We Partnered With TUPE
TUPE is the Los Angeles Unified School District's tobacco education program to reduce tobacco use among students in Grades K-12. The mission of Tobacco Use Prevention Education is to vigorously reduce the tobacco use among youth by exposing tobacco industry tactics. We partnered with TUPE by hosting them during one of our lunch activities to raise awareness about their program. We met with other students who are apart of their team and collaborated with them on the best ways to engage students about the issue they're addressing. We discussed their project relates to mindfulness because sometimes when students are anxious they turn to substances to self-medicate. We talked about how learning about mindfulness and how to regulate one's emotions can help students find healthier ways to manage their mental health instead of turning to substance abuse.
Ms. Cushing is the dean at our school and she is in charge of this program. Here is what she shared about our support:
"As part of our TUPE grant at Ramon C. Cortines, our peer leaders partnered with GBLA to help spread education related to the health effects of vaping in teenagers through their May school-wide campaign during the GBLA Friday lunch event. We are grateful for this partnership and would love to collaborate in the future because of the connection between students' mental health, mindfulness and substance use. " Kelsey Cushing, Dean
Ms. Cushing is the dean at our school and she is in charge of this program. Here is what she shared about our support:
"As part of our TUPE grant at Ramon C. Cortines, our peer leaders partnered with GBLA to help spread education related to the health effects of vaping in teenagers through their May school-wide campaign during the GBLA Friday lunch event. We are grateful for this partnership and would love to collaborate in the future because of the connection between students' mental health, mindfulness and substance use. " Kelsey Cushing, Dean
Book Club:
We engaged in an anti-racist book club every meeting. We read "So You Want To Talk About Race" by Ijeoma Oluo. We held meaningful discussions where we raised consciousness about the effects of racism which helped provide us with tools to manage and fight against micro aggressions and racial bias.
Denim Day- April 28th, 2021
We partnered with another club at our school , VAPA What If, to host a Denim Day event. Denim Day is an international day of awareness about sexual assault and solidarity with survivors. We engaged in discussion and then hosted a breakout room where we played a sexual awareness Kahoot to reinforce the discussion we had earlier. We also provided virtual mandala coloring and provided a safe and supportive space for all participants.
Mentored other High School Students:
We helped Gianna Garcia, a girl scout from another high school, California School of the Arts- San Gabriel Valley, with her gold award project. She heard about our program and asked for support in bringing mindfulness to her school. We shared the classroom presentation that we created with her and then a couple of our team members trained her and her student leaders in how to facilitate the presentation to students at their school. It was rewarding for us to help another teen to feel confident in presenting to her school. Please view her response below.
Testimony:
"The training with your girls from GBLA was very helpful! It gave my student leaders an idea of how they should present their slides. Also, we ran the Mindfulness Workshop this week and it went really well! The student leaders were confident when they presented.
Once again thank you for sharing your Mindfulness Presentation with me... it is so beyond helpful with the creation of my workshop! I could tell that the students that attended the workshop really got something out of it. "
-Gianna Garcia
Testimony:
"The training with your girls from GBLA was very helpful! It gave my student leaders an idea of how they should present their slides. Also, we ran the Mindfulness Workshop this week and it went really well! The student leaders were confident when they presented.
Once again thank you for sharing your Mindfulness Presentation with me... it is so beyond helpful with the creation of my workshop! I could tell that the students that attended the workshop really got something out of it. "
-Gianna Garcia