Artifact Description: School Counseling Program

Artifact Description This resource notebook was created in the School Counseling Program class taught by Dr.

Dixon. It was produced to make information readily available about agencies available to

support students and their families in the community I teach. While gathering information for this assignment, I met many magnificent people who were eager, even overjoyed to share what their agencies had to offer and how they were willing to try to fund the needs of our students and their families. Everyone I met was open and friendly and wanted the schools to know they were available to help. They are willing to give so much more that food, and money, but they are also willing to share their time, experience and expertise (AR.8.1,
Since I began working on this project, I have learned a great deal about my community’s capacity for compassion. I have always heard it takes a village to raise a child, but Mountain Home takes that meaning to heart. Not only will they help individuals and families, but when a need is greater than one organization can handle the agencies will get together and pool their resources. I understand that student development and well-being are enhanced by family, school, and community collaboration. I also recognize using school and community interventions and working with parents side to side on behalf of their children is a win-win for everyone involved (AR 8.3). As a counselor being able to collaborate with teachers, parents and other professionals who serve students are often a daily activity (AR 8.1). Even now as a counselor in training there is not one day that goes by that I do not consult, collaborate, or communicate with parents, students, and teachers. Through this project, I have become more empathetic and have come to understand some of the struggles my students and their families endure. I find it is powerful when people come together to help one another through listening and empathizing to find solutions to problems too great for a single person solve (AR 8.3). I learned success is bred through relationships before I can gain the trust of my students and their families, I must first take the time to get to know my students and their families and their circumstances. As a counselor, I will see children every day who have been through more changes in their young lives than I will see in a lifetime. Some are merely surviving whatever they are going through whether it be their parents’ divorce or transitioning into the junior