Wellbeing Ambassadors
One of our students made the suggestion that we should have some Wellbeing Ambassadors. Volunteer students trained in supporting and listening to others in order to help build a support culture of wellbeing across Djanogly City Academy Sixth Form, and to helo prevent students getting overwhelmed with the typical challenges of Post-16 study.
Also, when we consider that in 2023, 23.3% of 17-19 year olds had a probable mental disorder - the ages of our sixth form students (NHS England, 2023). It’s easy to see how much demand for support there is.
Also, some young people aren’t going to want to share deeply and vulnerably with a wellbeing lead. This might be because they’re older than they are, or that the fact that they’re a professional working in a school and that they resemble a teacher in their mind. Some other factors can include that students might not want to talk about specific wellbeing issues with people who won’t have experienced something specific themselves, such as a female student feeling uncomfortable sharing something personal with a man, or a black student feeling as though they won’t be understood by someone who is white. These are important issues and Andrew understands that he won’t be the right person for every student – as much as he works hard to be!
One of our solutions has been to develop a team of student wellbeing ambassadors. This is a group of students who have volunteered to be trained by Andrew so that they can be an effective line of support for other students.
We are very lucky in that of our volunteers putting themselves forward to become Wellbeing Ambassadors, we had a wide range of diversity in different genders, religions, ages, and ethnicities.
Our Wellbeing Model:
We use a BPSS (Biological, Psychological, Social, Spiritual) model when thinking about wellbeing. This is to make sure that we’re taking a holistic approach to our students, paying attention to the full story of their lives and experiences. This also helps keeps us away from the biomedical model used by mental health care services which centre around pathologizing, diagnosis, and treatment overseen by an expert, as to do that kind of work ethically you’d have to undergo full medical training and can lead to an obstructive power dynamic between the struggling person and whoever they’re talking to. Our wellbeing ambassadors don’t need to be working in that way.
The Role of a Wellbeing Ambassador:
The responsibilities of the role are:
- To provide wellbeing support to other students.
- To help facilitate the Wellbeing Hub.
- To feedback to Wellbeing Lead any wellbeing and safeguarding concerns.
- To promote positive and healthy wellbeing habits and culture across the sixth form.
What training is provided?:
Training for the Wellbeing Ambassadors is provided over two afternoons. Training wasn’t like that of a lesson, and instead took a more discussion and experiential approach, to really help demonstrate how to support others.
We went in depth on our wellbeing values, which mirror the person-centred core conditions, Empathy, Acceptance, and Authenticity. We also discussed what is wellbeing, how to hold a meaningful conversation with someone, how to support another through crisis, and safeguarding training to ensure that the Wellbeing Ambassadors were fully aware of what kind of things are cause for concern and will need passing on to the sixth forms safeguarding team.
We meet as a team and discuss further ways to improve the Wellbeing Ambassadors programme termly to ensure everyone feels best able to support others. Students that completed the training were given a handbook and a pin badge!
What’s the effect?
As a result of the Wellbeing Ambassador programme in our sixth form we have seen more students discussing wellbeing concerns, and it’s been commented on that some students just feel far more comfortable talking with somebody their own age, or who has experienced similar things to them. The ambassadors are proud to be able to support their peers and to help embed a culture of positive and healthy wellbeing in their sixth form. It’s also proven useful for personal statements and inspiring students towards future career aspirations in psychology, psychotherapy, and wellbeing.
Newlove-Delgado T, Marcheselli F, Williams T, Mandalia D, Dennes M, McManus S, Savic M, Treloar W, Croft K, Ford T. (2023) Mental Health of Children and Young People in England, 2023. NHS England, Leeds.