Why Collaboration and Community are Keys to Children’s Mental Health
Alpine educator explains why YOU are important in a child’s life
EveryDay Strong believes that our children’s success is a community effort. After all, it’s not just parents that have impact on kids’ wellbeing. Rather, it’s a result of various interactions that children and teenagers have with adults at home, school, church, and in the community.
Rhonda Bromley, an Alpine School District educator and administrator for almost 30 years, has experienced the difference a community can make in a child’s life when different adults work together to foster safety, connection, and confidence.
“It’s important to recognize and respect the different roles that we have. We all play a role in this,” she says. “But we also need to respect the fact that the role a parent plays is different from the role a teacher plays, and that role’s different from the role a counselor, or neighbor, or coach plays.”
We can sometimes get caught up in our own role and miss opportunities to collaborate with other adults in our kids’ lives.
Each adult in the community has the opportunity to interact with our children and teens in different settings. A 2019 BYU study explains that even when a child is facing toxic stress (like extensive poverty, family violence, divorce, or a substance-abusing parent), any caring adult, inside or outside the home, can help a struggling child and prevent long-term damage.
We each have different opportunities to interact with kids and teens. A coach can engage them at practices and competitions. Our teachers can support them academically and with their peers. Our bus drivers witness them every day before and after school.
Despite this, it seems we can sometimes get caught up in our own role and miss opportunities to collaborate with other adults in our kids’ lives.
“It’s important to recognize and respect each other’s differences in our roles,” Bromley says. “But we have to work together because we all have the same goal — to help each student and child be successful academically, emotionally, socially; in all aspects. The more we can communicate with each other about our students, the better.”
We can also more efficiently help our struggling children by fostering safety, connection, and confidence with other adults. Our community needs relationships where it feels safe for parents to approach a coach or supervisor about concerns, or for a teacher or church leader to approach parents about issues they’re witnessing.
“Gone are the days where parent’s only interaction with teachers is at parent-teacher night,” Bromley explains. “We can constantly be communicating electronically, and be in touch with the other adults our children interact with, to better support our children.”
Our community needs relationships where it feels safe for parents to approach a coach or supervisor about concerns, or for a teacher or church leader to approach parents about issues they’re witnessing.
While communicating with the other adults in our child’s life may seem like a daunting task, we can overcome by making simple goals each day. It can be as simple as letting their teacher or piano teacher know you appreciate them and their efforts.
As we eliminate the lines that separate us as adults, we can come together as one team working toward the same goal: to help the children in our lives feel safe, connected, and confident. ※
Courtesy of Rhonda Bromley, and Alpine School District educator and administrator, and Meghan Nelson, EveryDay Strong Community Outreach Specialist at United Way of Utah County. Originally published at heraldextra.com on July 28, 2019, and last edited September 2020.
To learn more about EveryDay Strong, check out our community resources and our website!
