Making Connections
department of prevention & Intervention VOL. IV
Community Building Question of the Week
Think about a time you felt nervous or worried. What did you do to make yourself feel better?
Social Emotional Learning (SEL) during Distance Learning
Making Distance Learning Fun
- Scavenger Hunt - Internet scavenger hunts serve as a great way to hone student web searching ability and problem solving.
- Reflections - Students summarize their language on a weekly basis.
- Fishbowl - Fishbowl activities allow a student to practice a skill under peer review and audience.
Creating Online Student Advisory Boards
Check out the Second Step Middle School Advisory Starter Pack.
Which ZONE are you in?
Mental Wellness Matters
NAMI's "You are Not Alone" campaign features the lived experience of people affected by mental illness to fight stigma, inspire others and educate the broader public. Even in times of uncertainty, the NAMI community is always here, reminding everyone that you are not alone.
Tips for Virtual Mentoring... How to not kill the conversation
- Note the strengths and weaknesses of the communication tool you are using.
- Put a lot of effort into the first few messages you send your mentee.
- Respond quickly, but not too quickly.
- Take the uncertainty out of communication frequency by scheduling it.
Five Ways Mindfulness Can Support Educators During a Crisis
As we search for ways to navigate this often-challenging new context, it’s been encouraging to see that professionals across the education field are increasingly exploring mindfulness as a tool to do just that. Here are five easy ways to start:
1. Tune in to your body
2. Focus on good feelings
3. Make physical contact
4. Imagine someone who gives you comfort
5. Connect with nature
May is National Foster Care Awareness Month
Foster Care Facts:
- 250,00 children enter foster care each year
- Only 50% of youth in foster care graduate high school
- Foster children suffer PTSD at more than twice the rate of US war veterans
- 1 in 5 foster children experience homelessness within 1 year of aging out of care
- At ages 17 & 18, one-third of young women in foster care are pregnant or parenting
- More than 70% of inmates incarcerated were at one point in the foster care system
- Stipends don’t cover the essentials of a growing child
Project Access
Project Access provides services to the Foster and Homeless students and families within Fresno Unified School District. The goal of our program is to provide support and advocacy that enable students to be successful and become college and career-ready graduates. Project ACCESS has Twelve Clinical School Social Workers that provide social/emotional support including individual and group counseling, and intensive case management to our nearly 700 Foster and Homeless youth in grades 6-12. Project ACCESS also has two academic counselors that provide academic support to students grades 8-12.
Services include:
- Social emotional support to at promise students
- Academic support to assist with academic barriers
- Community resources to families in transition
- Social emotional support to FUSD students in Juvenile Justice Campus
Please visit our website for more information on our program and to view the staff directory. If you have a student in need of Project Access services please contact Alexandra.Contreras@Fresnounified.org.