A recent St. Mary's grad is coordinating the program which is similar to how the new student wellness centers operate.
Bay City News, News Partner
LAFAYETTE, CA — Lafayette residents may notice a bunch of teenagers in front of the library this summer.
This may sound counterintuitive, since kids historically avoid books and places of learning during summer, much like mice dodge and run from angry cats.
Nevertheless, about 25 kids in grades 6-12 are showing up for the SWELL program from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. weekdays.
Some may dismiss the program as teen daycare, which is true in the strictest sense that it is about care during the day, but not in a "make-sure-my-child-doesn't-forget-to-eat-and get-off-their-phone-all-day" way.
Organizers see the program as part of the evolving modern library, which are now community centers of involvement as much as they are about books, especially after the pandemic.
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SWELL is a safe space for teens doing charity projects, playing games, making jewelry, gardening, and socializing face-to-face, supervised by trained people who understand how relatively new school wellness centers operate.
This summer's SWELL (named for the concept of student wellness) is coordinated by Jessica Guzman, who recently graduated from St. Mary's College with a degree in marriage and family therapy and professional clinical counseling. She also worked at a wellness center at Walnut Creek's Los Lomas High School and started with SWELL's first-year pilot program last winter.
"The difference between Las Lomas and here is, at Las Lomas, it's more one-on-one and group therapy; it's a lot more clinical," Guzman said. "Here, it's a lot more social, with art projects, activities, things like that."
Guzman said the isolation of the pandemic made wellness programs much more important.
"A lot of kids lack support and socialization, especially after COVID," Guzman said. "When they check in, I ask 'Hey, do you want something to eat, do you need to have some space - because a lot of parents just come and drop them off and are like 'Here you go.' Or they just woke up."
Guzman said the kids at SWELL get choices, "because some kids are like 'Oh I don't get a choice on what I do,' because otherwise their activities are very like school heavy, or parent dictated."
A study released March 31 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said a year into the pandemic, 37 percent of high school students said they experienced poor mental health. Forty-four percent persistently felt sad or hopeless the previous year.
The analyses said 55 percent reported experiencing emotional abuse by a parent or other adult in the home. Eleven percent experienced physical abuse by a parent or other adult in the home, and 29 percent reported a parent or other adult in their home lost a job.
"These data echo a cry for help," said CDC Acting Principal Deputy Director Debra Houry, in a statement on the CDC website. "The COVID-19 pandemic has created traumatic stressors that have the potential to further erode students' mental well-being. Our research shows that surrounding youth with the proper support can reverse these trends and help our youth now and in the future."
The study also said a sense of being cared for, supported, and belonging at school — called "school connectedness" — had an important effect on students during a time of severe disruption. Youth who felt connected to adults and peers at school were significantly less likely to report persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness.
"There's a place for them to come after school and Stanley Middle School is right down the street," said Beth Needel, the executive director of the Lafayette Library and Learning Foundation, who helped bring SWELL to the library.
Needel said, though high school students are welcome, the target demographic is younger teens and tweens, who don't drive and are "not doing things high school students are doing."
"Every day after school those kids streamed out of Stanley and walked down the street and landed here; we were seeing them piled up out front," Needel said. "There was no place during school breaks and summers. It's not like other cities where there may be lots of downtown things to do there's not even a decent size park to hang out in Lafayette."
High school interns and volunteers also work at the center, which is located in the former cafe space just outside the main library entrance, facing Mt Diablo Blvd.
It's not a huge space, with some tables and chairs inside and art projects on the walls. Students spend time outside and even use space in the library, where there's an entire room devoted to books aimed at teens.
"There's an idea out there that kids don't read books anymore, but they love books," said LD Minorsky, a teen services library assistant who recommends books for library shelves and helps put together activities. "It's not just about electronics."
Which is why they may be so attracted to books, she said.
"I find that Gen Z, this generation, is the only generation that was literally born in the tech age; they were born with an iPhone in their hands," Minorsky said. "They're the ones that reject tech the most; they push it away."
The group will also do projects for Juneteenth and at least two projects for Alamo-based non-profit Pledge to Humanity, for whom SWELL put together packages and messages of encouragement for unhoused people.
"You're asked to write a message about loving, trusting and making people feel that they're worthwhile as they're receiving these packages," Needel said.
Eden Hall is a SWELL volunteer going into her senior year at Acalanes High School. She said she feels like she gets the same benefits as the younger kids at SWELL.
"One of the big goals when people come here is to make friends," Eden said. "It's really good for new kids. We have kids who show up alone and then, like every year, they start in the corner of the meeting. Sometimes they don't come join us at first, then end up having a lot of fun."
Sarvi Anderson is SWELL's project manager. She said pandemic isolation was really hard on kids. "Over and over the last year we've kind of learned that really, it's a place that they want to connect and socialize," Anderson said. "They can come out here and actually communicate with other kids and learn how to socialize. For two years they missed out on a lot of learning and how to communicate with other people. They are figuring out a way to work together on tangible things."
To find out more about SWELL, go to https://www.lllcf.org/swe
By Tony Hicks, Bay City News. Copyright © 2023 Bay City News, Inc. All rights reserved. Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.
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