DALLAS, TX / ACCESSWIRE / February 10, 2022 / This year's National School Counseling week theme is "Better Together at Uplift Education. All of Uplift's Social Behavioral Counselors are active school leaders, participating in collaboration with administration, teachers, parents, etc. to meet the needs of our scholars each and every day!

This year has shown us how crucial it is for both children and adults to be able to understand and manage their emotions, feel and show empathy for others, and have the skills to be resilient in the face of adversity. We continue to focus on the social emotional health of our scholars and staff and remain committed to expanding this groundbreaking work. Through our Social and Emotional Learning curriculum, social counselors, prevention support programs, and new Family Therapy program, we will be able to upskill our community in well-being and SEL practices and create a culture that values well-being as a necessary condition for scholar and adult success.

At Uplift we continue to focus on the social emotional health of our scholars and are excited to share that our Student Support Services department now offers an in-house family therapy program. Staffed by licensed mental health professionals, services. We believe that mental health care and mental health education is a vital component of the overall educational process.

The aim of the Family Therapy program is to help address scholar issues such as attendance, academic achievement, and discipline at the family level. The FREE Family Therapy program addresses the individual and systemic needs of Uplift scholars while keeping scholar developmental growth in mind as a framework. The program is offered as a free service to Uplift families and serves scholars and their families from kindergarten through their twelfth-grade year of high school. We are proud to offer this in-house service that will increase access for our families by dramatically reducing wait times, often months or years, that are encountered with other free and low-cost therapy programs. The vital Family Therapy program is made possible through a generous grant from The Rees-Jones Foundation. Founded in 2006 by Jan and Trevor Rees-Jones, The Rees-Jones Foundation works with nonprofit organizations, primarily in North Texas, to serve others and improve their quality of life in tangible ways.

We implemented the Social and Emotional Learning curriculum with fidelity to help our scholars make critical decisions this year. We warmly open and optimistically closed each day this way - both scholars and staff. IB is synonymous to our character traits, and we integrate this learning into our daily instruction. Outside of our social-emotional counselors, we now have scholars support specialists at about 15 of our campuses. Their job is to do some deeper reflective and reparative work with scholars, build relationships, so fundamentally the relationship is restored. It teaches our scholars what it's like to be human.

None of us are on this journey alone. Our collective team of healers, social counselors, nurses, scholar support counselors and our SEL leads, together help our scholars connect to their well-being and academics as they navigate this journey, and we guide them to their full potential. We are creating a culture and support system where our teachers have the superpowers to shine but also blaze with so much infection that every scholar wants the same for themselves.

COVID Vaccines - Over 3,500 COVID-19 vaccines administered throughout the Uplift community (Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer)

COVID Test - Health Services conducted over 5,000 rapid test and PCR test.

"To care for the teacher is to love the learner" Lao Tzu

Our goal is to prioritize connection and ensure our scholars are focused on their well-being and build those meaningful connections. We want them to prioritize challenge and character to help them lead the way to understanding and creating meaning for the world around them.

Uplift Education is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to changing the lives of teachers, families, and, most importantly, students. With a network of 45 college preparatory, public charter schools in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Uplift offers students of any background the powerful chance to study within a multidisciplinary curriculum and prepare for the college career they deserve. Uplift is the largest International Baccalaureate district in Texas and the #2 IB district in the nation because of the number of holistic extracurricular and educational programs. The incredible educators in the Uplift network guide and teach over 21,000 students in Pre-K- 12^th grades, with the majority being low-income and minority students who will be the first in their family to attend college. For more information Uplift's mission and their blind lottery selection system, visit uplifteducation.org or facebook.com/uplifteducation.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Deekay Fox
Senior Marketing and Communications Director
dfox@uplifteducation.org
661-378-2353

SOURCE: Uplift Education