During December, UP kicked off Personal Power & Community Connections (P2C2) with Pownal Elementary School’s 5th grade. P2C2 guides and empowers elementary-aged youth and adults to create positive change in their communities. Using an asset-based approach, teams identify strengths and opportunities in their learning environment using school climate data, celebrate their strengths, and brainstorm action to take to improve their areas of concern. Something exciting about P2C2 at Pownal is working with the ENTIRE 5th grade! The two 5th grade teachers at Pownal, Patience Jenkins and Jen Metcalfe, were both interested and ready to engage their full classrooms in P2C2.

The partnership between UP and Pownal is part of a larger partnership between UP and the Southwest Vermont Supervisory Union (SVSU) through Vermont’s Project AWARE: Advancing Wellness and Resilience in Education. Project AWARE involves a partnership between three of Vermont’s school districts or supervisory unions and Vermont’s Department of Mental Health, Agency of Education, and Agency of Human Services that aims to promote on-going collaboration at the state and local level regarding best practices to increase awareness of mental health issues; enhance wellness and resiliency skills for school age youth; and support system improvements for school based mental health services.

UP Program Director Kate Merrigan and Sophia M., a high school student and UP co-facilitator, have guided the first two retreats at nearby Mount Anthony Union High School. With experience facilitating and a background in theater, Sophia has brought a wonderful calm confidence and a seemingly endless supply of fun games that have energized the team. Kate notes that “something I am really loving about this team is how welcoming and helpful the students have been. When I arrived on day one, I was swarmed by 5th graders asking what they could do to help me set up. When I arrived for our second retreat, a student saw me in the hallway and offered to help carry materials. I’m seeing a lot of kindness and willingness to lean into our shared work of building community!” 

The work so far has focused on building connections in the team, learning about our leadership styles and how the team can work well together, and gathering data about strengths and challenges in the Pownal Elementary student experience. Patience shared that “watching the students interact as they consider how to be good leaders and make positive choices for the community is empowering for our fifth graders. They absolutely love to be asked about their opinions, and even more, they love to think about possibilities for change.”

By the end of the second retreat, the team had generated a lot of ideas for where the school’s strengths and opportunities are, including some big dreams. Through discussion amongst the team and with their teachers, they narrowed their focus to 5 main areas for possible action: 1) bullying; 2) helping people make friends ; 3) more class options (cooking, outdoor, dance); 4) choices about free time and/or schedules; and 5) more items to learn with (equipment, animals, seating, people). After a round of “dotmocracy” sticker voting, it looked like an area with strong interest was #5 – though there was a lot of interest all around and the team will continue to refine their focus before moving on to action planning!

One major highlight of that second day together, just this past week, was the closing circle question. Sophia invited everyone to share a favorite part of the day. Around the circle of Pownal students and their adult partners, person after person said “everything”.