opportunity - Change Starts with You(th): Supporting Teen and Adolescent Mental Health presented by Mary Kate Riley, July 18 in Wisconsin Dells
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast and Hosts
00:00:17
Speaker
Welcome. This is Kathy Markland. I'm here joining you today for our School Mental Health Works Podcast Edition. I am a member of the Coalition for Expanding School-Based Mental Health in Wisconsin and the Executive Director of the Wisconsin Association of Family and Children's Agencies.
00:00:36
Speaker
So pleased to be with you here again and today to welcome my guest Mary Kate Riley who is the Youth Program Coordinator with NAMI Wisconsin National Alliance for Mental Illness. I'm excited to talk with Mary Kate today about supporting youth voice within our comprehensive school mental health systems in Wisconsin. Welcome Mary Kate.
Mary Kate Riley's Background and Role
00:00:58
Speaker
Wow, yeah, it's good to have you with us. Let's start with a little introduction. Can you tell us a little bit about your background and how long you've been with NAMI Wisconsin? How long have you been in your role and what was your path to this new endeavor? Absolutely. So I've been with NAMI Wisconsin for a little over a year now. Prior to being at NAMI, I was actually a special education teacher for five years. I taught for two years at the middle school level and then three years at the high school level.
00:01:27
Speaker
So working in education, I saw a lot of students struggling with their mental health, so it definitely became a passion of mine. So then coming in as the Youth Program Coordinator, I really rely on my teaching background a lot to help us talk
Creation and Support of 'Raise Your Voice' Clubs
00:01:40
Speaker
with schools. A big part of my role is getting our youth programs into schools, so kind of knowing the system and the lingo and who to talk to about what has been really helpful as we're growing to expand.
00:01:53
Speaker
Yeah, this is something that we know from our work with the coalition where we really do that crossover space between providers and community members and our parents. And so really excited to talk with you more today about where Youth Voice fits in all of that and the work that NAMI is doing with forming clubs. So tell me a little bit more about the Raise Your Voice clubs. How many schools have clubs at this point and what's the process for a club to form?
00:02:21
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. So Raise Your Voice is our youth leadership club that focuses on education, advocacy, and ending the stigma. It's primarily in high schools right now, but we've recently started expanding into middle schools. So we're currently at 28 clubs across the state, but we are constantly growing. I have meetings weekly with schools interested in Raise Your Voice, so I just think that number is going to keep getting higher and higher.
00:02:47
Speaker
So to get a new club started, typically I start with a one-on-one meeting with someone from the school that's interested. Typically it's not an administrator. It's more often the school counselor, their mental health navigator, school psych, school social worker, someone that's already kind of in that field and looking for something to bring into the school that's a little more supportive.
00:03:08
Speaker
And that's where Raise Your Voice comes in. So we have made Raise Your Voice super flexible to fit any school environment. So we have a lot of schools reach out to us, some in rural areas, some in more city areas. And we go through that one-on-one meeting. We talk about our requirements, answer any questions that they have. And then from there, it's pretty simple. We get a little contract signed between us and their school, make sure their administration is on board, make sure they understand the commitment that they're making.
00:03:38
Speaker
And then from there, they're pretty much good to go. And we provide all support from the Not Me, Wisconsin State Office, provide materials, startup funding, really anything that they need to get going.
00:03:51
Speaker
That sounds fantastic. And I think that piece around your coordination and support all through the process seems so key to me to be able to, particularly since schools may be looking for something different, whether it's in high school or middle school, and really depending upon their experience, having supported this kind of programming for their students in the past.
00:04:14
Speaker
So I think as I talk to you about this and preparing for today, I was thinking about really getting some tangible ideas about what is a club really involved when we think about forming a club around mental health awareness in our schools with our students. What do the clubs do?
00:04:32
Speaker
Yeah. So like I said, these clubs are youth led. So the kids are the ones making the decisions about what their club's going to do. Um, and we find that this model is super successful because as much as the teachers and parents think that they know what's going on or know that want to be involved, our kids know they know what's going on with their peers. They
Flexibility and Funding of Clubs
00:04:52
Speaker
know what's going on inside of school, outside of school. So we really rely on their expertise.
00:04:56
Speaker
to kind of guide what their club is going to be doing. So typically they're going to have club meetings one to two times a month and the students are deciding at this club meeting are we going to do something educational? Are we going to bring in a speaker from the community to teach us about something? Or they're going to be planning events. So we require all our clubs to host events two times per year. So some of our smaller newer clubs are going to host smaller events within their school that don't take a ton of capacity for either
00:05:24
Speaker
the students or the advisor. And this could look like a safe space during finals week that's calming, a good space to go to.
00:05:32
Speaker
or they're doing things during Mental Health Awareness Month. And then we have some schools that have huge clubs or they're in an area with a lot of other clubs and they're hosting really big events like a 5K walk, they're engaging the community. So a lot of times the kids are focusing on those pieces, but really the club is focusing on educating students and the school community. We work on advocating for mental health supports and ending the stigma in their community. And this has been really awesome. We've seen a lot of kids report
00:06:01
Speaker
that their school community has shifted into better understanding mental health, supporting it a little bit more, their teachers are a little more on board. So yeah, the clubs kind of do a lot, but really they're just focusing on educating and advocating around mental health and mental illness as a whole.
00:06:18
Speaker
And so I think one of the questions that I've heard from from people in the past is when you think about bringing this and it's wonderful that there's flexibility for the schools and the students in this space. But also sometimes people are looking for a little bit more direction. So I'm curious about what curriculum might be available or how you help schools tap into some kind of curriculum based resource.
00:06:43
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. So because we have that flexibility and the ability to fit anywhere, we don't have a required set of curriculum that we have clubs do. But when clubs are looking for something, we really try to guide them towards the DPI mental health curriculum that was created, kind of leaning on that a little bit. We also provide monthly themes for clubs if they choose to go that way. And the good thing about these clubs is you don't have to go in a specific order.
00:07:09
Speaker
kids can kind of pick and choose what might fit what's going on at school. So we've had some schools that have experienced a student die by suicide and then they know that their club needs to focus on grief and loss and support. So they'll kind of bring that theme in for the month.
00:07:26
Speaker
And then as you think about that, you know, bringing in those tools, and obviously I can imagine you being a great resource for schools as they're facing those different circumstances and the clubs are like, we're really looking for something targeted into this space because of things that are currently happening within our school environment.
00:07:44
Speaker
I guess the other thing that comes up frequently when I talk to people about how do we move forward with these things is if there's any cost or budgeting that people would need to be thinking about. I know I don't want to spend a ton of time on the budget dollars, but it's always a question that emerges when you think about how you're launching a new project within a school like this.
00:08:03
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Budget is important. So along with being a flexible club, we're also free. We provide all of the startup materials that a club would need. So we have an advisor guide. We have a youth leader guide for those students, any promotional materials. Right now we have stickers, pens, bag tags, lanyards, coffee cups. We'll provide all of that. And then for all of our new clubs that get started, we provide a mini grant to get them going. And with this, we don't really
00:08:32
Speaker
require them to report on what they spend it on. We just trust that they're going to use it for raise your voice. Typically, this is going to be their starting fund that they use to get bigger funds. They might buy those rubber bracelets for a dollar and then they're going to go sell them for $3 and they're going to build a little pot that way. We also have a lot of clubs that look into grant funding. They're going to reach out to their local businesses. We have some clubs that are working with their local hospital systems too.
00:09:02
Speaker
nine times out of 10, you're going to find that a lot of people are really willing to support youth mental health. And so that's kind of how some of our clubs are building a bigger pot so that they can do more fun things.
00:09:15
Speaker
Yeah, and it sounds I mean, I think it's so important, like it's that extra benefit of that's a different learned skill that the youth are engaging in right in their local communities when they think about, you know, because outreach is part of the goal. And so to do that and do that in concert with some fundraising components,
00:09:34
Speaker
or figuring out how to finance activities. Those are all great
Impact and Challenges of Youth Advocacy
00:09:38
Speaker
life skills that they're building on for thinking about how they carry forward and maybe doing some bigger things in the future with this as a future goal for themselves.
00:09:49
Speaker
It's exciting to see sort of that component really built in and thought about as you're supporting our youth. I think we've talked a little bit about sort of what they do. I think I'm also curious about, to talk to you a little bit more, given your experience with the schools so far, you know, how do you think about the value of supporting youth voice in schools? And then do you see clubs tracking sort of progression
00:10:18
Speaker
Do you have anything that you monitor in terms of seeing any kind of pre and post differences in schools that are bringing clubs on board?
00:10:26
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I think right now it is so important to support youth voice. I think there's quite a few studies coming out that the ones making the most impact when it comes to mental health change and advocacy is our young people. So listening to them and hearing what they're saying is so important, especially because young people are now facing stressors that we did not grow up with and don't really have
00:10:52
Speaker
any idea what it's like to deal with that when you're 13, 14, 15. So really listening to them about what their experiences are is so important because they're different than what we experienced growing up.
00:11:03
Speaker
We've seen some really positive changes with Raise Your Voice. We have all of our clubs support some pretty basic data around the school year, how many members they have, how many youth leaders, what are their events looking like, kind of how that the basics of the club. But we also have a lot of clubs that create infographics to show the change that's happening in their school.
00:11:26
Speaker
So a lot of times they'll do like student reporting kind of see how students felt before Raise Your Voice was established after what they feel the community is, how supportive the school environment feels. We're also seeing another big thing that we
00:11:43
Speaker
kind of tell Raise Your Voice is Successful is that we'll have a Raise Your Voice club start at one school and be the only school in that area. And then all the other surrounding schools will start to see the positive impact that Raise Your Voice is having and kind of all want to hop on board. You can really see this. We have probably 10 clubs
00:12:03
Speaker
up in the Northwoods area. So Lincoln, Langley, Marathon County, we have 10 clubs and it started as one club at one school and everybody else saw how awesome that was going and wanted to hop on that trend. And yeah, so we require all our clubs to track that data. We want them to utilize their YRBS data, their health department data,
00:12:26
Speaker
really anything they can so that they can actively evaluate the impact that they're having. And this is also really helpful when they need to talk to the administration and the school board, kind of get them on board, having that statistical piece to really show them the impact it's making is really helpful.
00:12:42
Speaker
Yeah, I think about that and that that's a great place to start for building the case, right? I mean, I think as you think about where there may be reservations or hesitations on the part of administration or other decision makers being able to lay out that foundation and also for the students to have the experience accessing and researching those pieces too. Again, just really basic,
00:13:08
Speaker
good fundamental assessment skills within their own community that they can build on going forward. Even as you're sharing, I'm thinking about some of the differences between the high school programs and the middle school programs in this space. But it's also just bringing up some questions around maybe challenges that schools might face when you start to think about data gathering. When you think about all of the elements of pulling this together and
00:13:35
Speaker
convincing other people in the school community about the value of this. What barriers do students and their supportive adults in the schools that are looking to adopt a club or that have adopted a club, what do they experience in terms of barriers?
00:13:52
Speaker
Yeah, so the first barrier that they kind of encounter and this is when they're just getting a club started. The most common one we see is just struggle getting the administration or the school board on board with implementing this club. This either comes from a lack of understanding what the club
00:14:08
Speaker
is, or they assume that the club is going to be a place for therapy or a support group that comes with a bunch of legal complexities, or they just don't think it's an important endeavor. So a lot of times that's when I try to get whoever I'm talking with that wants to get it implemented in their school, I will talk with them. We'll kind of come up with a game plan about how we need to talk about this with administration or the school board. I always offer to
00:14:35
Speaker
meet with the administration and the school board to talk with them about it. But I think nine times out of 10, we get the school board on board and we can get this club implemented. And those rare cases where it doesn't work, a lot of times those people that are so excited to get Raise Your Voice started will then go out to the youth organizations in the community, the Boys and Girls Club, the YMCA.
00:14:57
Speaker
and see if they can get something started there. And then, you know, if it's successful in the community, then it's another conversation to see, OK, now maybe we can try the schools again. The other thing that we sometimes see is some when the clubs are first starting out, they struggle to get kids to attend. It's really hard because some clubs, you know, they might meet during your lunch period, they might meet during your free period. So how do we get kids
00:15:21
Speaker
to realize this is important to give up their 30 minutes of free time with their friends and come join this super cool club. But again, that's when we rely on that data and we have techniques. So I always tell our club advisors, you know, look for the kids that
00:15:38
Speaker
Don't really have anyone they they're kind of struggling and they're on the outside. Let's scoop them into the club first and get them involved Then let's look at kids that are already interested in the mental health field Maybe they want to be a psychologist or a school counselor. Let's talk to them and let's get them involved because
00:15:54
Speaker
There is no requirement to be in the club. You don't have to be diagnosed with a mental illness. You don't have to have a family member. It's really just if you're interested in learning more about mental health and mental illness. And then it's awesome because, like you said, they come into this club and then they get a ton of leadership skills. They learn how to advocate. They learn how to fundraise. So kids kind of start to see that when they're like, oh, this club has a lot of cool benefits. That's when that barrier kind of gets out of the way as well.
00:16:25
Speaker
Yeah, I love that you shared about the option to think about, you know, if within the school is in a possibility, how do we look at our other youth supporting organizations?
00:16:35
Speaker
Again, one of the things we talk about a lot in the comprehensive school mental health model is really thinking about all of that.
Guidance for Middle School Clubs
00:16:42
Speaker
In fact, our last episode was just on mapping out our resources within our community. And so there again, growing that awareness, growing that map of who those connective partners are for really as options for future connections, for thinking about maybe starting outside of school and coming into school after you've been able to establish some success with a partner organization.
00:17:05
Speaker
It's good to know where those pivots and those alternatives might emerge. And again, just a really good reminder about spreading out and looking at the full 360 of what's happening in our broader community and who might be partners, who might be supportive voices to help us get things moving.
00:17:26
Speaker
Yeah, fantastic. I also, I'm really glad that you raised the question of, because it was one of the questions I had about sort of, again, there's no qualifications, as you said, for coming into club, but thinking about youth that may view themselves more as allies and may not see that they have that direct lived experience, but wanting to, wanting to be supportive because they really have a strong appreciation for, for mental health or have a, or have an aspiration from a career perspective as well.
00:17:54
Speaker
So another fantastic way to plug in and to think about how they how they might come together around around a club for messaging Yeah, so we talked a little bit and I'm curious actually I wanted to dive back to the question of
00:18:10
Speaker
middle schoolers and do a little differentiation there you can talk a little bit about where you've seen your middle school clubs emerge because a lot of this sounds like It's a lot of self-starting kind of activity and I and I would expect that with our middle schoolers. Maybe it's a little less of a self-starter Yes, they definitely need a little bit more guiding to get there So I mentioned those monthly themes that are an option when it comes to middle school clubs I highly highly encourage that they use these themes as their starting board. There's just
00:18:40
Speaker
Too much out there that middle schoolers don't know that it's hard for them to be able to narrow into something So I know for the themes like your first month is going to be an introduction into what is mental health? What is mental illness? Talking about all of that then you're gonna go into the next month and talking about like emotions coping skills things like that and that kind of helps guide them a little bit more and You don't have to go in order with the themes but the order that we have
00:19:08
Speaker
makes it really streamlined, makes a lot of sense for kids. The other thing is a lot of our middle school clubs are popping up in areas where we already have a high school club established. So they're really leaning into that mentor model. The high school kids are meeting with the middle school club, probably not as often as they're meeting as just a high school club, but they're meeting with those middle school clubs, they're checking in, they're kind of mentoring, they might work on events together. But then it's that really great
00:19:36
Speaker
way for kids to get involved in middle school. And then they know that when they go to high school, oh, I can still be a part of this club and I can use the skills that I learned in middle school. And then for middle school, we also just, I provide a lot, a lot of support. I provide a lot of support for all of our clubs, but for those middle school clubs, I'll be with them a little bit more to kind of do some curriculum planning or do some yearly planning, um, just so they don't feel like they're starting from scratch and they don't really know how to guide the students.
00:20:05
Speaker
Yeah, I particularly think about how core and how key that support is for
00:20:10
Speaker
right for our sponsor adults who are working with these youth and really Providing with them with with all of the tools to make that work within their school community and particularly to support those middle school students through that process and it's great to hear that the High school being able to plug back in again those mentoring relationships so fantastic for our middle schoolers to be able to have that direct connect and
00:20:35
Speaker
And to have a place to possibly land when they get to high school too, to see that bridge over.
Self-Disclosure and Advisor Support
00:20:42
Speaker
because that can be a scary transition regardless. So yeah, so that's a good way to sort of think about building forward because it's hard for me to envision sort of a middle school doing that successfully without having a high school program to sort of be the kind of the lead program to pull those students in and to support them in growing that kind of programming.
00:21:08
Speaker
So we've talked a little bit about what the clubs might do. And I think, um, one of the things that, um, that I was really curious about was how we think about, um, particularly as we talk about stigma around mental health, as we think about, um, students that are directly living through mental illness or experiencing it firsthand with family members. Um,
00:21:35
Speaker
that this whole question of self-disclosure and sharing their stories and really providing for some boundaries, I have to think that that's probably a barrier for some school districts, particularly decision makers, to get comfortable with how do we know that we're really creating the right kind of environment to be supportive of our students while also not
00:22:01
Speaker
not creating discomfort around that area of self-disclosure. And so I'm just wondering if you can explore that for us a little bit, how you actually handle that within the context of the club and what is it that you train or teach the students about how they talk about their own life experiences?
00:22:18
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. So we like to make it clear from the very beginning in any meeting we're having about Raise Your Voice is that it is not a support group. It's not a place to receive therapy. And it's not a place to start labeling others. So really, kids do not have to disclose anything that they are not comfortable with.
00:22:38
Speaker
But again, it is a very supportive environment. They do kind of lean into that a little bit. So when it comes to disclosing and boundaries, we really like to leave it up to the advisor in the school on how they want to handle it. But I think it's incredibly important to educate students on the pros and cons of disclosing. As much as we want everybody to accept mental illness, there are people that just
00:22:59
Speaker
don't care to understand or just don't get it. And I think it's important for kids to keep this in mind when they're choosing who they disclose to and make sure that they're making an educated decision that they're comfortable with. We don't want them to come into this club and feel like they have to be forced to reveal their diagnosis to their friends or anything like that. We really just want to focus on the education, the ending the stigma piece.
00:23:22
Speaker
But another thing that we provide is we provide a training called the Raise Your Voice Summit for our advisors. And this is a really great time for our advisors across the state to come together and get some training together, have some discussions about challenges they're seeing, so disclosing does come up. And those advisors are kind of talking to the other advisors like, what are you doing at your school? How do you handle something like this? And something new that we're doing this year is we're inviting the youth leaders to join us at the Raise Your Voice Summit.
00:23:50
Speaker
So I think we're going to do plans around, we're going to have one session around disclosing, going over all the different types of disclosing, what the pros and cons can be. So then hopefully they're going to take that back to their club and they're going to tell everybody like, this is something we really learned. Cause then it's also going to go into sharing your story because that's a big part of that advocacy piece is we want kids to know how to share their story without revealing something that might be too personal.
00:24:18
Speaker
something that might bring up bad feelings and disclosing is a big piece of that. So our hope with that is to get a lot of schools kind of on board and take that back to their clubs and dive a little deeper into disclosing and boundaries.
00:24:33
Speaker
Well, you answered a couple of my questions there and actually teed up the next conversation really well. But one of them was how you support the advisors in this space, because I have to think that that's another one when, um, maybe you're the, you're kind of the single advocate for the club within the school space as the supportive adult. Um, that can be, could probably be a little isolating maybe sometimes or maybe challenging.
00:24:58
Speaker
and that responsibility for being that guidance and setting those boundaries and parameters and expectations for the youth. So it's fantastic to hear that you all actually gather everybody. There's no better place to do that learning than to come together in community like that and connect with other leaders who are doing that work. So that's good to know that you're providing for that space and exciting that you're going to invite the students, some of the student leaders to come into that space as well.
00:25:27
Speaker
So it sounds like a really rich opportunity for people to connect with one another and to continue to grow their programs and think about some of the, I'm sure, issues that come up pretty consistently across clubs.
Youth Advocacy Day and Legislative Training
00:25:42
Speaker
and share their learning and expertise with one another. So speaking of gatherings, I know in advocacy, you all recently hosted a statewide advocacy day at the Capitol for the youth. I was honored to be a part of that. I'm wondering if you could tell us a little bit more about the advocacy day and then anything else that you're doing on the statewide level to support youth voice.
00:26:06
Speaker
Absolutely. So on March 6, we had 80 students from 10 schools across the state come down to Madison and join us for our first annual Youth Advocacy Day. So we spent the morning doing what we call a NAMI SMARTS for advocacy training. Students learned
00:26:23
Speaker
the ins and outs of how to write their stories, tell their stories, and then kind of throw in their ask when speaking with legislators. So the ask that we focused on for this was just increasing support for school-based mental health systems, programs, really anything that's going to better support our students.
00:26:41
Speaker
So the kids spent the morning, they learned the most effective ways to tell their stories so their legislators would be invested. If it's too long, they might lose them. If it's too emotional, they might get uncomfortable and zone out. So we really spent around two to three hours really honing in on the best way to share your story and the best way to share that with your legislators.
00:27:03
Speaker
And we wanted them to be able to write their stories so that they felt comfortable to go in and have these conversations. So after the morning session, we all headed down to the Capitol and all of the students got to meet with their local representatives and their senators and their staffers and then get a chance to put their practice into action and share their stories and make their ask and just kind of get that chance to advocate on that statewide level. A lot of students reported that it was
00:27:31
Speaker
a really cool experience. They never really thought that they could have these one-on-one meetings with their senators or their representatives. But one of the key takeaways that they learn is like, oh, my senators and my representatives kind of work for me. So
00:27:46
Speaker
Maybe we should rely on them a little bit more. I know that we have some schools that have already contacted the representatives and senators again, and are going to be hosting some follow-up meetings at their schools to kind of show them the benefits of Raise Your Voice and why supporting school-based mental health is so necessary.
00:28:04
Speaker
So I'm going to drop it. I'm going to jump in there because I just want to do a shout out for an advocacy day and the importance of that educational piece. And I'm really normalizing that for the students. What a tremendous experience for them to have at this phase of their lives to sort of see that
00:28:21
Speaker
hey my legislator is really a person and they and and to appreciate that that that they have access and they can that they can be heard and so I was just so blown away by how amazing the students were how how knowledgeable and like conversant they were already and and I think just just showed how much work had already been done on the club level to really prepare them
00:28:50
Speaker
for that storytelling piece and for thinking through that. I also just want to shout out for the NAMI Smarts. I think it's a great tool for anyone for thinking about how you best frame up telling a story or sharing information in an advocacy kind of
NAMI's Youth Advisory Council
00:29:07
Speaker
environment.
00:29:07
Speaker
So really appreciated, again, just that direct connect with the youth was really inspiring. And so excited to see what more comes of that. What else do you have on tap for statewide activities?
00:29:22
Speaker
Yeah, the next thing that we've done is we recently created the NAMI Wisconsin Youth Advisory Council. So this is made up of 11 young adults, so ages 18 to 26. And really, this is just going to be a group of young people that we lean on when we're making decisions, whether it's programming, events, advocacy, we really want to get more of the youth voice
00:29:44
Speaker
into what we are doing daily. So we have this group of young people that are so excited. I can't tell you how excited they are. We had our kickoff event on April 6th and they were like buzzing the whole time, but they're just ready to start making some changes, provide that youth perspective. We're going to lean on
00:30:03
Speaker
Remembering what high school was like some of the stressors they experience then and then we're also going to lean on like what are they experiencing in their post-secondary lives as they kind of transition into young adulthood. And that's been really really successful I know when I tell you they're really excited we originally were going to meet.
00:30:23
Speaker
I think our original plan was we were gonna meet quarterly for two hours. And they were like, no, let's meet every other month for two hours. And I was like, okay. So we went from four meetings to six meetings. And then I originally said, let's do a year for your term. And they're like, let's do two years. And then we even had one that was like, could we do 10 years? I was like, unfortunately, at that point, you'll be 30. So you won't be a queue. But I appreciate your enthusiasm.
00:30:49
Speaker
So yeah. I think 30 can still count. I think so too. But of course, I'm at an advanced age at this point. So my sense of who counts in that young adult population continues to grow and expand by decades at this point. But I love that you are looking to that young adult group. I will say so much value for the high schoolers and middle schoolers who would be involved in these programs.
00:31:18
Speaker
to have the additional foundation of that 18 to 26 year old cohort that's really just coming up out of that space to be able to continue bringing forward things that have that, you know, that current sensibility about them of this is what young people are really living in, sort of the pool that they're swimming in on a day to day basis. Because I know as a 50 something, I continually
00:31:47
Speaker
feel more and more detached from like and and just not that that gap space awareness of my gap space between that daily lived experience of our young people and what it is that that kind of that worldview in that lens that I'm experiencing.
00:32:05
Speaker
And knowing that it's a more complicated, it's a more world out there that they're all navigating. And so I love that you're bringing that young adult perspective to really advise you all and to kind of continue to ground you.
Podcast Closing and Future Engagements
00:32:21
Speaker
and what it is that these clubs need, what our young people need to really help to advocate their best interests going forward. I think it's been really good to connect with you today. I just want to note that we are super excited that you're going to be joining us for actually one of our, for the Wisconsin Association of Family and Children's Agencies, we have a continuing education program
00:32:49
Speaker
that we offer and you're going to be coming to talk with us on July 18th for a full day to talk more about youth and thinking about youth voice and helping to grow our understanding and knowledge in that space. So and that's together. So we always love it when we can get together in person. This is not even a virtual training. It's in person in Wisconsin Dell. So
00:33:12
Speaker
We're so looking forward to having you and having that chance to do some more learning together about how we can better support our youth in this state. It's been so great connecting with you. Anything else you want to share with us as we wrap up today? I don't think so. I'm excited for the Our Continuing Ed course. I got a lot of fun things planned, some educational things, some activities. It's going to be a really good day.
00:33:39
Speaker
We love highly interactive, right? Get our bodies moving and really showing us those examples of how we connect and making that connection between our mind and body and knowing that that's all part of our mental wellbeing and supporting that going in our lives. So it's been just a pleasure to have you with us today, Mary Kate. Thank you for all the work that you do. And thank you for being a good partner with the Coalition for Expanding School-Based Mental Health in Wisconsin.
00:34:09
Speaker
Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me today, Kathy. This has been a blast and I'm just looking forward to all the great things that we're going to do together. Looking forward to future episodes? Make sure to subscribe on the podcast platform of your choice and leave us a rating so that others invested in better mental health for Wisconsin students can find us.
00:34:30
Speaker
We welcome your questions. You can reach us and find resources and learn more by checking out today's show notes and by visiting the coalition's website at schoolmentalhealthwisconsin.org. Until next time.