June 13, 2001
Peer program taps natural resource
Natural Helpers aid students
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Tapping a natural resource, two school social workers and the Michigan State University extension have been working with junior high and high school students to build bridges.
Called the Natural Helpers program, this year 40 8-12th grade students from East Junior High and Central High School participated in the program. They meet every other week with teachers and adults who have been trained to facilitate Natural Helpers.
From helping out at Diversity Week at the high school to modeling tolerance to being a friend to someone in need, Natural Helpers do what comes naturally.
"Natural Helpers is kind of a quiet program, they are kids who naturally do this so it is giving them the tools and getting other people to know about it," said Nancy Brown, a social worker at East Junior High. "We have found it to be a very helpful program for violence prevention; if they hear about violence, they refer to an appropriate professional."
When the program began two years ago, Brown initially surveyed students and staff at the school to determine which students people naturally turned to for help. Those students are the ones who are already role models and would be a perfect fit for Natural Helpers. Brown invited them in and began following the model developed 22 years ago for schools.
"This program began in 1979 in a community out west in response to teen suicide and other problems," Brown said. "The leaders recognized that there is a helping network out there and Natural Helpers is just enhancing that and training them."
Students participate in team building, diversity training and build helping skills. They went to Camp Haya-Wentha last month for an end-of-year celebration, working together through a ropes course.
For the participating students, it is a way to contribute to their school and peers - and themselves. From taking their hat game, a series of hats with different peer group labels to classrooms to speaking up about discrimination, Natural Helpers work to be an asset to the school.
"When we went to the retreat this fall, basically I realized how much people label people and how much it can affect people's self-esteem," said Krissy Crocker, an eighth grade student at East Junior High. "Whenever I see people calling names now, I just think of the hat game."
Crocker also points to her improved listening skills as a result of being a Natural Helper.
"Before I started Natural Helpers, when people who came to me with problems, I'd tell them what to do. Now I listen more, since the training."
Providing a friendly ear or a diverse perspective is one thing. However, students who participate in the Natural Helpers program do not have responsibility to solve the problems they encounter, emphasized Bill Myers, a social worker at Central High School.
Part of the students' training program is to become familiar with area human service agencies so they have an understanding of where to go for help or to suggest others can go.
"We make it real clear to the kids that we don't fix things, we are not counseling or prevention," said Myers, who has been at the high school for 15 years. "Sometimes, though, just talking can make a difference. The Natural Helpers get an understanding of where to go for help or to connect with assistance."
Brown and Myers work to keep Natural Helpers in the program grade after grade. This provides continuity and also gives students moving to high school older students to turn to for guidance.
"Overlapping the junior high and high school students was a good thing," Myers said. "It forms a bridge that gives students a familiar face when they go to the high school."