Giving Compass' Take:

• Peer mentoring in schools can help fill the mental health gap by utilizing student connection to provide supportive relationships. 

• Schools built peer mentoring programs due to a lack of funding for adequate mental health services. Can funding now be redirected to strengthen peer mentoring programs? 

• Read about this online resource providing mental health services for students. 

Amanda Novak, an assistant principal at Westgate Community School in Thornton, Colorado, shared with EdSurge the story of her K-12 school’s struggle with an insufficient number of counselors to meet students' needs. So, school leaders decided to start a peer mentoring program more than three years ago to help provide extra support and guidance to students who needed it in navigating the school environment.

The program started as a piece of an already existing service-learning course that met once a week. Selected students were trained in basic counseling and mentoring skills, observed counseling activities in action, and were able to work and build supportive relationships with peers in an authentic, unscripted way, EdSurge notes.

Students of all ages face various stressors throughout their academic careers — stress over homework, issues with peers, financial troubles, mental health issues and more. And without the proper guidance and support, these students' negative feelings can get worse and can significantly disrupt the way a child functions and the behaviors they exhibit. In the most extreme cases, this can lead to dropping out, substance addictions or suicidal thoughts.

But a lack of funding for enough school counselors can leave many of these students stranded as mental health professionals struggle to deal with more urgent situations.

Peer mentoring and counseling programs can help address these less urgent needs by providing an additional layer of support in schools and by closing the mentoring gap. Many times, students simply need a safe space to share their thoughts and concerns and an understanding person to point them in the right direction.

Read the full article about peer mentoring by Amelia Harper at Education Dive