The Boulder Valley School District, Impact on Education, and CU Anschutz are partnering to offer a mental health literacy program—All Advocates for All Youth (ALLY)—to all 6th graders at Angevine Middle School. The program offers students the opportunity to engage in mental health awareness activities with volunteers in the fall of the 2022-23 school year.
Background-checked volunteers will participate in a self-paced 4-5 hour training before leading guided 1:1 sessions for 30 minutes with students on a weekly basis.
The goal of this intervention is to provide support to all students by increasing their resilience and self-efficacy skills, and helping reduce their stress.
Volunteer commitment
This is a recurring commitment to regularly meet in-person at Angevine Middle for 2-4 hours every week for 6 weeks from October 1 through mid-November. Interaction with students requires that all volunteers pass a background check or renew an existing background check. All volunteers must also complete a 4-5 hour self-paced program training before September 25, 2022.
No prior experience is required to participate as a volunteer, but those able to commit to a set schedule for all 6 weeks or Spanish speaking volunteers are highly desired for this program.
Prior Ally volunteers in Colorado Springs, Colorado and Loachapoka, Alabama, reported enjoying this opportunity, often returning to the school to work with more students and citing improvements in their own mental health and wellbeing as a result of the volunteer experience.
Upcoming information sessions
No experience or special skills are required to participate, but community members are encouraged to attend a virtual information session to learn more about this volunteer opportunity. Four sessions will be offered on the following dates:
- Tuesday, August 23, 5:30-6pm
- Wednesday, August 24, 12-12:30pm
- Wednesday, August 31 12-12:30pm
- Thursday, September 1, 5:30-6pm
Register for a virtual information session here:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0f4da8a628a1f4c16-learn
How this will impact BVSD students
By working with an entire grade level of students, the All Advocates for All Youth program will provide the entire Angevine community with a skill set and vocabulary that allows them to address their needs with each other. This method helps destigmatize mental health intervention and doesn’t target students based on behavioral or other incidents. This is the third round of a CU Anschutz clinical study and students are able to opt-out.
