St. Clair Catholic District School Board (SCCDSB) students are spreading positivity with ‘Mindful Messages’ for Mental Health Week and Catholic Education Week.
Throughout the week, Blackburn Media is broadcasting the positive messages from students.
“So five years ago, we partnered with Blackburn Radio to create these messages with our grade seven, eight leadership class, and that class basically decided that they wanted to figure out how they can not only have a positive impact in our school community, but across multiple contexts,” said SCCDSB Teacher Daniel Cicchelli. “We explored radio, and Blackburn Radio has been awesome in partnering to create these messages where students will share their wisdom things they've learned in their personal life and at school to hopefully create a positive impact on the community.”
The messages are created by students under the guidance of a child and youth worker and this year's theme is connection.
“The theme was connection. How can we build connections with not only the students in our class, our peers, but also your teachers, the staff members and the people in your community? So really, this is an opportunity for the kids to say to the general community, hey, we're really working to build connections within our context,” said Cicchelli. “It's an opportunity for these kids to show that they're really passionate about these topics. And it really is something that, no matter what school you walk into, kids are really excited to learn and grow in this kind of realm.”
This year, students from St. John Fisher Catholic School, Gregory A. Hogan Catholic School, and St. Teresa of Calcutta Catholic School wrote and recorded this year’s inspiring messages.
"These messages usually are shared within the school that's creating the messages. The students usually feel pretty empowered based on the fact that they were on the radio and feel comfortable sharing these messages, and these conversations are things that happen within our schools all the time." he said.
The messages run from May 3 to 9, and listeners can hear students' personalized messages, which can also be found on the SCCDSB Facebook page.
