Phoenix Students Create a Wellness Journal by Students for Students

A wellness journal by students for students is helping to give École Phoenix Middle School students a safe outlet to start to work through their thoughts and feelings about COVID, depression, anxiety, and anything else that might be concerning them as they navigate their day-to-day life.

School counsellor Ryan Chenard came up with the idea as part of a strong desire to try to break down the stigma kids can have about mental health and receiving counselling. He enlisted the help of art teacher Shannon Lim to help bring it to life after he saw more students struggling through the pandemic and having a hard time sharing. 

For several years the school had been spending money on journals, sketchbooks, colouring books and self-guided activity books on anxiety, self-awareness and self-esteem to provide as counselling resources for students. 

However, what works for one student might not work for another and so matching the student with the right resource was tricky and often books were being handed back after hardly being used and the school would then try to reuse it for another student. 

The intent was to create a sample book of a range of activities that could help students identify what they connect with and that could be broadly distributed to all students, whether they accessed counselling services or not. So that, when students needed help, students had greater self-awareness of what they connect with, and the school could provide them with more targeted resources.

Chenard turned to students within the school to compile their own book of activities. Over 30 students worked on the book in various ways – from trying and identifying activities that they liked for inclusion in the book to the artwork for students to colour and build upon with their own drawings. And, according to Chenard it is truly a representation of all students in the school.

The journal, which has been given out to start to students through the counselling department, is to help students focus on building their own self-awareness and to give them activities that could help them become more conscious of how they are thinking and feeling. The journal also offers ways that students can get immediate help and support.

It is designed to be taken and completed anywhere and has all the tools students need; a pencil and eraser and mini-pencil crayons included in a pouch on the front cover.

Chenard hopes that next year it can be given out to all grade 6 students in their first week of school and groups like the Foundry have also expressed a desire to have the journals available through their offices.

This project is a great example of how schools are taking steps to address the wellbeing of their students and staff under the mental health framework and towards the district’s strategic goal to build a culture of learning and wellness.