Teen Mental Wellness Empowering Minds: Grafton High School
Within Grafton High School, murals, signs, and pennants line the walls celebrating students and the infinite possibilities of their futures. Among these is a small sign on an office window: “United Way Empowering Minds School.” The sign may be small, but the impact is big.
High school students are navigating a tough time in their lives – academic pressure, social expectations, and the constant digital weight of social media. While this shared reality exists for many, how students manage to cope can look very different. Grafton High School is one of twenty-one schools that participate in United Way’s Key Initiative, Teen Mental Wellness: Empowering Minds.
Each school works towards achieving six milestones that are used to measure success, which are based on the Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction’s School Mental Health Framework. A milestone is achieved when schools implement the necessary components that improve their specific Mental Health System.
Ellie is a junior at Grafton and, since her freshman year, has embraced open communication with her peers about mental wellness through the school’s club, Raise Your Voice. The club meets monthly to provide a safe space for students to connect and to introduce new ideas to help with mental wellness in the school.
“Everyone knows that people struggle with stress and mental health, but we don’t talk about it as openly as we should,” Ellie said. ““That’s why it’s really important that it was brought into a school setting and into a club that’s an open environment to talk.”
Grafton’s Raise Your Voice club, among other efforts, has helped students share conversations that let them realize that they’re not alone in their feelings. The school also hosts a Wellness Week, which brings external resources to students who may not know these services exist.
“We’re starting to normalize mental health and wellness struggles in the school, and it’s creating a more positive culture,” explained Ellie.
This positive culture stays with Ellie and her peers. Your support gives students a rejuvenated sense of purpose in their everyday lives and in their place in the community. Giving to United Way’s Teen Mental Wellness: Empowering Minds initiative today doesn’t just shape a student’s academic success. It shapes their entire future.