Meghan Lever
2021 Community Building Award Recipient
Meghan, served as Prevention Intervention Specialist at Sehome High School for 4 years. She provided support to teens impacted by substance use and advised a prevention club that elevated student voices and vulnerability around wellbeing issues faced by teens.
With her guidance a club model called peer centered support (PCS) and peer centered outreach (PCO) developed, which in 2021 has been adopted across all Bellingham high schools. The club, “allows students to be as profound and creative as possible” and influence community in school by opening up dialog and demonstrating healthy vulnerability on tough issues like sexual consent, body image, substance use, and suicidal thinking.
Meghan’s role helped students bring their ideas to fruition and navigate systems. With her guidance, students hosted an event where parents could talk to teens thoughtfully on serious issues; students reviewed district health curriculum and created video content to strengthen areas that did not address real concerns of their peers; they convinced admin to change a day’s schedule to ensure all students could attend assemblies on the issue of consent and leveraged the PTA to fund a national speaker for the day. And all teaching staff and student leaders were prepared to offer debrief discussions.
Community Builders are trusted adults who have a way of making our community safer for youth. Thank you, Meghan.
To watch the 24th Annual Ken Gass Community Building Awards in which Meghan is recognized, click here.
