EASTHAMPTON — With numerous reports of mental health issues climbing to a crisis level for teens, the Easthampton Healthy Youth Coalition has launched programming they hope will help ease some of the emotional burden.
With sessions held on Monday mornings during middle-school students’ enrichment block, the pilot program, aptly named Mindfulness Mondays, allows students to come together with their friends and decompress in an activity.
With squeaky and snow-covered shoes, roughly 16 students popped into health teacher Daniel O’Donoghue’s classroom last Monday to create vision boards. Ebbs and flows of giggles and silence emanated from the doorway as students flipped through magazines, identifying images that speak to the future they want to create and clipping them out, then arranging them on a board as a reminder of where they’re heading.
“Oooh, yes, I think I’ll get the black one … maybe the red too,” said 13-year-old Ednaliz Cruz as she admired some UGG slippers.
At the other end of the table, 12-year-old Sonia Romero clipped out a photograph of actor Ralph Macchio depicting his Karate Kid character Daniel LaRusso.
Across the room, 12-year-old Keira Tataro clipped out horses and equestrian equipment, highlighting her affinity for horsemanship.
“The kids are really enjoying how relaxing it is,” said program adviser Samantha Majjad, a seventh grade math and science teacher. “One of our students said it was the most relaxed they’d been in a long time after they finished their session last week.”
Anne Talley, outreach coordinator for the Easthampton Healthy Youth Coalition who led the vision boarding workshop, said it provides a fun and purposeful way to create a collage with truth and beauty.
“When I was their age, I just loved doing collage. It’s just a way for them to think about their future in a visual format. It allows them to think about goals and things they may want to work on,” Talley said.
Vision boarding is one of several activities that will be offered to students on Mindfulness Mondays. Each activity is offered over the course of three sessions and includes snacks.
Participants have also been given notebooks for journaling.
Healthy Youth Coalition Coordinator Rebecca Edwards explained that the coalition had secured a $2,700 grant from the Easthampton Learning Foundation to launch the programming. Since the coalition’s focus is on supporting healthy decision-making and substance use prevention, the group wanted to offer activities that focus on students being present and more aware of their thoughts, feelings and actions.
“We wanted to offer activities to teens that give them tools around mindfulness and stress reduction, and provide guidance on what to do if they find themselves in a situation that feels intense,” Edwards said.
Originally, Mindfulness Mondays launched as an after-school program. The first activity focused on yoga followed by mindfulness, stress reduction and play.
Unfortunately, the program had low attendance in trying to compete with sports and other after-school activities. Additionally, Edwards also noted that because there is no late bus in the district, youths without transportation aren’t often able to attend.
“We thought we could reach more young people by moving it to the enrichment block, and it’s worked out great!” she said.
The coalition had envisioned that students would sign up for an activity and attend all three sessions, Talley said, but as it turned out, students often couldn’t commit every week to the activity as many of them used the enrichment block for homework and projects.
“Sessions are more of a drop-in nature, which changes how we’ll do projects, but I think that’s fine. They’ll have some fun when they’re here and think about what brings them joy and being present,” she said.
Next week is the last week for the vision board workshop before the holiday break.
In the springtime, Mindfulness Mondays lineup will include juggling, movement and dance, and martial arts.
“I want this to be like a fun thing with no stress involved,” Talley said. “There’s no pressure. No homework. There’s no expectations besides just coming here and having a good time.”
Emily Thurlow can be reached at ethurlow@gazettenet.com.
