From left, John Crocker, MPY Executive Director Margie Daniels, Amanda Chung and Laura Cinelli. (Photo Courtesy Massachusetts Partnerships for Youth)
WAKEFIELD — Massachusetts Partnerships for Youth (MPY) hosted an in-person seminar for educators, “Supporting School Mental Health Leadership,” on April 28 at the MPTC Lynnfield Police Academy.
Over 130 school psychologists, social workers, school counselors, administrators and teachers from across the state gathered to learn about effective school mental health systems.
The seminar introduced participants to models of needs assessment for school mental health, allowing leaders to recognize areas of strength and areas in need of improvement within their school mental health systems. Attendees learned resources to apply to their own systems, including methods of building buy-in among staff, strategies for identifying the state of school mental health services and guidance on building a more thoughtful approach to supporting student wellbeing.
John Crocker, M.Ed., Laura Cinelli and Amanda Chung led participants through the seminar.
Crocker, the Director of School Mental Health and Behavioral Services for Methuen Public Schools, has 15 years of experience in public education. He has worked with the National Center for School Mental Health (NCSMH) as a member of the National School Mental Health Task Force and as a Massachusetts team leader for the National Coalition for the State Advancement of School Mental Health. Crocker founded the Massachusetts School Mental Health Consortium to advocate for and implement effective school mental health services and supports.
Cinelli is the Deputy Director of the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy. She oversees various initiatives including Thriving Minds, which aims to advance comprehensive school mental health systems in education systems across Massachusetts. She previously served as Deputy Chief of Staff for Boston Public Schools, where she worked with the School Committee to lead district policy-making and managed cross-departmental projects.
Chung, Senior Associate at the Rennie Center, was inspired to work in education policy by her time as an AmeriCorps tutor at a middle school in Boston. She previously worked as an economic development consultant for rural universities and has led outreach efforts for private, public and non-profit organizations.
The seminar also featured a panel of practitioners from the School Mental Health Leadership Institute, who spoke about implementing the concepts discussed at the seminar.
The panelists included:
- Bethany Ambrose, M.Ed., School Psychologist at Orleans Elementary School
- Brendan Amedino, M.S., School Counselor and Assistant Department Head of Counseling at Newton North High School
- Jarred Varao, LMHC, District Coordinator of Clinical and Behavioral Services at New Bedford Public Schools
Participants commended the seminar and appreciated the opportunity to connect with industry professionals from across the state.
“Being surrounded by like-minded school-based mental health practitioners was energizing, renewing and left me feeling genuinely hopeful about the work ahead,” said Ambrose.
“This session was another great experience to have the opportunity to hear from and collaborate with other mental health practitioners (and leaders!) within the state,” said Amedino. “This is important work to validate the many great practices that we may be doing individually or within our own teams, while also getting ideas to bring back to our schools and systems. The leadership of John Crocker, Amanda Chung, Laurie Cinelli and Margie Daniels is top-notch and always an incredibly relevant breath of fresh air!”
About the Massachusetts Partnerships for Youth, Inc.
Massachusetts Partnerships for Youth, Inc. is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that provides training, fosters collaboration and develops programming to increase the health and safety of students. MPY is committed to bringing cutting-edge information and high-quality trainings to constituents and endeavors to provide solution-oriented, community-based, multi-disciplinary approaches to reducing and ideally eliminating risky behaviors for youth. MPY programming reaches nearly 6,000 educators per year in Massachusetts, spread across approximately 300 districts, with more than 190 webinars and over a dozen conferences and seminars.
Massachusetts Partnerships for Youth is governed by a Board of Directors made up of school superintendents, police and fire chiefs, and other community leaders who work closely with MPY staff to deliver this mission. To learn more, visit: massachusettspartnershipsforyouth.com.
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Laura Cinelli, Deputy Director of the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy, presented at MPY’s “Supporting School Mental Health Leadership” seminar on April 28. (Photo Courtesy Massachusetts Partnerships for Youth)
John Crocker, Director of School Mental Health and Behavioral Services at Methuen Public Schools, spoke about comprehensive school mental health systems at the seminar. (Photo Courtesy Massachusetts Partnerships for Youth)
School psychologists, social workers, school counselors, administrators and teachers take notes during the seminar. (Photo Courtesy Massachusetts Partnerships for Youth)
