Duluth High Schools Start Up New Mental Health Program

Duluth East and Denfeld have recently incorporated a program into the schools that helps create a positive environment for students to support each other. The program is called "Sources of Strength."  It is a suicide prevention program using peer leaders and positive methods to address and bring awareness to mental health.

Students are elected by teachers to be peer leaders and they all meet weekly creating and implementing mental health campaigns throughout the school and the community. Shanze Hayee, a senior at Duluth East told WDIO  "When I found out that this was a program, I dived in because I really just loved the idea of having a program dedicated to maintaining and improving the mental health of our students and our staff,"

Students and teachers together use the Strength Wheel which is a colorful chart that has different strengths that students can use to help each other. "The wheel includes mental health, family support, positive friends, mentors, healthy activities, generosity, spirituality, and medical access." The feedback from students is that this program is geared towards kids which makes fellow students more receptive.