Notre Dame Academy is excited to be launching its new program called Be Well NDA. The program is a full year project with a monthly social or emotional wellbeing topic dedicated to helping students succeed in all aspects of life.
The program was drafted over a year ago by the Safety Committee, a group of staff members whose job is to focus on the physical and emotional safety of students at NDA. They noticed there was a great need for emotional safety within the building, especially concerning topics that can be difficult to discuss, but are extremely important.
The committee established what they were already doing for the emotional wellbeing of students, and embarked on a journey to find spaces where they could improve.
“This program wants to have multiple touch points for every student in the building, that we practice talking about topics that are often hard to talk about, and also that students know where and how to find resources should they need support,” said Mrs. Beth Abler in Student Services.
Abler has been in charge of the program since its inception, and she is passionate about the emotional wellbeing of all students at NDA. She would like to thank the safety committee for their support during the yearlong process.
The final topics were selected by Student Government members, which incorporates “a lot of touch points,” and include the following:
September: Mental Wellness
October: Coping Techniques
November: Healthy Relationships
December: Families
January: Body Positivity
February: Alcohol Awareness
March: Suicide Awareness
April: Device Dependency
May: Anxiety
A major goal of the program is for it to be easily accessible to students and staff, so they can find information on the different topics easily.
Each month there will be advisory bingo, a student news article, news and notes article (for parents), a bi-monthly morning show segment, toilet talk (newsletter in bathroom stalls), monthly morning mass dedicated to a topic, monthly Tritonian write up, resources posted in the library, and social media posts of each topic.
Students can also look forward to prizes from the advisory bingo game, prizes like airpods, parking permits and more.
“Students can expect to have a monthly topic presented to them in advisory at the beginning of each month. This topic will then be presented in a multitude of ways during the month,” said Abler.
The program is always developing new features and ideas, and anyone who has questions or would like to get involved should contact Mrs. Abler for more information.
