The MCIULearns Podcast
The MCIU Learns podcast is where education leaders, innovators, and experts share insights and best practices to elevate learning and empower schools. Each episode features thought-provoking conversations with thought leaders, presenters, and program directors from Montgomery County Intermediate Unit (MCIU) and beyond. Whether we’re discussing cutting-edge programs, professional development strategies, or the latest trends in education, our goal is to inspire and build capacity in educators, administrators, and all those passionate about improving student outcomes.
The MCIULearns Podcast
"I've Got Your Back": How Pottsgrove Students are Leading Mental Health Conversations
Discover how Aevidum, meaning “I’ve got your back,” empowers students to lead the charge against mental health stigma. At Pottsgrove High School, this peer-driven movement has grown into the school’s largest student club by equipping teens with the tools to support one another without feeling overwhelmed. Hear how Aevidum’s student-led model, signature Talk Workshop, and school-wide culture campaigns are transforming communities across eastern Pennsylvania, with free programming, thanks to support from the Project AWARE grant.
Interested schools can contact Pia Houseal at phouseal@mciu.org to learn more about bringing Aevidum to their district.
So it was really moving to see people go up in front of all these different schools and all these different people and just share their experiences and what they're going through, and it was a really nice way to break the stigma, so I'm excited to see that happen again.
Speaker 2:What made this one more special is the fact that they have the opportunity to come into a peer-to-peer training so they can better relate to others back at their school and maybe other schools that we can invite and encourage to partake in Avidum.
Speaker 3:The other piece is we know that they're going to go to each other first before they go to an adult if they're struggling, and so giving them the tools and learning through curricular, like friend to friend, is key to give them a voice and knowing what to say, and I'm excited to take my knowledge from this club into college Hello Montgomery County and welcome to the MCIU Learns podcast.
Speaker 5:My name is Brandon Langer. I'm the Director of Innovation and Strategic Partnerships at the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit in Norristown, pennsylvania. This is our conversation with ed leaders, thought leaders and growing population of students across the county as we dive into topics that are of importance how we lead education forward, both with and on behalf of students. I am really excited for today's conversation because we have a special event going on with a group of students and faculty and a national organization called Avidum. We're going to learn more about that today, but to start with, I want to get our students introduced. I'm going to hand it off over here to my left.
Speaker 6:Hey, I'm Mauricio.
Speaker 1:I'm Jordan. I'm Rowan.
Speaker 5:And what school district are you all from? We're all from Potts.
Speaker 6:Grove School District.
Speaker 5:Very cool. Well, thank you for joining me today. Today has been, I know, one of many events that you guys have been doing, but what can you tell us about today's event with Avidum?
Speaker 1:I can say that it is a very collaborative experience between peers. We call it peer-to-peer training, so it helps us talk to others, understand each other's feelings and just be more open with communication towards each other.
Speaker 5:That's awesome. And what is Avidum Like? When you guys joined this group, what were you hoping to accomplish or learn? You know what is the program all about.
Speaker 4:I'm hoping to create a safer space among our school and our students and to give people somebody to lean on when they feel like they have nobody.
Speaker 5:Oh, interesting. So when you say safety, can you go in a little bit deeper? Like what do you mean? A safe space?
Speaker 4:So I feel like sometimes people feel like they are alone or they don't have someone they can talk to. With a VDM, being able to express your emotions in a safe and healthy manner is very important to your mental health, and it can then translate into your physical health too, and both of those are very important.
Speaker 5:Absolutely so. When we talk about safety in this context, we're talking about mental wellness, mental safety or school safety. From the standpoint of Evita means I got your back, if I'm not mistaken. So being able to bring that and learn from one each other, but also be there from one each other, seems like a really neat opportunity, Mauricio. What's been your takeaway from today so far?
Speaker 6:I'd say it's been a big focus on learning new strategies into how to deal with somebody that's going through a tough time. Try not to be too aggressive in the approach of helping them out and taking a more passive approach especially as students or friends to the person that could be going through a tough time. We shouldn't be taking the full brunt of what's happening and we should instead try to guide them to a trusted adult that would be able to help them in a more safe or closed environment.
Speaker 5:I love it. And when you say like is that one of the strategies? That understanding your role in support as a peer? Is that the main takeaway?
Speaker 6:That would definitely be one of the takeaways, because, well, you as students, as teenagers that are growing, we shouldn't be facing a large amount of stress trying to help somebody else out and trying to be their only outlet that they have, and instead should be more focused on trying to bridge them to somebody that is more mature in the subject, more educated in the subject, so that they can have a lot easier time handling their issues but also be given good advice, backed by whatever education the person has gone to get there.
Speaker 5:Absolutely. That makes a lot of sense. Ruan, you're a senior. Is this your first year working with this group, or have you been involved for a while?
Speaker 4:No, so I actually started my junior year when we kind of became a VEDM. Okay, mental health is very important to me as someone who struggled for a long time. I want to make sure that people know that they are not alone, because I know what it feels like to, you know, feel like you're alone, feel like you have no one in your corner, and I don't want people to feel like that.
Speaker 5:Yeah, absolutely so. Do you share a similar takeaway from the day or is there something else from the from the leadership group today specifically?
Speaker 4:I liked how they really emphasized, like what Mauricio said, how you don't want to be like too forward with how you ask them, like what they need, and like you know how can I help you, like you don't want to feel like you're ambushing them, you want to be, you know, like hey, I'm in your corner, I'm supportive. Do you want? You know, like, do you want advice, all that kind of stuff, and you don't want to be too forward with how you're helping someone.
Speaker 5:Yeah, absolutely. I love it, Jordan. What about you? What's been your takeaway today?
Speaker 1:I would say it's definitely taught me how to reach out to others better, where I can make a safe environment ensuring them that they could come and talk to me about whatever they need or whatever they're struggling with at the time.
Speaker 5:Yep, I love that. No, I think it's really great that you guys have come together, and it's not just about we're going to talk a little bit about some of the different types of events that might go on with this group, but that they take different forms. Sometimes we come together to be supportive and celebrate or learn as a big collective. Sometimes we come together to learn in a small leadership format and both have value and different takeaways. So I definitely want to turn our conversation over to our staff advisors that have joined us. So I definitely want to turn our conversation over to our staff advisors that have joined us. So I'm going to ask them to introduce themselves and we'll kind of talk a little bit about their role.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I'm Mr Desiderio with Potts Grove High School, also a biology teacher with the school and a VEDM advisor. A VEDM, as the students said very well, speaks volumes to both mental and physical health, bringing awareness, providing the mission forward in our school and helping spread that like a beacon of light for those that are in need and maybe dealing with other conflicts that a lot of teenagers face, be it anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts. And I think Potts Grove has done a tremendous job in growing our program and our club to help connect with others and not only make friends and build new relationships, but let them know that, yes, we need to shatter the silence of mental health and that we've got their back. And Evita has been an amazing journey because I think we've gone to at this point, the largest club in our school, so we're happy about that.
Speaker 7:I'm mrs Berwager. Along with mr desert Dario, I'm a co-advisor and I teach biology and I'm also the cross-country coach, so I play a few roles.
Speaker 3:Awesome. Mary Pritchard, director of outreach for Avidum. My role is to onboard new schools and support advisors and clubs in their efforts within their schools.
Speaker 5:Absolutely Well. I think it's so great that you guys have linked up and we've started to build this network through. My understanding is through kind of eastern PA, right From southeast corner here in Montgomery County but stretching up through Carbon, lehigh and up even into Luzerne through our Project AWARE grant that we have here. But I'm kind of curious to start with the faculty advisors what's the takeaway today from your perspective?
Speaker 7:We heard from the students the takeaway from my perspective is just that it's not always about solving the problem. So a lot of times as teachers or even as students, we're trying to fix the problem all the time. I think we need to value just being heard. Sometimes people come with issues and they just need to get it off their chest. They just want that support. They don't necessarily need advice or for you to solve or fix their problem.
Speaker 5:Sorry, I have a smile on my face because I was a music teacher for 13 years and there'd be kids that would come down and just like, spill all the beans and be like, well, maybe you can't, no, they're like no, I don't need you to, I just need you to listen. And I was like, oh, okay, it's about them venting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was, it was, but I know we're talking about a different space with that, but I think that's absolutely true.
Speaker 2:I mean and I heard and saw that over and over again In terms of what the students are getting out of today, I better relate to others back at their school and maybe other schools that we can invite and encourage to partake in Avidum and come forward. The goal, ultimately, is to take their training and not only make an impact on those future students but also connect with, like superintendents and principals of other schools in Montgomery County per se to help them understand that this is not only essential but this is something that others should be a part of, because it's not all about academics right at every school. It's about personal growth, it's about development, it's about overcoming fears, it's about knowing that, again, you are not alone and that we have others like our students here today that can not only provide a helping hand but train, that are trained to better respond to their needs and issues. Hence peer-to-peer training, so they know how to better understand and relate to that and know what to say at the right time.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I love that because we have a lot of conversations about curriculum and we have a lot of conversations about the future of schools and all these things and we talk about foundational skills in reading, foundational skills in subject areas. We don't always talk about foundational skills in people, and I love that this group's kind of focused on that. Mary, I'd love to hear from your perspective, from the Avidum lens, what do foundational skills look like, or what is Avidum really hoping to coach in young people?
Speaker 3:So today's program is specifically called Friend to Friend, and so it was designed, with consultation with experts in the field, to empower students to support each other, but also with a clear message about self-care, knowing when you need to step outside the friendship and get your friend to an adult if it's a crisis situation. And just Avidum's overarching philosophy is lifting student voice, empowering students to make a difference in their school, taking care of themselves as well as their friends, creating, as they so eloquently said, that safe space, Because adults and students, we all need a moment sometimes of support from each other. And that social-emotional intelligence you referenced it. It's not focused on enough in our schools and we find that it is actual suicide prevention when we create these environments in our schools. It's kind of a tier one, if you want to use the educational vernacular. It's a tier one. Everybody gets supported. All-inclusive approach.
Speaker 5:So what do different events look like? We talked today's peer-to-peer leadership training. What do other Avidum events look like?
Speaker 3:So our signature onboarding activity is called the Talk Workshop and Potts Grove, being a thriving club, has assisted us at those. So we spend the first hour just talking about suicide prevention, reducing stigma. We talk about what a VEDM is all about. Our catchphrase we've got your back. But the students also assist with that and probably the most powerful moment is when they share their personal narrative, their personal story, about why they think a VEDM is important. Then they break down into small groups and the students lead each other in the conversation. The adults leave, which is kind of a different approach than typically taken. It's always the adults teaching the kids. In this case they're teaching each other. And then I work with the advisors and help them to understand how we're different. You know that we are student-led, we're not adult-led, that we lift their voices because it resonates more with each other.
Speaker 2:I was just going to add to that. Mrs Pritchard nailed it. I mean the difference maker, I believe, for us in Avidum, and what really took and resonated with me is the fact that our students know that, hey, we're here for you, right, academically, personally, we love and care for you, we want the best for you, we want you to succeed in life. But the difference maker, and the one that truly impacted, was the fact that they have the space or the opportunity to back each other up, to share their feelings and thoughts, to have that connection, because, hey, let's be honest, they hear from us enough every day. Right, they're lectured to and there's a lot of ways that we speak to the kids. But the fact that they have that ability to connect and understand hey, I'm going through that too, I am not alone after all Like, it's a great thing at the school level, in the building, that we can do that and then grow from there to the community and let that resonate with high volume so other people realize, hey, we're more than just any old club.
Speaker 5:Absolutely, and I think any high-performing club or team at a school level has that student-level leadership, whether that's a strong captain of the team that can speak to the team, not just the coach For a musical director. Same thing the shows that landed the best were the ones that had leads, that took the lead beyond just being the lead on the poster right. Absolutely, and I love that this is providing opportunity for that.
Speaker 3:And the other piece is we know that they're going to go to each other first before they go to an adult if they're struggling, and so giving them the tools and learning through curricular, like friend-to-friend, is key to give them a voice and knowing what to say. Just to get back to some other things we do, we also have a program called the Leader Lab, because we've discovered that through this work these students develop amazing leadership skills, and so during that day we work with them to hone those skills, and later today here here, I'm going to take a piece of that and help them develop what we call their elevator pitch so they can advocate for a VEDM. In the schools, we have assembly programs and all of our programming is free. That's a really important to us that money not be a barrier, and so we're so thankful for the project aware grant to help support what we're doing throughout the area absolutely one thing I wanted to circle back about the talk workshop which potsgrove hosted about a year ago.
Speaker 7:We bring multiple schools from all different areas, even from different counties, and what was really impactful is that what we see in our school is also common to other schools. So our students, our members, reported that they could see that they're not alone in some of the struggles that we're having.
Speaker 2:It's common to other schools as well. Yes, and that natural energy that comes from that is so empowering. To Mrs Bruegger's point is we'll take following that event and we'll use that momentum to then shift so then we can get involved with the community in the school by doing different programs, if it's, you know, projects that we do in the school, or any kind of community events, fundraising, service projects. So then we are not only heard and seen, so to speak, but then it inspires the kids to either join Avidum or partake in one way or another with moving that message forward and really connecting with more people.
Speaker 7:And we've made some really nice connections with local districts that we wouldn't otherwise really connect with. Like Spring Ford, we communicate with their advisors a lot Perky Omen Valley, where my daughter goes to school. She helped to start the club there, so now we're linked in to their guidance counselors as well yeah, and we're seeing this spread too.
Speaker 5:I was talking with all of you before we started our voices for education group, which we have a different podcast with that team, but mental health and school funding has floated to the top of their legislative advocacy agenda, and so I know that we've actually gotten a couple more conversations started with a couple districts and county that I would expect to be growing in as well. That's good news news.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely so you referenced things done within the school. So we started out just simply wanting to open the conversation, but then we realized there was more we could do in a proactive way. So we went to some experts in the field at Thomas Jefferson Hospital and asked them well, what are the characteristics of a healthy community? And they said it's where everyone feels accepted, appreciated, acknowledged and cared for. So the second thing our clubs do is focus on the school culture and run what we call campaigns around those words within their school, and so that's a big piece of preventative efforts as well, because we know when people are less stressed they're less likely to develop a mental health condition.
Speaker 5:Yeah, all of this is really making me smile because we have another leadership group called Dreaming Forward, which aligns very similarly to what you're saying. It's really built around building your culture of belonging within your school system, more from a zeroed out lens, less focused on just the student wellness piece. Anyway, the way all of these different leadership opportunities are building this in young people is really cool to see. From the IU's perspective. I'm very excited about it. I want to invite the students to come back over. I'd just love to hear just real quick what is something you're looking forward to. You know, or you know, and maybe, in Rowan's case, something that you're taking away as you kind of wrap up your senior year. But what are those things that come up next that you're really excited about? I'll start over here with Mauricio.
Speaker 6:Something I'm excited about is really just being able to now be a better listener, a better friend, a better peer to everybody in the club, and also another thing would be that talk workshop that's about to happen. It's really exciting to actually be able to work with other schools again After a year of doing it. Since last year in my freshman year, I was able to get an experience of it and see how it works, and now that I'm as an advisor, I'd actually really like to be able to be one of the people that helped people connect, instead of be connected by an advisor. Gotcha.
Speaker 5:That sounds awesome, jordan.
Speaker 1:I would like to touch on what Mauricio said. I'm also very excited for the upcoming talk workshop. Last year it was a really big success and it was extremely moving for me because before the talk workshop I had only joined the club like two months beforehand. So it was really moving to see people go up in front of all these different schools and all these different people and just share their experiences and what they're going through and it was a really nice way to break the stigma. So I'm excited to see that happen again.
Speaker 6:Very cool.
Speaker 4:Yeah, the, like everyone else, the talk workshop is going to be, you know, great. You know, last year I was just a member at that point. But even just like getting in all of these ideas and hearing from other schools' perspectives, it was really like eye opening and it was like we're're as a club, we're like not alone, like people and other schools have these exact same issues and it's and you don't feel as isolated when you hear about like these other problems or these other like great ideas and it really helps and I'm excited to take my knowledge from this club into college.
Speaker 5:This has been a wonderful conversation. I mean, even though I've worked with Pia Housel, who's our program administrator for Project Aware, and learned a lot from her in the last year, your guys' perspectives brings it a lot more to life for me, just like from that district. You guys are doing it, so that's so great. I do want to mention we've mentioned a couple of times already the talk workshop. I believe we're mentioning it. Workshop, I believe we're mentioning it is set for November 14th and so we want to make sure that those that hear the podcast would.
Speaker 5:If you're interested in learning more, you can always reach out to me at blanger, at mciuorg, or piahausiel, at piahausiel, at mciuorg, to learn more information. We can connect you both with our group. We can also get you connected with the VDM directly and get set up, whether that's a local chapter in your school district, whether it's just you're in an information gathering level. We'd love to have you join, our love to have you join the network that you can hear is doing so many great things. Thank you all for joining this conversation. Thank you for joining the conversation that's been going on all day in there. Some really cool takeaways from everybody in the room. If this is your first time listening to the MCIU Learns podcast. We put these out bi-weekly. You can access all of them at learnmciuorg slash podcast and you can also find it on Spotify, apple podcasts. Please follow us across all the social media networks as we continue to drive more conversations forward and advance education. Thank you all for joining.