Our friends at Alliance Healthcare Services told us that many of the young patients they treat for mental health conditions are often suffering from loneliness and isolation at school. They asked us to design a solution that would address this issue.

With support from our Inclusion Specialist, our School Counselor and professionals in the counseling field, we developed “Yeti Talk” -- a peer counseling program. We received training in youth mental health first aid from the Church Health Behavioral Health Department to prepare us for conversations with our peers. We developed a bulletin board in our Learning Commons to introduce our peer counselors, and set up an online form where students could request a Yeti Talk meeting.