As we settle into fall, Team OMM has been excited to see so many schools hosting Because You Matter, one of our two signature campaigns!🤗 While the campaign helps recognize September as Suicide Prevention Month, we welcome schools to participate through the fall.
Because You Matter (BYM) is a bulletin board activity that shows the importance of kindness in school communities. Participants are asked to write positive affirmations to themselves or others — and hang them up for their school to see. Doing so helps students build social connectedness (a key protective factor) and reminds them that they are not alone in their mental health struggles.
In late September, Hardy Minds Matter (HMM) at Hardy Middle School in Washington, D.C., hosted a very successful Because You Matter campaign. Club sponsors held the campaign one day during lunch and had over 170 students participate in 45 minutes. (Participants also received lollipops!)
HMM club sponsor Caroline DeWerd, a school psychologist, said she did not have to give students much direction on what to write — They came up with a variety of thoughtful and intentional notes by themselves.💙
“All we said was ‘positive affirmation’ or ‘positive note’ and they already had in their minds so many great things to be able to say,” she said.
Students wrote notes addressed to themselves and others like “You’re amazing and everything will be okay,” “You got this; don’t give up,” and “Be who you are; don’t let them change you!”🫂
HMM club sponsor Paula Crivelli, a social worker, said that it was nice to see that students were excited to participate in the campaign.
“I was amazed,” Crivelli said. “I did not expect it to be that popular.”
The Because You Matter campaign also worked as a successful recruitment effort for Hardy Minds Matter! The club held an interest meeting the following week in the school library. Club sponsors shared a bit about OMM’s history and the purpose of the club, and asked students to help brainstorm a good meeting schedule for the club.
Though OMM middle school clubs are mostly sponsor-led, students are still encouraged to share their ideas and build leadership skills. DeWerd said she hopes that HMM members feel empowered to take on leadership roles and use these skills outside of their club. She hopes students take pride in seeing their ideas in action.
“I really want them to take away that their ideas matter,” she said. “I want them to know that they’re heard.”
DeWerd added that the peer-to-peer aspect of the club can help students build connections and seek help if needed.
“Say their classmate doesn’t want to talk to an adult, but maybe they could be someone who reaches out and supports in that way,” she said.
Crivelli said that she wanted to start an OMM club to contribute to schoolwide suicide prevention efforts. When she reached out to D.C. Public School District staff/program managers, they named OMM’s program as a way to get further involved. Crivelli said that she appreciates the personalized, user-friendly aspects of OMM materials and resources.
“I’ve never seen that,” she said. “I’ve done a lot of programs at my school before, and I never saw a program like this, so this is really impressive.”
HMM sponsors said that students are already brainstorming campaign ideas for the school year, like hosting a bake sale for local communities.
Thank you, Hardy Minds Matter, for uplifting kindness in your school community — We can’t wait to see all that your club accomplishes this year!🥳
A special thank you for supporting Our Minds Matter in Washington, DC Public Schools goes to the American Psychiatric Association Foundation; if: a Foundation for Radical Possibility; The J. Willard & Alice S. Marriott Foundation; Kettering Family Foundation; The MATTIE Fund; Risa Fund; Rosendin Foundation; Van Metre Companies; and our supporter community of mental health champions like you.