Jessica Lawrence

 Dear School & Community Health Partners,Happy Holidays & Happy New Year from the Cairn Guidance Team! As exciting as it is to grow our team, it means increased hours, more meetings, and of course, more stress. 2017 will be an exciting year for us as we have internally committed to participating in two team wellness events and individually, three personal balance goals.Our team is working on how we take care of ourselves so that we can continue to be present, commit the time and energy Read ▸ about Peace and Joy from Cairn Guidance

Last month, the Cairn Guidance team spent two days working on our new five year strategic plan. We came up with three big strategic directions, including:Positioning for Growth and Sustainability;Equipping Educators to Institute School Health; andBuilding a Team Culture of Wellness and Balance. Read ▸ about Balance During the Holidays

Liz Thorne is new to Cairn Guidance as the VP of Policy and Programs. She will be regularly posting on this blog.I started writing my introductory post many times over the last several weeks. Then, after last Tuesday, I had to start over. Don’t worry—this isn’t another politically charged exposition that has been flooding your inbox and social media feed. But it would be disingenuous of me to ignore the fact that a lot of folks across this country are worried about what the future might Read ▸ about What Last Week’s Election Means to Our Work

Many people ask me how I started my own business with a uncommon transition from middle school teacher to national consultant. Ten years ago this past August, with the support of my husband at the time, I took a leap of faith and started a national school health consulting firm. I may have had the content expertise, vision, and determination, but I surrounded myself with advisors, friends and family that were 100% supportive. My dad, Rick, was a business owner of the The Lawrence Read ▸ about The Best of…

Why is body confidence and self-esteem important for students?The early teen years are one of the most dynamic in terms of development- physically, emotionally and socially. Fitting in and being accepted by peers is central. In fact, brain science tells us that during early adolescence social acceptance by peers may be processed by the brain similarly to other pleasurable rewards, such as receiving money or eating ice cream. In most cases, affinity for peer groups leads to the healthy Read ▸ about Dove Middle School Self-Esteem Project

Hot off the press this week, we are excited to share this paper with the fields of adolescent health and education. Cairn Guidance is excited to share and contribute this discussion paper to the field of health and education. The paper was written to help inform Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's (RWJF) work in education and adolescent health and both RWJF and Cairn decided to expand the reach to the public. The paper begins by discussing Read ▸ about A Systems Approach to Integrating Health in Education

On the eve of the 90th meeting of the Society of State Leaders of Health and Physical Education and the American School Health Association conference, and as the Director of Cairn Guidance, I'm thrilled to announce that we have two new team members! It's been 10 years since the start of my school health consulting business. During that time, we've worked with over 135 clients, including public health, education, community based organizations and businesses that range from the Read ▸ about Cairn Guidance is Growing!!

I'm working with Dove on implementing a free resource/curriculum for Middle School teachers in the US. It's all about body confidence. More on that curriculum/program later. What I want to share is a story about how this contract allowed me to observe a teacher and how that experience really resonated with me. I have 14 pilot teachers in 12 states around the United States teaching this program to inform me on how to update it for the US market. One is D'Artagnan Coots (pronounced Read ▸ about When Rockstar Teachers Make Me Miss Teaching