Giving Compass' Take:

• Amanda Novak, writing for EdSurge, discusses how peer mentoring programs can help field mental health problems for students that counselors are unable to get to. 

• How can donors support schools that need more counselors and mental health professionals?

• Read about how school counselors need to be supportive of students after traumatic events. 

As an assistant principal with a social work background, my experience is similar to that of many school counselors and mental health professionals today. Between the influence of social media, the tragically extreme pressure to succeed and our fast-paced world, our kids need us more than ever—and yet, as we are stretched thinner and thinner, there is less support to go around.

How do we address the mental health and social-emotional needs of our students with a severe lack of professionals available? At Westgate Community School, a K-12 school in Thornton, Colo., we responded to this dilemma by leveraging and training our student leaders to offer mentorship and mediation for their peers.

We had a capacity issue: too many kids needed support, but there weren’t enough adults or hours in the day to provide it.

We needed to acknowledge the steep, and growing, demand for counseling services, and we had to create time and space for every student reaching out to receive support. Every student is fighting a unique battle, and every student is a priority.

Peer mentoring and peer mediation are not new concepts. In fact, I was a peer mediator when I was in high school, though truth be told, I became a mediator so that I could opt out of health class.

So, what makes our peer mentor program so different? We intentionally select and educate young adults, we give them time and space to observe mental health professionals in action and ask questions and then we set them free to work with their peers in an authentic, unscripted way.

Read the full article about peer mentoring by Amanda Novak at EdSurge