Community Cares supports youth wellness in Newfield

The Tompkins County Youth Services Department (TCYS) launched its Achieving Youth Results initiative (AYR) in 2015, asking the question: how well are Tompkins County youth really doing?

Wellness can be assessed in many areas like economic security, education, engagement, family, and physical and emotional health. The AYR Pitch Program awards initiatives seeking to improve measures in one or more of these areas bringing communities together.

“The Pitch Program provides a unique opportunity for the Youth Services Department to provide funding to community partners, to support creative and innovative programs that address specific needs within their local community,” said Department Director Kate Shanks-Booth.

A survey conducted by TCYS in 2018 showed that 46% of Newfield students grades seven through 12 reported feeling sad or depressed most days. The numbers were up from earlier surveys conducted in 2014 and 2016. The AYR encourages a deeper dive into the story behind the data.

The Newfield Public Library (NPL) had been looking for ways to expand their youth and wellness programming and was inspired to apply to the AYR Pitch Program. The plan was to create a space for local youth voices and to positively impact their physical and emotional wellness.

“Our role is to provide services that meet our community’s needs. When we read the Pitch Program requirements and the AYR data, we started exploring programming ideas for young adults,” said Library Director Sue Chaffee.

Libraries connect people with ideas, information and each other. As NPL developed its pitch, called Community Cares, the need to team up with other organizations emerged. The Newfield Central School District and Yoga Farm Ithaca both have experience with providing health and wellness education to youth, so they were perfect partners for this program.

“The school has embraced this project from the beginning,” Chaffee said. “They originally planned to introduce it to students and staff at an in-person assembly, which is no longer an option due to social distancing requirements. We are confident that we will find a way to bring these tools to as many students and staff as possible.”

In 2018, New York state required mental health instruction as part of the K-12 health curricula. Realizing an opportunity to support staff and students, Jeannie O’Neill and Daniella Hess, educators at Yoga Farm Ithaca, designed the Restoring Schools to Health curriculum.

The program improves student and staff emotional and physical health and creates a positive climate and culture, which in turn reduces student absenteeism, faculty turnover and conflict in school. This is achieved through delivering preventive care offerings like mindfulness and yoga, stress and anxiety reduction, life and work skills, and personal relationship education.

As a teacher, O’Neill’s own experience with anxiety led her to seek out solutions.

“I would pull into the parking lot, grip the steering wheel and have to pause before going into school,” she said.
She noticed that her students were also experiencing “stressful energy, worrying if they were doing enough, knowing enough and being afraid to make a mistake, which led to a level of anxiety.”

She found that students, especially those in middle school, were engaging in negative self-talk.

“There are stories we tell ourselves,” she said.

Despite age and life experience differences, O’Neill believes that there are three things that are universal.

“People are seeking connection with others; they want to feel fulfilled and to be inspired,” she said.

For her, modeling behavior is an effective way to reach youth.

“It’s authentic,” O’Neill said. “Students had no idea that teachers were overwhelmed. They just thought ‘adults know how to do this.’”

Working with adults, O’Neill found that “[they] just need space to let go” and to “release their expectation of what mindfulness is supposed to be.” She recounted a story about a person who found focus in mowing their lawn.

“That was mindfulness for them,” she said. “You know what is going to work for you.”

Acknowledging that mindfulness has become a buzzword, she also knows it is “a simple tool that can be so quick” and effective. She also clarifies that her work is not about discipline; it’s about using tools that work for the long term. O’Neill has facilitated her program in local schools with much success.

“When we can heal the suffering in individuals is when we start to heal communities,” she said. “We’re happy to give people simple tools.”

Ultimately, O’Neill hopes that the tools become a self-sustaining practice that students and staff do for themselves and their community. Community participation was a significant part of Pitch Program’s guidelines.

“In order to truly support our youth and make a positive impact on their physical and emotional health, we must involve the entire community,” Chaffee said.

Grants allow the library to provide programs and opportunities for the Newfield community.

“Almost all of the library’s programming is funded by grants,” Chaffee said. “We spend a lot of time looking for grant opportunities, writing narratives and delivering on those that are awarded to us.”

The Pitch Program’s application process was based on a “Shark Tank”-like competition. The library cleared the first round in February and was set to present at a final round in March where they would have nine minutes to convince a committee that their Community Cares Project connecting the Yoga Farm and Newfield Middle School was worth funding.

The pandemic forced AYR to scrub the in-person pitch. Instead, organizations were asked to submit a nine-slide presentation. The pandemic also forced the library to adapt its original plan.

While the project may look different than first imagined, the intention is the same: to improve the emotional and physical wellness of the community, especially youth. This fall, the Newfield Public Library is partnering with Newfield Middle School and Jeannie O’Neill of Yoga Farm.

In late September, a virtual kick-off event introduced the project and O’Neill to the community. A video clip of the event is available on the library’s website.

For the month of October, the entire Newfield community has free access to videos, podcasts and more provided by the School for Radiant Living at Yoga Farm through their online academy. Lastly, the development of a Teen Advisory Board at the library where youth have a voice and can influence library programming is underway.

For more information on the Community Cares Project, visit the library’s website at newfieldpubliclibrary.org.