Catherine Hughes used to feel stressed going to school, overwhelmed by the environment there and the crowds of other students.
That is no longer the case. She is entering her fourth year in a program offered by Compeer of Greater Buffalo, where she has worked closely with mentor Chris Batty.
The two converse as friends. Batty asks Hughes about school, her life outside of the classroom and her plans upon graduation.
âIt just helps me feel less stressed at school,â said Hughes, 16, who will be a senior this fall at Lake Shore High School. âWe just get to be with our friends to play games, get our mind off of stuff.â
Since 2017, Compeerâs school mental health mentoring program has supported more than 500 students across several Western New York school districts. In each district, school counselors and social workers identify students who would benefit from being matched with Compeer mentors, who are college interns often only a few years removed from high school. During study halls or lunch periods a couple days a week, mentors and mentees play games, talk about life and work on goal setting and emotional regulation.
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But the future of this program may be at risk in some school districts as budgets tighten and federal Covid-19 relief money runs out.
Lake Shore Central School District managed to integrate the mentoring program into its budget, but Compeer has launched a fundraising campaign â aiming to raise $120,000 â to continue the initiative in two key school districts: Cheektowaga and Maryvale.
Experts agree that these programs are needed. Mentors can supplement the work of district counselors and ensure that fewer students slip through the cracks.
Chris Batty, right, smiles as he walks back to the plate during a Compeer of Greater Buffalo kickball game at William G. Houston Middle School on Tuesday, July 23, 2024. (Joshua Bessex/Buffalo News)
Nearly three years ago, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued an advisory on youth mental health, calling attention to a public health crisis that worsened during the pandemic. In 2021, 42% of students reported feeling persistently sad or hopeless, and almost one-third experienced poor mental health, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Murthy has since called out social mediaâs potential harms to youth mental health, and Gov. Kathy Hochul has been on a statewide listening tour focused on addressing smartphone use in schools. Hochul, who had a roundtable Wednesday at Kenmore Junior-Senior High School, is developing a statewide policy proposal on smartphones in schools that will be announced later this year.
The roundtable meeting with educators, school administrators and elected officials at the former Kenmore Junior/Senior High School was the governor’s latest stop in her listening tour on the issue.
The pandemic only made things harder.
Hughes said it was weird to be remote and not talking to people in person. In the pandemicâs aftermath, she feels that some students have fewer friends and are more isolated.
Itâs why Batty, the school-based program coordinator at Compeer, wants to see the mentoring program continue in as many districts as possible.
âEspecially since Covid, you see an uptick in students struggling with their mental health,â said Batty, a military veteran who started with Compeer as an intern three years ago. âThereâs still a stigma around mental health. If someone breaks their leg, theyâre going to go to the doctor. So if theyâre not feeling well mentally, they should also be able to go and talk to someone and try to work through that and get the help that they need.â
How the program started
Compeer of Greater Buffalo is the local affiliate of Compeer International, which was founded in 1973 in Rochester and now has 40 affiliates across four countries.
Compeer of Greater Buffalo and Compeer International, which both operate out of an office in Kenmore, promote mental wellness through connection and friendship.
The Buffalo affiliate decided to bring that approach to school settings, starting the school mental health mentoring program in 2017.
âWe felt for youth, a natural next step is to meet them where theyâre at during their school day, because we know that mental health impacts school and our ability to even show up, sit in the classroom, be able to pay attention and make friends,â said Ashleigh Cieri, director of programs at Compeer of Greater Buffalo.
The organization, founded in 1973 in Rochester by Bernice Skirboll after she was in a near-fatal car crash, celebrates its half-century anniversary this year. “We believe in the healing power of friendship,” CEO Cheri Alvarez said.Â
The program started at one local middle school, and grew to serve five districts at a time.
In each district, the program usually serves two schools: a middle school and a high school. Compeer mentors support 20 to 30 students in each school, Cieri said.
Compeer mentors often are enrolled in college social work, human service or psychology programs. The students crave real-world experience through an internship, and Compeer is eager to train future professionals in a mental health field that struggles to recruit and retain talent.
Madison Milligan, who is pursuing her masterâs degree in social work at Daemen University, spent the previous academic year as a Compeer intern at Alden Central School District.
She worked one-on-one with students. She organized positive action lessons and helped them with coping mechanisms. She also played a lot of Uno, noting that huge card games often unfolded during the studentsâ advisement period.
âThe connections I made were so rewarding, and being able to watch them grow throughout their entire school year was actually one of the best things I got to experience,â Milligan said.
Chris Batty, left, looks on as Catherine Hughes, center, smiles as she talks with Hayley Kasprzycki, right, and other members of Compeer of Greater Buffalo while they take a break from a kickball game at William G. Houston Middle School. Students and officials say the program is valuable, but funding is uncertain.â
Cieri said Compeer usually has two college students in each school during the academic year, but plans to increase that to three interns per school for 2024-25. In each district, there also is a Compeer employee â often a former intern hired by the organization â who splits their time between the middle and high schools to support the mentors.
Compeer said the numbers show the programâs success, with 94% of students reporting improved self-esteem due to their mentors, and 93% of parents seeing increased motivation in their children to attend school after participating in the program.
âIt literally is saving kidsâ lives that slip between the cracks,â Cieri said. âWeâve got amazing adults in schools already. We have amazing teachers and counseling staff. But we canât catch everybody whoâs struggling.â
The programâs cost to serve two schools within a district is about $60,000 per school year, which is why Compeer is raising $120,000 to continue the mentoring initiative at Cheektowaga and Maryvale.
Compeer has worked with Maryvale for four years, and just finished its first year with Cheektowaga.
Cheektowaga Superintendent Scott Zipp said the district used Covid-19 relief funds to pay for the program, which provided additional mental health support beyond the districtâs full-time staff and existing programming.
With that funding now expired, he said the district was unable to continue with Compeer. But he said the district would be open to bringing the program back if fundraising significantly offsets the cost.
âIf thereâs free services, why wouldnât you, especially if it can have a positive impact on our families or our students?â Zipp said.
âGood friends that I can talk toâ
During Compeerâs summer kickball program Tuesday afternoon in the Town of Evans, few players were more entertaining or energetic than Dane Beck.
Beck stomped on third base to record the final out one inning. Other times, he dodged the ball while on the base paths â once to score a run and, later, on an acrobatic slide into first.
Dane Beck, 13, and Chris Batty laugh during a Compeer of Greater Buffalo kickball game at William G. Houston Middle School.
Beck, 13, is headed into ninth grade at Lake Shore, and has come a long way after three years in the Compeer mentoring program.
He has bonded with Batty over their mutual love of wrestling â Beck is a big Jeff Hardy fan. But Beck, Batty said, has truly blossomed with Hayley Kasprzycki, who started as an intern in the 2022-23 school year, then was a task supervisor this past year and now is a client engagement coordinator at Compeer.
When Kasprzycki met Beck, she said he kept his guard up and was defensive, sometimes coming off as aggressive. Now, whenever Beck feels an outburst coming during school, he visits the Compeer room at Lake Shore.
This past school year, Beck would arrive in the room in need of some time to himself. Kasprzycki would set Beck up with a puzzle to work on and tell him to come get her when he was ready to talk.
âItâs such a change from that initial reaction that we would deal with,â she said. âIâm very proud of him, so proud of him.â
Dane Beck, seen at the plate during kickball, said Compeer’s mentoring program means to him the chance to meet “good friends that I can talk to.”
As sheâs gotten to know Beck, Kasprzycki said they have spent a lot of time playing games. She taught him to play the card game Spoons, and now she canât beat him. He is unbeatable in the board game Trouble, too.
Asked what the program has meant to him, Beck simply and shyly replied: âGood friends that I can talk to.â
Whatâs next?
Hughes, wearing a T-shirt that read, âThink Happy Thoughts,â was in the pitcherâs circle on Tuesday afternoon, rolling the red rubber ball to those at the plate.
After one rather bouncy roll, Batty teased, âWhat is that?â
On the next pitch, he blooped one beyond third base.
Catherine Hughes prepares to pitch during a the Compeer kickball game.. Sheâs entering her fourth year in a program with mentor Chris Batty.
Compeer knows the mentoring program will continue in the 2024-25 school year at Lake Shore, but isnât sure yet what other districts it will serve.
The fundraising effort will be ongoing, and Compeer also is evaluating whether it can shift things in its own budget, should it fall short of the $120,000 goal.
âWe just donât want to walk away from these students,â Cieri said.
Neither does Batty, who originally started as an intern in Compeerâs veteran program before switching over to the school-based programs. To his surprise, he fell in love with the work.
Batty enjoys doing positive action lessons â âif you think positive, youâll do positive things and, in turn, youâll feel positive about yourself,â he said â and helping students learn how to interact with peers. He noted how some students eat lunch with their Compeer mentors, describing the bittersweet moment when a mentee goes to the cafeteria instead to sit with new friends they made.
Catherine Hughes, right, laughs as she talks with Chris Batty, left, and other members of Compeer of Greater Buffalo while they take a break from a kickball game at William G. Houston Middle School on Tuesday, July 23, 2024. (Joshua Bessex/Buffalo News)
Heâs also enjoyed getting to know the students, such as Hughes. At this point, Batty said he can tell how Hughes is feeling before she even says anything.
As for Hughes, sheâs looking forward to what comes after high school. Sheâs thinking about becoming a counselor.
She wants to help others, as Batty has helped her.
To donate, visit give-usa.keela.co/school-based-program-donation-form
Jon Harris can be reached at 716-849-3482 or jharris@buffnews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ByJonHarris.
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