Apr 11, 2022 3 min read

Upper St. Clair High School’s Stand Together initiative was recognized at a regional celebration April 6 at Montour High School.

USC was one of five local schools that shared details regarding efforts to spread awareness about mental health and substance abuse disorders. Other participating schools included South Fayette, West Allegheny, Montour and Propel-Montour.

Stand Together is a new partnership with the high school this year. It is coordinated through the Allegheny County Department of Human Services.

Stand Together trains, inspires and equips students to take action against stigma toward mental health and substance abuse disorders, decrease social distance, and encourage peers to seek help. Shannon Dressler, school psychologist, and Dr. Dan Beck, assistant principal, serve as advisers for the student-led group.

“Stand Together has helped me improve how I can support my friends that may be struggling,” sophomore Daniel Seewald said.

Throughout the day-long celebration, students shared their activities and experiences through displays.

“It was a great day of collaboration and camaraderie within and between the student groups,” Dressler said. “The students are very excited to continue their efforts to spread awareness and be part of ending stigma.”

USC students, spanning grades 9-12, participate in the club, including Havala Bayles, Skyler Bruno, Ava Cerny, Calla Dressler, Maggie Dowds, Jodyce Duplessis, Diana Funaro, David Goldberg, Marina Gzikowski, Jacob Hamilton, Ava Kasper, Adam Levine, Mia Manalo, Lucia Miles, Justin Oswald, Rhea Punjabi, Carter Richie, Sarah Robert, Daniel Seewald, Anna Snyder, Sarah Spencer, Nate Stohl, Adin Teres, Max Thomas and Yoshna Venkataraman. They were nominated by high school staff members.

Upon the club’s inception, students took part in a two-day training program to learn about various mental and substance abuse disorders, as well as the impact of stigma on youth with these disorders. Students also engaged in team-building activities to encourage solidarity and strength within their group.

Stand Together’s first of three school-wide events was a Hot Chocolate for Hope project. This event focused on spreading awareness by reviewing acronyms associated with supportive factors (SHE – support, hope, encouragement) or at-risk factors (WHAPP – withdrawal, hopelessness, agitation, personal changes, poor self-care). Students were asked to provide an example to demonstrate understanding in exchange for a hot chocolate. Stickers featuring the acronyms were distributed as a take-away.

This month, students will be spreading awareness visually to represent that 1 in 4 individuals is affected by a mental and/or substance abuse disorder in a given year.

Stand Together colors are green to represent mental health awareness and purple to represent substance abuse awareness. Green and purple bracelets representing the 1 in 4 ratio will be distributed to students.

The final activity of the year will be a week-long event in May to recognize Mental Health Awareness Month. Students will participate in a different theme each day of the week as well as have two school-wide activities to visually represent “you are not alone” and “blocking out stigma.”