Throughout September, the Decatur High School student center will implement five new “small groups” that will teach social and academic skills, offer group support, focus on advocacy, and more. 

Mondays will bring a Dungeons and Dragons group, which will focus on “learning tabletop gaming, engaging in social problem solving, and improving communication skills as you work with the other players,” Student Success Center Counselor Kimberly Evans explained. It will meet Mondays from 3:30 to 5pm, with the first meeting on September 13th (However, “some character building” is required ahead of the first meeting, Evans mentioned).

“On Tuesdays we are offering an Executive Functioning Skills group […] that will help students to get organized, learn to prioritize their assignments, and examine ways to tackle their school work to help them keep up in their classes,” Evans said. The first meeting is September 28th, and meetings will be from 3:30 to 4:30pm. 

An Anxiety and Mindfulness group will meet Tuesdays starting September 29th, and it will “explore ways to manage anxiety and teach techniques that students can utilize in their day to day lives,” Evans said. 

The other two groups will both meet on Thursdays from 3:30 to 4:30pm, and will both start on September 30th. One, called MENtal Health, will be a “discussion based group” for young men to talk about topics they face that affect their mental health, like toxic masculinity, relationships, etc. 

Lastly, the other Thursday group will focus on spreading awareness about the highly prominent issue of sexual assault. They will educate other students and community members about how to prevent sexual assault, and will provide victims of harassment with reliable resources for support. 

“We are hoping our therapeutic group offerings will increase the number of students we can serve in an individual capacity,” Evans said. 

Students can find fliers in the hallways from which they can scan a QR code to join, or they can go to this link. “We are extremely excited about these groups and hopeful that we will have a lot of student interest, so go and sign up!” Evans said.

Evans is very excited about not only these new small groups, but also the success of the new student center overall. “This year, we have a ton of students utilizing our services, which is amazing,” she said,“We are working to ensure that the student center can be a therapeutic space and still provide access to as many students as possible.”

To do so, the directors and counselors of the center are scheduling more individual counseling sessions and improving the small therapy rooms to provide more spaces for students to do work and have counseling and outside therapist sessions.

“A lot of students are utilizing the extra support as they transition back into school, and we are happy to provide that support,” Evans said.

UPDATE:

On September 7, Student Success Director Diane Andree sent a school wide email with this information:

Interested in being part of small group counseling?  This link has all the small groups being offered by the DSC this Fall.  You can link to the flyers for more information and sign up QR codes.

Some groups have a max. # of people, so if you’re interested – sign up now!  Have questions? Stop by the DSC in the DHS Career Academy, Room C207