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Cosby High School is the first to pilot the #umatterchallenge!

Check out the video the teens did! Thanks to Alex Chaffee, teen leader and member of the Swift Creek YMCA Leader’s Club for her help in leading the charge on this social media mental illness acceptance and suicide prevention program! And to all the students who stood up against the stigma of mental illness.

I doubt I could have gotten a team of adults to do this video. So who’s gonna erase stigma? High school students like these guys!

If you want to bring this simple, 2-week program to your school, contact me. This program is through Beacon Tree Foundation, advocates for youth mental health. The next school might be one in Henrico. Maybe.

Rock on Cosby and thanks for being pioneers and having the guts to take this on, for honoring Charles’ struggles with depression and addiction and for supporting your peers who also struggle. So proud of you guys I could cry. OK. Confession. I did cry.  I have a feeling you’ll make me cry again. Good tears. I want pictures of you guys in action to post! I want to see the posters you made.

Special thanks to Merel Williams, School Counselor and Cassie Rogers, Health Science Specialty Center Coordinator for supporting the teens in this program.

Can’t wait to check out the #umatterchallenge hash tag on Instagram.

  1. Details on the #umatterchallenge program are here. We are still working on the “kit” for the program.
  2. Sign up here if you want to do the #umatterchallenge with Cosby High School

Published by

Anne Moss Rogers

I am an emotionally naked mental health speaker, and author of the Book, Diary of a Broken Mind and co-author with Kim O'Brien PhD, LICSW of Emotionally Naked: A Teacher's Guide to Preventing Suicide and Recognizing Students at Risk. I raised two boys, Richard and Charles, and lost my younger son, Charles to addiction and suicide on June 5, 2015. I help people foster a culture of connection to prevent suicide, reduce substance misuse and find life after loss. My motivational mental health keynotes, training and workshop topics include suicide prevention, addiction, mental illness, anxiety, coping strategies/resilience, and grief. As talented and funny as Charles was, letting other people know they matter was his greatest gift. And now the legacy I try and carry forward in my son's memory. Mental Health Speakers Website. Trained in ASIST and trainer for the evidence-based 4-hour training for everyone called safeTALK.

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