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Program History
Friends Academy established a Health Committee in September 2000 to begin evaluating our overall Health Program; to enhance our already existing Health Week; and to explore ways in which to augment parent, student and faculty education comprehensively, as a community.
As a first step the committee invited a representative from Hazelden, a pre-eminent organization in the field of substance abuse prevention and treatment, to conduct a survey of our students in grades 6 through 11 (Spring 2001). This survey would help to assess and address the needs of our own community and provide meaningful feedback on the issues seen as central to the healthy development of our students.
In June and November 2001, David Wilmes, a highly experienced Hazelden representative, presented the survey results, and his observations and recommendations on improving the overall Health Program to the Health Committee, the parents and the students of grades 6 - 12. Mr. Wilmes felt that our greatest needs were to provide strong leadership in this area, to plan a more expansive Health curriculum, and to increase student and parent education. In response, the position of Director of Health and Wellness was created. Given his background, interest, and overall responsibilities as Dean of Students, Ron Baskind was asked to serve in this role and to build a support team to work together with the principals, faculty, students, and parents in providing our community with the best possible Health Program.
Throughout the past six years the Health and Wellness program has evolved. Health Week was replaced by more frequent presentations throughout the academic year, as well as, a substantive increase in the number of times health classes meet in the middle and upper schools. To support this health initiative extensive research was conducted on effective curriculum, resulting in the purchase of two highly rated health programs - the Michigan Model and Project Northland. Five years ago the school began implementation of the curriculum by having training programs for all health teachers. This past summer, one health teacher attended a training session in Michigan, to support our efforts as we work towards having a comprehensive K-12 program health education program. Another major change is our Annual Spring Parenting Strategies Conference that began in March of 2003 and completed its fifth conference in April of 2007. Health and Wellness is currently working with the Parent Networking programs to offer the most coordinated and effective program for parents.
An overview of topics and respective speakers follows that represents many of the initiatives generated by the Health and Wellness committee. Speakers were presented at a variety of venues: Health Week; Parenting Strategies Conferences; Parent Networking and Spearkers Series programs.
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