CINCINNATI — More than 80 schools in the Greater Cincinnati area participated in World Teen Mental Wellness Day on Friday.
Officially, the actual wellness day is March 1, but schools held their events Friday while school was still in session.
Schools that participated received up to $1,000 each to pay for activities that could include planning wellness fairs, hosting speakers or promoting awareness for mental health resources like the National 988 Suicide and Crisis Hotline.
At Walnut Hills High School, students held an event as part of the school's Sources of Strength program.
"Sources of Strength is built on a wheel that has eight parts and so each of the booths, eight of the booths represents each part of the wheel and it's the strength that people can rely on when things get hard, so you practice that ahead of time and then when you need it, you don't have to do anything special — it's already there for you," said Laura Brogden, a Latin teacher at the high school.
She said the funding the school received from the Joe Burrow Foundation was key to putting on the event for students — and to making it fun, with giveaways. It's the third year Walnut Hills High School has participated.
World Teen Mental Wellness Day is observed annually to raise awareness for mental health issues facing teenagers, while promoting mental wellness and finding solutions to issues that teens face.
"If they don't have something to lean on when things get hard then they, you know, fall into a bad place," said Brogden. "We don't want that to happen. We want to help build them up ahead of time."
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