Hope Squad - New GCHS Program Fosters A Culture Of Care Through Peer-to-Peer Interaction

Good deeds, acts of kindness and positive messages.

For the Hope Squad, these are just a few of the ways the peer-to-peer counseling program is fostering a culture of care at Glenwood Community High School.

Beginning last Fall, GCHS partnered with the Utah-based Hope Squad, a nationally recognized non-profit program started more than a decade ago to focus on mental health and youth suicide prevention through peer-to-peer support programs within schools. It’s overarching mission: to raise awareness about mental health and empower students to identify and assist peers in crisis.

Glenwood’s Hope Squad currently includes 14 high school students from ninth through 12th grade. Heather Roberson, a student and family advocate at the high school and Hannah Doorenbos, an English language arts teacher, are the program’s co-sponsors.

Squad members are trained to watch for at-risk students, provide friendship, identify suicide-warning signs, and seek help from adults. They don’t act as counselors, but they are educated on recognizing suicide warning signs and how to properly and respectfully report concerns to an adult.

It’s a peer-based initiative and that’s important, Roberson said.

“Instead of adults talking at kids and handing out brochures, its peer-based,” she said, adding all Hope Squad members are nominated by other students for the group.

“Others thought they were somebody who was a good listener or the kids felt comfortable around and were kind or caring or compassionate and had those kinds of characteristics.”

Glenwood Community High School Principal Lorraine Duitsman was a fan of the program and approached Roberson and Doorenbos about co-sponsoring the group. They both leaped at the opportunity and went through their own Hope Squad training.

Whereas the school’s former Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) program was more service focused in its similar mission, the Hope Squad is more person-focused, meeting students where they are, in the hallways and the classrooms.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 10,000 teenagers commit suicide in 2024. Since 2000, that national suicide rate among teens has increased by nearly 300 percent. Suicide is often the result of untreated mental illness in teens where the high-risk warning signs are often missed or unreported.

Schools have always played catch up when it comes to those warning signs as well as mental illness and the benefits of social emotional learning. The Hope Squad is certainly a safety net but it’s also a proactive reminder for students that no one has to suffer alone.

“That’s our big goal as we grow and with our activities,” Roberson said. “We want people to know that we are here to spread yes, hope, but also awareness and help.”

Since late October, the Hope Squad has tried to do just that.

They’ve held a food drive for the Storehouse and each month they have a different theme. In December, it was generosity. Roberson and Doorenbos stressed that generosity wasn’t limited to donations and money.

“We talked about them being generous with words and actions,” Roberson said. “We did a ‘Generosity Challenge’ where you could give five people high-fives. You could thank the lunch staff. Thank a school counselor. Or make sure you talk to someone in the hall today you’ve never talked to before.”

The group has made posters listing crisis intervention phone numbers and posted them all over the school.

“When someone is having a problem, if they don’t go to the counselor they go in the bathroom,” Roberson said. “So those signs are up in the bathrooms.”

Last week was the national organization’s “Hope Week.” Feb. 13 was officially designated it’s “Day of Hope” with the Glenwood group having specific activities every day throughout the week.

One day had squad members writing a positive message on a clothes pin and attaching it to another student’s backpack. The squad also planned to drop in to random classrooms to handout positive message stickers and candy. A “Hope Fair” offered a shredder for students to scribble out their most stressful feelings and then feed them into the shredder. A “Hope Wall” and Valentine’s cards were available for students to share positive messages.

“It’s all about spreading kindness and generosity and caring and compassion,” Roberson said.

With the program just a few months old in Glenwood, it’s hard to put a metric on the Hope Squad’s success but the response, Roberson said, has been overwhelming positive among both students and staff.

“What I have noticed is that we have excitement with the Hope Squad. They’re excited to bring these activities to the school and what we’re doing. They’re excited and willing to do what is asked of them knowing that what they’re building, it’s beyond just right now.”

NOTE  - To learn more about Hope Squad, visit https://hopesquad.com/