A Youth Volunteer Corps of Reading service project to support youth mental health has been named the 2022 Project of the Year across the international Youth Volunteer Corps network.
The Youth Volunteer Corps has more than 30 affiliated throughout the U.S. and Canada. Each year, corps members complete about 4,000 projects.
This year, a local project was honored as the top effort during the Youth Volunteer Corps Leadership Summit on Oct. 8 in Kansas City, Mo.
The project was developed by Youth Volunteer Corps of Reading members who are part of the Youth Advisory Board of Berks County Community Foundation. It involved 35 students working with the nonprofit organization Prevent Suicide PA on redesigning a tool called anchor cards that help students struggling with mental illness.
The deck of 52 cards depicts ideas and experiences that can be used to keep one firmly planted, or anchored, to the present. The cards also provide opportunities for grounding, a practice that can help to calm anxiety.
“What we as youth really need is not only reassurance that we have support, but also space to focus and improve ourselves with the help tools like this,” Sindura Sridhar, a sophomore at Wilson High School and member of the Youth Advisory Board who helped to create this project, said in a statement about the award. “My favorite part about the anchor cards is the idea that it allows you privacy while also making you feel as if you’re not alone.”
Lindsay Sites, program director of the Youth Volunteer Corps of Reading, said the project was incredibly important.
“The creation of anchor cards was one of the most meaningful processes I have ever been a part of,” she said. “Our youth worked tirelessly to craft the deck as a way to help their peers struggling with mental health.”
Anchor cards will be introduced to select schools through a pilot mental health program being launched in early 2023. For more information contact anchor@voiceupberks.org.
Source: Berkshire mont
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