School may be out for the summer, but we are still in awe of the amazing service-learning projects of this year’s Need in Deed classes.
So is Aneri Pattani, reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, who wrote about 5th graders from Kirkbride Elementary School and their teacher, Ms. Lisa Yau, and their service-learning project, a book of poetry called Demystifying Depression: 29 Ways to Normalize Crazy Goodness.
Each Need in Deed class arrives at its social issue through a process of examining its community. When the students in Ms. Yau’s class saw that peers were struggling with depression, they decided to explore that issue.
When a Need in Deed class chooses a sensitive topic like depression, we immediately call upon our community partners for help. We paired Ms. Yau’s class with Jordan Burham, who works with Minding Your Mind, and Andrea Boffice, who works with Mental Health Partnerships.
After hearing from both community partners, the students decided that sharing their feelings through poetry might help other kids. As Ms. Yau says of the project, “It’s kid-friendly because the kids made it. Kids speaking truth to kids.”
Read the full article here.