Charter School Awarded Grant for Suicide Prevention
January 22nd 2015, Written by Marie Campbell
Peak to Peak High School partners with The Indigo Project, iTHRIVE, and safeTALK to implement school-wide student empowerment program
A grant provided by the Colorado Department of Education has been awarded to Peak to Peak Charter High School for the purpose of improving students’ social-emotional wellbeing. The grant money will provide data from The Indigo Education Company, including assessment tools, school-wide trainings, and detailed curriculum changes, to increase the overall effectiveness of School Health Professionals (SHP), specifically in the areas of substance abuse and suicide prevention. The program will be a combined effort of Peak to Peak, The Indigo Education Company, and two local partners specializing in substance abuse and suicide prevention: iTHRIVE and ASIST/safeTALK (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training/Suicide Alertness for Everyone).
Ranked as the #1 public school in Colorado and top 100 in the nation, Peak to Peak High School is aggressive in implementing innovative approaches to social-emotional health. With this grant, Peak to Peak looks forward to benefitting the entire student body rather than focusing solely on students currently considered at-risk. “Prevention is the key,” says lead guidance counselor Kimberly Gannett. “We believe that integrating positive mental health messages and self awareness into everything we do will increase the overall social-emotional health of every student.” To address the issues of substance abuse and suicide awareness/prevention, administrators are incorporating the Indigo Assessment’s data report into preexisting 9th through 12th grade curriculum. The goal is to better understand the current state of the student body and to encourage students to talk about themselves and the problems they face. Assistant Principal and 9th grade English teacher at Peak to Peak, Clara Quinlan, has already seen positive results. She says, “Many of my freshmen reported feeling empowered and understood for the first time. They often use the language from this tool as they learn to self-advocate and set reasonable and attainable goals. I now consider the Indigo Assessment an indispensable tool in my curriculum.”
From January through May of 2015, the Indigo Education Company will provide Peak to Peak with student data analytics reflecting social-emotional trends school-wide and highlighting at-risk students. Indigo will also track growth patterns of key, non-academic indicators such as resiliency, self-esteem, and sense of belonging, measuring the effectiveness of new curriculum. Principal of Peak to Peak Kyle Matthews says, “We are looking forward to using this information to better train our staff. Knowing how students think about stress, substance abuse, and suicide, we can build systems that stem challenges before they arise.”
Indigo’s data-collection tool (the Indigo Assessment) and accompanying algorithms were created by Target Training International (TTI), a leader in assessment technologies worldwide. TTI has been applying brain and social science to the corporate world for over 30 years, analyzing top leaders of fortune 500 companies in 90 countries and 40 languages. Today, their methods extend to the education system through the efforts of Indigo Education Company. One of the four sciences applied in the Indigo Assessment has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
This is not the first time Peak to Peak has teamed up with Indigo. Looking back on smaller pilot implementations from 2013 and 2014, Matthews states, “Using Indigo has transformed how we see and work with our students. While we have always focused on supporting students’ passions and areas of strength, Indigo provides deep insights into how students communicate and thrive in a given learning environment. As a result, our students, families and staff are finally speaking the same language about learning needs and maximizing academic and social-emotional connections in our community.”
About the Indigo Education Company
The Indigo Education Company is committed to promoting college and career preparedness in high schools nationwide, through the integration of 21st century soft skills. Indigo provides personalized research and data analysis, comprehensive trainings, and long-term curriculum development to ensure students are equipped for success in college and beyond. Indigo believes strongly in the potential of every student, seeking to guide them into college and career paths aligning with their natural strengths. The Indigo Foundation, a Colorado 501c and affiliate of the Indigo Education Company, is actively involved with implementations for schools and students in need. To learn more, visit www.IndigoProject.org.