Gold Award Girl Scout Addresses Mental Health Awareness, Removing Stigma
FREDONIA, Kan. — Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland congratulates Shelby S. for becoming a Gold Award Girl Scout, a designation she earned by spreading awareness about youth and teen mental health issues and creating coping strategies for stress and anxiety in the classroom.
The Gold Award is the mark of the truly remarkable — earned by a high school Girl Scout who works to address an issue she’s passionate about in a way that produces meaningful and lasting change. Whether it’s on a local, national, or global level, Gold Award Girl Scouts provide innovative solutions to significant challenges.
“Gold Award Girl Scouts don’t just change the world for the better, they change it for good — and Shelby embodies everything this achievement stands for," said Rolinda Sample, chief executive officer of Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland. “Shelby addressed an issue that’s important to her — teen mental health awareness— for her Gold Award, and we congratulate her on this momentous accomplishment.”
Knowing that many teens struggle with stress management and anxiety, Shelby focused her Gold Award on creating a coping strategy for her fellow students as well as educational materials and presentations on destigmatizing mental health issues.
For the classroom, Shelby created Coping Skill Baskets that included various fidget toys and items for students to use to help them focus and destress. Before implementing the baskets, she sent out a pre-survey to students at Fredonia High School to see what the general knowledge was on mental health. After placing the baskets in classrooms throughout the school, she sent a post-survey to see if the knowledge and coping skills had increased. In her results, she found the 73 percent of students learned more about mental health after utilizing the baskets and learning from her presentations.
Shelby also created the presentation “Turning the Stigma INSIDE OUT” and presented it to the Fredonia High School staff, the Lions Club, the Rotary Club, and the school board. She also had the presentation set up at homecoming, football games, basketball games, a wrestling tournament, and parent-teacher conferences so she could reach a wider audience and educate more community members on teen mental health issues.
“The skills the students gained are healthy coping skills that they can use in class and in their lives outside of school,” Shelby said. “I loved seeing the reaction my peers had to the coping skills. Everyone was eager to learn about how to use them and really enjoyed them.”
