February 2, 2024
Update: February 15, 2024 Sources of Strength Informative Session and Q&A Recording
Secondary and 6th Grade Families,
In an effort to support greater student wellness and suicide prevention goals, our district has undergone a review of various student wellness and suicide prevention programs to identify programs that might be worth considering for our community. With the help of district leaders, secondary school administrators, social workers, counselors, and health teachers, we have identified one program that we would like to put forward to the larger community for consideration. This program would be for our three secondary schools, and we’d like your input as your 6th grade student(s) will be moving up to those schools next year.
Our district policy, IN 304, requires feedback and review by two parents from each school. However, we are hoping for as much parent feedback as possible so that we can address any potential concerns with this program.
The program that we are looking to adopt at our three secondary schools is Sources of Strength.
“Sources of Strength is a best practice youth mental health and wellness promotion and suicide prevention program designed to harness the power of peer social networks to create healthy norms and culture, ultimately preventing suicide, violence, bullying, and substance misuse. The mission of Sources of Strength is to prevent adverse outcomes by increasing well-being, help-seeking, resiliency, healthy coping, and belonging. Sources of Strength moves beyond a singular focus on risk factors by utilizing an upstream approach for youth suicide prevention. This upstream model strengthens multiple sources of support, or protective factors, for young people so that when times get hard, they have strengths to rely on.”
This program was selected for consideration based on several criteria, including student participation, teacher requirements and time outside of class, along with its evidence-based practices.
District Prevention Coordinator Sierra Marsh will be hosting an information session with Sources of Strength’s team on Thursday, February 15 at 5pm. This session will be virtual and will address the purpose behind student wellness programming, the process through which Sources of Strength was identified, and, of course, the program itself. You may view this informative session by accessing the video here.
Before, during, or after the Zoom session, you may provide your input on this program using the feedback form here. We value feedback from all our Murray families and hope that you will share your perspective with us.
There will be a follow-up session on Wednesday, February 21st at 2:30pm to address the feedback received. You may access the session using this Zoom Link.
Finally, if you are interested in participating in the committee that will review the feedback and present the program to the Murray Board of Education for approval, please contact Sierra Marsh at smarsh@murrayschools.org. Thank you for your support and engagement!