Golda Och Academy
The crisis in youth mental health had been growing for years – and then COVID-19 sent rates of mental illness and social-emotion problems among young people soaring. Schools and youth-serving organizations were faced with the task of adding new capabilities to help their staff address this growing need.
Golda Och Academy, a Jewish day school in West Orange, NJ, recognized a need to add new staff to lead a community-wide response to strengthening youth mental health. Since 2022, The Healthcare of NJ has provided three grants totaling $522,718 to help Golda Och Academy launch a post-pandemic expansion of their mental health services for students.
Through HFNJ’s grant, Gola Och Academy was able to hire two additional guidance counselors focused on providing holistic, trauma-informed mental health services to effectively support the social and emotional health of students and their families. The additional counselors ensured regular, timely responses to behavioral health/guidance issues.
More importantly, the two new counselors helped lead a culture change at the school – infusing new trauma-informed approaches through trainings, counseling, faculty consults, and parent seminars. For students, the counselors provide six to eight social emotional learning groups each week, covering a variety of topics including substance abuse, social media, resilience, and managing stress.
Because of the groundwork laid throughout 2022 and 2023 in creating a trauma-informed organizational culture, Golda Och Academy was well-positioned to handle the trauma of the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and the ensuing war which deeply affected the school community. Staff were able to provide an array of crucial supports, and the school absorbed refugees from the conflict. In the second year of the project, no students had to be referred to a higher level of care.
The project has made a demonstrable impact, and student surveys show that fewer students reported frequent or daily anxiety in the 2023-24 school year than the previous year. Recognizing the difference the work has made, the leadership of the school is committed to continuing the services provided through this project and ensuring that base-line funding is available to support this work. When HFNJ’s grant funding ends after the third year, the counselor positions will continue to be funded by the school.