Preparing to Chill at Hammarskjold
Sep 30, 2015
It’s time to celebrate and to prepare to “chill” at Hammarskjold High School on Thursday, October 1! At a special ceremony, representatives of the Bell Let’s Talk initiative and the Children’s Centre will be making very special donations to the school to help improve the health and well-being of Hammarskjold students. The donations will be used to fund the building of a special rest and restore or “chill” room, a project spearheaded by the Hammarskjold High School Youth Mental Health and Addiction Champion committee (YMHAC).
“The chill room will be an indirectly supervised, safe, calming and quite room within the school, that students will be able to access any time they are feeling any mental or emotional distress,” says Jen Smith, Hammarskjold Teacher Facilitator of the YMHAC. “The chill room will also be used as a teaching space, where programs will be offered to students that are proactive in achieving and maintaining emotional and mental health. Keeping a positive mental health atmosphere in the school is crucial to the well-being of all students and to the community at large.”
Through various fund raising initiatives and very generous donations from within the school and the community, the YMHAC committee was able to raise approximately $2500. Bell’s Let’s Talk will be presenting a cheque of $2500 and the Children’s Centre Foundation will be donating $1000 towards the Hammarskjold Chill Room.
“We are grateful for the generosity of our students, staff and community,” says Smith. “Together we are working towards improving the health and well-being of our youth.”
The Hammarskjold High School Youth Mental Health and Addiction Champion committee is a student led initiative in association with the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario and the Thunder Bay District Health Unit. The goal of the YMHAC project is to improve the health and well-being of youth by focusing on mental wellness and to reduce the stigma related to mental illness.
