The Wellness Program at Galileo High School co-sponsored a special event on Valentine’s Day. The annual “Love Fest” drew hundreds of teens and promoted healthy relationships, safe decision making and tolerance. Read the article here to learn more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/14/MNV61N7K4P.DTL
The Wallenberg Wellness Center hosted an event on January 31st as part of a Bay Area campaign to raise awareness about abuse in teen relationships and encourage teens to seek help. Launched to coincide with Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month in February, the campaign is a partnership between INOBTR (“I Know Better”), a non-profit organization focused on educating kids through public awareness to keep them safe, and the California Adolescent Health Collaborative (CAHC), a public-private statewide coalition of individuals and organizations that works to increase understanding and support of adolescent health and well-being. More details about the event at Wallenberg High School can be found in this article from the SF Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/education/2012/01/program-tells-students-how-watch-dating-violence
Mission Local, a San Francisco blog about life in the Mission District has featured a program supported by the Mission Wellness Center. The Culinary Leadership course teaches students how to cook and about nutrition. Click the photo to read the full article.
The remarkable work of SF International’s Wellness Program made it into the SF Examiner this month! The Wellness Program at SF International provides a much needed sanctuary and connection to resources for the school’s diverse population of immigrant students with varied English Language capabilities and support needs. Click on this link or the image below to read on and learn more! http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2011/09/san-francisco-students-living-dream-international-high 
We are excited to share this fun video about the Mission High Skate Club, started by the Mission Wellness Program’s Community Health Outreach Worker, Ray Sotto, along with other Mission High staff. The video captures the power of sports to bring together a diverse group of students who might not otherwise get to know each other. The passion of the skateboarding students is evident in their testimonials about how this unique Wellness club helps them stay healthy and engaged in school.
For the 10th year in a row, our Wellness Programs have increased the number of students served! Last school year, the combined Wellness Programs served over 7,000 students, some 46% of the student population across the 15 high school sites. This continued trend is not only significant in demonstrating student need, but also the tireless efforts of Wellness staff to meet this need despite shrinking school and program budgets and reduced staff capacity. Congratulations to all Wellness Program staff and the schools and administrations that support their work. For more information on 2010-2011 student service data, please click here: Wellness Initiative Service Summary 10-11.
The San Francisco Chronicle recently published an article about how Wellness Programs helped one remarkable student overcome the odds that were stacked against him to reach graduation. To read Evander Williams’ inspiring story and get an idea of how our programs support student wellbeing and academic success, please read on!
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/06/04/BAHA1JP1K0.DTL
On both Tuesday, May 10th and Thursday, May 12th, the Bryant street sporting goods outlet store, Sports Basement was abuzz with more than the usual fitness shoppers. The excited chatter and the scent of a lasagna feast lead to the community events area of the store, a space that Sports Basement shares as an in-kind donation with local non-profit organizations. There, crowded onto couches and folding chairs, sat Wellness Youth Outreach Workers from more than 15 SFUSD high schools, along with friends, parents, teachers and other school staff who had all come to celebrate the year of service these students provided to their peers as health educators. There were so many YOWs to celebrate that the event was broken up into two evenings to accommodate all the students!
During the informal ceremony, each site’s Youth Outreach Coordinator awarded the students on their YOW team with certificate of appreciation along with a few words about their unique contribution to their team. The emotions, gratitude and pride shared revealed the deep connections forged by each team as they developed and delivered presentations to their peers and organized events on critical issues such as the harms of tobacco, ending bullying and building safe relationships. Stories shared by Coordinators captured the way that each individual personality contributed to the team and how each student grew as a leader through the program.
A few students shared their thoughts on being a YOW:
“One good experience that I’ve learned from YOWS is that I’ve learned to talk in front of students and also to actually teach them things. What amazed me the most is that they actually were listening to us and they learned a lot of things from us – from what we teach. And a lot of them came after school to ask more questions about what they learned.” – Jennifer Santos, Ida B. Wells.
“YOWs has been very constructive to help me to learn how to work with people on how to achieve a greater goal and knowledge of health and it has been a blast the whole time. I’ve enjoyed every second of it.” – Conor McGovern-Calder? Ida B. Wells.
“I think it helps (students) to listen better (to hear from YOWs) than from a teacher because we are basically one of them – so if they hear from one of us then they are like, oh maybe she knows what a healthy relationship is like and maybe I should listen to her…” – Mileka Lawson, Academy of Arts & Sciences
“I think my favorite thing (about being a YOW) is to talk with teenagers, like classroom presentation type things because it really gets their attention and I really love the YOWs because we really bonded… I really like being around the YOWs they are really cool.” – Evante Watson, Galileo High School
Hello everyone and welcome to the new site for the San Francisco Wellness Initiative. We hope you enjoy it, let us know if you run into any problems!
