project overview

The Los Angeles County Office of Education's Center for Distance and Online Learning (CDOL) unit developed the Creative AWARE Project to support a sustainable infrastructure for school-based mental health programs. By leveraging collective impact partnerships, the project aims to support LA County schools with promotion, awareness, prevention, intervention, and resilience activities to ensure that school-aged youth have access to arts integration and mental health services to meet their needs.

CREATIVE AWARE PROJECT GOALS

AWARENESS

Increase awareness of mental health, substance use, and co-occurring disorders among school-aged youth.

LITERACY

Increase the mental health literacy of individuals who interact with school-aged youth to understand and detect the signs and symptoms of mental illness, substance use/misuse, and co-occurring disorders.

RESILIENCE

Promote and foster resilience building and mental health well-being for all school-aged youth through the Arts, specifically Media Arts.

SERVICES

Provide positive behavioral health supports, targeted services to those who need more support, and intensive services to those who need them.

RESOURCES

Increase and improve access to relevant, appropriate, and trauma-informed school and community-based AWARE activities and services.

CREATIVE AWARE KEY COMPONENTS

Creative AWARE Exchange

The Creative AWARE Exchange is an ongoing professional development event that provides partnering school districts with best practices, resources, and recommendations related to the development of a three-tiered mental health plan that provides supports, services, and crisis response to students. The training provides follow-up opportunities throughout the school year to further develop capacity of school personnel.

SPORT (Suicide Prevention Online Resilience Training)

The Suicide Prevention Ongoing Resiliency Training (SPORT) Project provides training, support, and resources to implement a sustainable system to deliver suicide prevention, intervention, postvention, and social emotional learning content to school leaders. SPORT includes online content and follow-up events available to parents, school staff, and school-based crisis response teams.

Directing Change Film Contest

Through a partnership with Youth Creating Change, this aspect of the project supports students by combining their self expression with making a difference in their communities. Students are guided in creating stories about mental health, suicide prevention, and substance use in a Public Service Announcement format, aiming to connect their community with resources available to improve mental health outcomes.

Student Empowerment Conference

The Student Empowerment Conference connects students to members of the creative career community and provides students with critical training related to emotional regulation, mental health, and resilience toward future endeavors.

Digital Library of Open Educational Resources

CDOL's Open Educational Resources include asynchronous training content related to Student Mental Well-Being and Arts Integration in the classroom.

Signs of Suicide (SOS)

SOS is a research-based lesson that provides students, school staff, and parents with a framework for crisis response and a screener for depression.

Welcome to the Creative AWARE Project