Connecting with the kids

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This article was published 11/06/2018 (2899 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

 

Talking about mental wellness with young students is about to get even easier.

 

Last week, the True North Youth Foundation announced it was expanding its Project 11 from Grades 5 to 8 to include kindergarten to Grade 4. The program, which has been available for free to teachers in Manitoba since 2014, has proven a popular one at Bernie Wolfe Community School (95 Bournais St.).

“I appreciate how diverse the material is,” said Meghan McOmber, a Grade 6/7 teacher at Bernie Wolfe. “It really helps us focus on how important it is to be mentally well. It has really given the students a good vehicle to talk about those things when they’re feeling stressed, angry or upset.”

Project 11 was introduced to schools in 2013 in memory of Manitoba Moose player Rick Rypien, who signed with the Jets when the team relocated to Winnipeg in 2011. However Rypien, who’d long struggled with clinical depression, was found dead in his home before the start of training camp. 

According to their website, Project 11 aims to remove “negative stigma and the fear of judgment that can accompany mental wellness issues by empowering youth to be better connected to their own social, emotional, and physical wellness.”

McOmber’s class spends one period per cycle on the interactive lessons, which are available for free on Project 11’s website.

“It ties in with some of our curriculum topics, and deals with the maturity level of the students at that time in a way that is appropriate for their level,” she said.

“At the end of many of the videos, they’ll have an interview with a Jets player, which helps the students visualize, as we have a lot of hockey fans in the school,” she added. “Teachers and students and hockey players, everyone has these feelings.”

“It’s actually really fun,” said Aiden Manicone, a Grade 6 student at Bernie Wolfe. “The program gives you lots of strategies to deal with your stress. You can talk to people about it. It makes you more brave.”

Lara Alcantara, another Grade 6 student at the school, said that students who may have experienced bullying have benefitted from the program.

“You can talk to people about it. It makes you more brave.”

“They can overcome their fear and talk to the counsellor at our school about it,” she said.

“It kind of takes shy people and kind of turns them into people who want to start talking to people more,” Manicone added.

McOmber is glad that Project 11 will now be providing programming for younger grades.

“It has been exciting sharing my experiences with the program with some of the other teachers,” she said. “They’re excited to start having these conversations with their students too.”

For more information on Project 11, visit projecteleven.ca