Mashpee Middle-High School Prepares For Hope Week

Mashpee Middle-High School will host its second-ever Hope Week beginning Monday, February 9, through Friday, February 13.

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Hope Week is a week-long school spirit initiative to inspire support and education about mental health awareness and suicide prevention. Each day of the week has a different theme to promote kindness, positivity and connectedness in the school community.

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Hope Week is organized by Hope Squad, a peer-to-peer-led mental health awareness and suicide prevention program that trains 7th through 9th grade students with an evidence-based social-emotional learning curriculum to manage life situations. Mashpee Middle-High School is one of 14 schools on Cape Cod that has a Hope Squad.

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“What we know about teen suicide is that students will tell a peer if they are in that headspace before they reach out to an adult for support,” Mashpee Middle-High School adjustment counselor Deana Crowther told the Enterprise this week. “Most often, kids do not know how to manage that. We get the Hope Squad skilled to be able to manage that situation, look for signs of suicide and how best to get that kid help and resources.”

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Crowther, who is the lead advisor of the Hope Squad, said students planned Hope Week about two weeks ago, as the organization runs monthly activities and Hope Week is its biggest event of the year.

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For its second-ever Hope Week, the Hope Squad collaborated with Active Minds, the high school group that shares the same mission of reducing mental health stigma, spreading mental health awareness and suicide prevention. The two organizations worked together to create and name the themed days of the upcoming Hope Week, which include “Hello Yellow Monday,” “PJs On…Self Love Strong” on Tuesday, “Rise Up For Team Kindness” on Wednesday, “Share the Love Day” on Thursday and “Support Your Team as They ‘Crush’ Stigma” on Friday, the day before Valentine’s Day.

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Crowther said students are encouraged to wear yellow for suicide prevention awareness and to shine bright at the start of Hope Week. “PJs On...Self Love Strong” invites students to wear pajamas to school and get comfortable talking about mental health and practicing self-love. Wednesday prompts students to wear their favorite team gear and pass along kindness clips, small clips with supportive sentiments written across them.

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“Share the Love Day” on Thursday encourages students to wear pink or red, enjoy a Valentine’s Day treat and watch a video of their peers explaining how they share the love. The final day of Hope Week is an Active Minds exclusive initiative that invites students to wear green to support the girls’ basketball game dedicated to taking a stand against mental health stigma later that evening.

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The themed days will also provide mental health awareness and suicide prevention resources, information and materials at lunch. Mashpee Middle-High School students will also build and display a Hope Chain throughout the week, a long paper chain with messages of hope or affirmation written on colored paper that corresponds with the color scheme of each themed day.

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Crowther said students have created kindness clips, flyers and posters during their free periods in preparation for Hope Week.

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“Hope Week is about feeling connected and feeling that kids are empathetic and kind toward each other,” Crowther said. “This dedicated week builds positivity and that culture in our school.”

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Originally published at https://www.capenews.net/mashpee/news/mashpee-middle-high-school-prepares-for-hope-week/article_b23dee28-66ea-418e-b3e8-a1c46bfc39ce.html