The Santa Cruz COE is excited to introduce our new effort to support districts and school sites with implementation and integration of Wellness Center initiatives and Positive Behavior Intervention Supports!
Meet Hayley Newman, Coordinator of School Climate and Wellness
Hayley has been working in education for 8 years in various roles such as teacher, intervention specialist, social-emotional counselor, and district-level coordinator supporting Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) as well as Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) and Wellness Centers. Hayley helped design, launch, and oversee 7 School-Based Wellness Centers at the middle and high school levels in Salinas and Monterey County and is excited to support similar Wellness Center efforts in Districts in Santa Cruz county.
Wellness Centers centralize a continuum of mental, social-emotional, and behavioral health services for students. These include mental health and substance use screening, intervention, counseling, crisis intervention, and navigation to other avenues of mental health support, among other services. Wellness Centers work within the Multi-Tiered Systems of Support model to support students at all three tiers. Actual services will reflect the needs of the school and district community, as well as their linkages to community resources.In addition, the Santa Cruz COE is finalizing a Roadmap to Wellness to serve as a framework and guide supporting the vision of opening a wellness center at every high school in our county.
“Wellness Centers are spaces that offer universal, coordinated, and timely mental health-related services to all students through an easily accessible location on a school campus.”