After being introduced to Bearden last spring, Hope Squad is hoping to make their mark on the Bearden student body this year as the club enters their first full year of service.
“It is a peer-to-peer mental health and suicide prevention program,” president Cameron Mize said. “A lot of it’s done by students for the students.”
After seeing positive impacts from other Hope Squad organizations across the county and state, Bearden decided to start its own chapter. Students who are a part of Hope Squad are challenged to make friends and say hello to new people, and they are encouraged to be advocates for mental health and search for warning signs among peers.
“We also wanted to provide a place for students to feel safe talking about their mental health,” said senior Cameron Mize, who is the public relations chair.
Mize is in charge of running the club’s social media account, as well as planning the club’s social events around the school.
To launch the organization, the club decided to host therapy dogs around campus. It is proven that dogs are known to relieve stress and make people happier. The members of Hope Squad wanted to introduce their club in a fun way that also gives a good understanding of what they stand for.
“Since we didn’t have a full year last year, we didn’t get to do as many events and school outreach activities as we wanted to,” Mize said.
The club is currently planning many upcoming events for the rest of the school year, including selling ribbons for suicide awareness and bringing in more therapy dogs during lunches.
Hope Squad is still fairly new and as the year goes by, the organization hopes to increase in visibility around campus, as well as having more events around campus. They meet on the first and third Thursdays of every month, and are looking to become more public this year with the addition of new members.
“We cannot wait to see what else the year has in store and all the fun events we will get to take part in,” Mize said.