MENTORING & PRO-ACTIVE STUDENT EMPOWERMENT FOCUS: 

 

 

Team LEAD: a district-wide pro-social student empowerment and bullying prevention framework of student discussion forums, leadership workshops, peer mentoring, adult facilitators, and altruistic service.  LEAD focuses on the 40 developmental assets as well as other protective factors.  VCS LEAD incorporates the Sources of Strength best practice suicide prevention program to embed upstream prevention strategies throughout our system.

 

Team LEAD trains and coordinates pro-social relationship and leadership trainings for the upper-classmen at each level, in each building, K-12.  These trained student leaders then meet regularly for additional training following a format of mixer/teambuilder, education, small group discussion, large group processing and challenge.  These trained students then become LEAD mentors for younger students either within their building or across the district.  The VCS LEAD Mentor Program consists of hundreds of student mentors working with over a thousand younger students each year.  Our new Freshman LEAD Interns even work with preschool students and senior citizens!  The mentor call-out is an open and inclusive application process rather than a selection process. Mentors are self-selected, not teacher-selected, but must maintain passing grades and behavioral expectations as noted in their contracts.  Adult facilitators, volunteers, and coordinators also act as mentors to the mentors, thus embedding a culture of service and mentorship throughout the system from top to bottom.  This system of empowerment provides and supports developmental assets in every category noted as important by Search Institute, both external and internal.  Research shows that the development of these assets is directly linked to the prevention of drug and alcohol use and abuse. Team LEAD has 5th grade clubs in all the elementary schools as well These elementary clubs receive special mentoring workshops with our 8th grade Team Peace students, who are trained each fall by our high school mentors.  For more information,  please contact Mrs. Koebcke at dkoebcke@valpo.k12.in.us.

 

 

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