Bracken County Middle School has joined in the Sources of Strength movement.
According to BCMS Guidance Counselor Karlie Sudlow, the program uses eight resources to teach students about strength and the importance of having someone in their life they can trust.
“There are eight sources of strength that research has proven people tapped into,” she said. “So, we’re teaching our students to tap into these sources; this is what you need to be resilient and get through whatever life throws at you.”
Sudlow said the students will work on campaigns throughout the year.
“We started off by having some of our Sources of Strength students give the definition of a trusted adult, why they’re important and why it’s important you have a mentor in your life,” she said.
According to Sudlow, the students were also given a feather before Thanksgiving and they wrote the name of their trusted adult on it and the feathers were used to make a turkey on the bulletin board.
They also interviewed staff members and created a flyer with information about the adults.
“It has information about the adult, their hobbies, favorite color and interests,” she said. “It’s just so the students can get to know the adult on a more personal level so they know who they can come to in their time of need.”
The students also spent time writing out ‘thank you’ cards to their trusted adult.
Sudlow said the school began working with the Sources of Strength program after it was contacted by the Comprehend Regional Prevention Center.
“There were supposed to be 14 students in each grade level, but some didn’t participate,” she said. “We now have 38 students total and each of our three grade levels are represented. There are seven adult advisors.”
Thomas Rudd, 12, said he has enjoyed working with the Sources of Strength program.
“The Sources of Strength is a program to help students who are struggling with confidence or they don’t have enough family support,” he said. “It’s something where they can express themselves. It’s a good way to help kids and we have a lot of cool activities and programs we’ve been working on that the entire school does.”
Rudd also explained the Sources of Strength Wheel. The wheel is made up of family support, positive friends, mentors, healthy activities, generosity, spirituality, medical access and mental health.
“Family support is someone in your family that you can talk to,” he said. “Positive friends means having a friend in your life who isn’t negative — maybe someone who will say, ‘You’re good, but do better next time.’ Mentors can be guidance counselors, principals, teachers, just someone you can look up to. Healthy activities are a good way to find positive friends, because you’re usually doing healthy activities with others. Being generous is important because you won’t have positive friends if you’re not nice to them. You need to be spiritually healthy. You can’t just come to school with no reason to be here. You need a reason. Mental health — if someone is having bad thoughts, they need a mentor they can talk to in order to get their mental health better.”
He said he hopes the program will help empower other students.
“I hope it will help them with their confidence and give them some motivation to come to school and something to think about it. It’s a good way to learn leadership,” Rudd said.
Gretchen Teegarden, 13, said she also enjoyed Sources of Strength.
“Leaders help others become more confident,” she said. “It’s fun. I’ve enjoyed it. So far, we’ve interviewed teachers and we went through training. I hope that all of the students learn from it.”
At Augusta Independent School, SOS began last year, according to FRYSC Community Education Director Rebecca Arnold.
“Our team has done a phenomenal job to change our climate and culture to a very positive one,” she said. “We’ve done some various messaging campaigns throughout the community and school.”
Arnold said one of the things the students participated in was a Thankfulness Challenge, in which they put up a bulletin board that said, “What are you thankful for?” and the community participated by writing on it.
“We put up different types of thankfulness posters and the community and the school district participated in that,” she said. “We also did a Kindness Matters where the students did some sidewalk chalk activities with faculty and staff. The community was very appreciative of that.”
She said the students have also created a large Christmas tree to show who/what lights up their life.
“Every faculty and staff member has received some type of ornament, star or other and it was just to describe what or who lights up their life,” she said. “It’s just for them to learn to be more grateful, be more appreciative and mindful of things. During the last meeting, Mr. Bryant and I challenged them to just take a second to think about the small things in life they can be grateful for.”
Arnold said the program has been good for the students.
“When you see a preschooler interacting with a freshman, junior and talking about things, or even if it’s just a smile, high-five or thumbs up, it’s just a great thing and it makes you smile,” she said. “It keeps us busy, but it’s a very positive and rewarding experience.”
There are about 15 to 20 students and five adult advisors who are involved in the AIS program, according to Arnold.
