Interact Actions - March 14, 2017

 

 

Age 9-12 wellness activities at Wellesley Free Library 

By Bob Anthony
 
The Wellesley Free Library is hosting wellness workshops for all youth ages 9 through 12. It is co-facilitated by a health-care professional and high school students of the Interact Club of Wellesley. They introduce fun exercises that develop healthy coping skills.
 
The activities and on-line games enhance innate skills and imagination to break any problem into easy-to-accomplish pieces. They also introduce strategies to clear the mind and calmly approach any situation. To see details or register your son or daughter for the library workshop, click here.
 
I am proud of this new resource for children because it brings home key elements from two programs that we originally designed for international mental health and wellness promotion:
•     Interact Peer Leadership and Depression Prevention 
•     Virtual Wellness Center within Whyville

The Wellesley Interact teens, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Wellesley,  deliver it in the Boston area.  Last year, they connected with teens implementing the program at schools in Puerto Rico and, this year, the program has started at schools in India.
 
Why is this important?
 
Back in 2011, the U.S. surgeon general suggested how all communities could prevent one in 10 cases of depression by 2018. Here in Wellesley, that would mean 250 fewer children with depression each year. Tragically, my town is overdue in getting started. Ten percent of our Wellesley Middle School children report suicidal ideation, according to the Metrowest Adolescent Health Survey.
 
Wellness workshops for youth and for new parents are part of getting Wellesley started toward measurably reducing the incidence of depression and suicide. 
 
To learn more about Interact, click here.
 
Bob Anthony, chair of the District Interact Committee, may be reached at bobanthony@adolescentwellness.org.

interact information request

We are going to create a newsletter of various Interact club projects from this 2016-2017 Rotary year for the upcoming Multi-District Conference on April 28 through 30 in Providence. We would like to have a display of community- and international-service projects that various Interact clubs are engaging in. If you would like to send a photo(s) or video clip and a three-to-five line description of an event or fundraiser to be added to the newsletter, please respond to our questionnaire form. To do so, click here.
 
Please send this form along with the photo(s) to Sharon Spaulding at ses@spauldingco.com no later than next Monday, March 20.

2017 MULTI-DISTRICT CONFERENCE: YOUTH CONFERENCE

HOW TO LAUNCH AN INTERACT CLUB

In Seminar 2 of the District Interact Teen and Advisor Training Seminar, held on September 17 in Needham, Bob Anthony, chair of the District Interact Committee, discusses “How to launch an Interact club,”including the certification letter, roles and responsibilities of the president, the Rotary advisor and, in the case of school-based clubs, the faculty advisor.