Support the Arizona High School Wellness Center

My name is Brendan Salisbury and I’m a high school senior in the International Baccalaureate (IB) program at Barry Goldwater High School aiming to raise funds for mental health wellness centers in the Deer Valley Unified School District in Arizona. Arizona is #49 in Mental Health according to the National Mental Health Alliance, and I’ve seen firsthand how our youth suffer because of the lack of knowledge and resources needed to maintain their mental health. After Covid, we are seeing the most severe mental health crisis to take place in modern history and the impact it’s having on children is horrendous. Higher rates of suicide, depression, anxiety, and PTSD are just the start of the long list of challenges our youth are faced with.

In this past year, we found a grassroots solution statistically proven to improve both the mental health of our students and staff on our campuses. The PACK(Pride, Accountability, Courage, Kindness) team at my school came up with the idea to create mental wellness centers. Eventually, I was approached by the counseling department during the creation process to see if the mental health club that I’d founded on campus called Bring Change to Mind would want to help make the realization of these centers possible. Through a combination of support from our PACK team, Bring Change to Mind Club as well as our amazing Barry Goldwater Parent group, we were able to make the first two wellness centers (one for staff and one for students) possible with relentless fundraising and donations. In just one year, almost 1000 of our students have been able to utilize the wellness center.

Fast forward to April of this year and more good news comes, I was named a 2023 Bezos Scholar, the second one in Arizona’s history. This means I was chosen by the Bezos Family Foundation to work as one of 12 students in the United States to enact a change project in my own state for the betterment of my community. I was so inspired by the humongous impact our wellness centers have had that I want to establish them at every school in the district. This project is in congruence with the national nonprofit Bring Change to Mind which will be helping to create student clubs on each campus where we set up these wellness centers. This collaborative effort will enable schools to sustain access to mental health resources for years to come.

Now we need your help. Bringing wellness centers to every high school in the district is expensive. Each one will contain specific equipment, a theme and resources curated for the needs of the high school students and staff. We want to be able to provide each one with everything they need from comfortable furniture to blue covers for the lights and yoga mats for the relaxation everyone needs once in a while. Art supplies, resource books, exercise equipment and fidgets are just a few of the tools we want to provide for the students and staff. Anything and everything you donate would be deeply appreciated on behalf of the DVUSD community and know your donations not only impact children now, but improve the mental health of the future generation. Thank you for your time and consideration.