Two students were recently chosen to be members of the Wellness Advisory Board for the new Wellness Center at Redwood High School, which is scheduled to be up and running in the fall of 2015.
Jessica Colvin, the Wellness Director for the Tamalpais Union High School District, has been conducting a community-needs assessment throughout the 2014-2015 school year to figure out what students, parents, staff, and community members want for the Wellness Center.
To gather information about the community’s needs, Colvin has also created a Wellness Advisory Board, comprised of 22 members of students, district staff, administrators, and community members.
“The Wellness Advisory Board is really an advising and guiding and counseling body that will be meeting four times per year, and then sub-committees will be formed. We are really thinking about big picture, macro-perspective work,” Colvin said. “It’s a really diverse group and everyone has interest in health and wellness.”

Recently, sophomore Caroline Noble and junior Ben Bialla were chosen as the two students who will serve as part of the Student Advisory Board.
Noble, who started the Body Positive Club at Redwood last year, said the success of her club and the amount of students who became involved in it motivated her to apply to be part of the Wellness Advisory Board.
“I think that Redwood is unique because the people here understand that they have problems and they are willing to help change, so I think it’s a really great opportunity to install something like a Wellness Center to really try to help the maximum number of people and to reach out and create something more accessible,” Noble said.
Noble said that she believes Colvin is educated to help Redwood students and is the right person to chair the project.
“You’re talking to someone who you can build a personal relationship with and is young enough to understand,” Noble said, regarding Colvin.
Additionally, Bialla believes he will be able to bring a different perspective to the program, as he has had experience supporting wellness as a member of Peer Resource and Link Crew.
“I met Jessica Colvin and I got a sense of what she wanted to do at Redwood with the Wellness Center,” Bialla said. “I feel like I could have some good input that could help everyone out with the development of the Wellness Center.”
According to Bialla, collaboration between students and teachers, parents, and staff will be a significant part in the development and success of the Wellness Center.
“We want to make the whole community mentally healthy and create a place where people can go so that they have the resources to be safe and take care of themselves,” Bialla said.
Under Calif. Code Section 9624, 6925, and 6929, minors who are 12 years of age or older can consent to their own care when it relates to mental health, reproductive health care, and substance abuse counseling or services.
According to Colvin, students give consent for their counseling, and there is complete confidentiality.
The only way the counselors can break confidentiality is unless a student wants to hurt themselves, if someone else is hurting them, or they want to hurt someone.
“Our goal is student safety. We are not an abstinence-only based program. We aren’t going to say, ‘Just don’t drink’ or ‘Don’t smoke,’” Colvin said. “We are going to talk to you about what you are doing, how it is impacting your life, and how you can be safer.”

At the Wellness Center there will be free and confidential counseling with substance use and abuse education and counselors.
“Students can come and talk to us about the alcohol they used last weekend, and by law we can’t tell anyone––but we can give them support and education to make healthier decisions,” Colvin said.
The general idea of the format of the Wellness Center is still in progress. However, there will be a drop-in center with couches, tea, water, and snacks where students will be able to spend time, whether or not they utilize the wellness services. Colvin said that there will always be an adult in the space.
Next year, Colvin hopes to convene a Student Advisory Council of students who can help guide the work of the Wellness Center.
Colvin said that she is thinking of further integrating other school leadership programs in the Redwood Wellness Center by possibly partnering with Peer Resource.
There will be a student, staff, and parent survey near the end of this month regarding the Wellness Center.