Jessica Lawrence

States are in the process of finalizing their plans for implementation of the Federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). ESSA gives states new opportunities to more fully integrate health into education policy and practices. Several policy and funding provisions in ESSA are aimed toward supporting student social-emotional, physical, and mental health and ensuring that all students attend school in a safe, supportive environment.Cairn Guidance is launching a State ESSA Plan Webpage for educators, Read ▸ about Every Student Succeeds Act: A Snapshot of State Plans

Written by Heather Deckard, our new Dove Self Esteem Program Coordinator.Did you ever see the commercial with the energizer bunny? The bunny kept going and going due to the amazing batteries it was running on. Well that’s me, Heather Deckard. I’ve been a tireless champion Read ▸ about The Energizer Bunny!

Next week, 5500+ health educators, physical educators, dance educators will be coming together for SHAPE America's annual convention, held in Boston this year. It's not only SHAPE's biggest annual event, but it's March Madness & St Patrick's Day. Let the craziness begin. 5500+ fellow educators creating, learning, facilitating, presenting, sharing, networking and advocating for the whole child. The Cairn Guidance team will be there in full force... we will be exhibiting for the Read ▸ about Next week… SHAPE America, in Boston!

By Liz ThorneLast week brought two experiences that showed the promise of policy to actualize a positive change to support young people. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people aged 15-24. Sexual minority youth are at increased risk of suicide attempts- in 2015 29% of LGB youth in the US attempted suicide in the last year, compared to 6% of their heterosexual counterparts (the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Surveydoes not ask about gender-identity). Read ▸ about The Power of Policy

Three years ago, Jess, Director of Cairn Guidance, experienced her own call to action. During the summer of 2013, she successfully completed a 23-year-old dream of bicycling 4,197 miles across the country. Solo. In her keynote address, Jess shares the extraordinary journey of preparing and fulfilling a major life goal, and relates her experience to key lessons that empower leaders to create positive change within the public health, sports and education sectors. Jess is able to customize her Read ▸ about Officially Launching Do Something Extraordinary!

By Liz Thorne, VP of Policy and Programs, Cairn GuidanceI don’t like board games. Even when I was young, not interested. I had friends who would play Monopoly for hours, DAYS even, and I just could not buy in. And Yahtzee. Just shaking dice in a cup and rolling them? How boring! Read ▸ about Wait. Systems change, from a board game??

Middle School educators! We are partnering with the Dove Self Esteem Project to build a national cadre of health/PE teachers, school nurses and school counselors that work at the middle school level and are interested in helping promote this FREE body confidence curriculum. Our goal is to reach 1.5 million youth with this program in 2017. In order to do that, we are building capacity by selecting Ambassadors from many regions of the US in order to reach more educators. To read more about Read ▸ about Building a National Cadre of Trainers!

After a much- needed vacation this upcoming week, I will be facilitating a Health Education Curriculum Analysis Tool training for the DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education. Twenty lead educators supporting school health/health education will participate in a two-day training of trainers (ToT) to equip them with the skills and knowledge to effectively train, teach, and utilize the tool to write lessons, units, develop a scope and sequence, analyze current curricula programs, align Read ▸ about Upcoming HECAT Training of Trainers in Washington DC