Social Workers, Counselors Providing Help To Asbury Park School

ASBURY PARK – College Achieve Asbury’s team of social workers and counselors will stay on duty during the school’s two-week winter break to ensure uninterrupted mental health and wellbeing support for their students and family members.

The public charter school has invested heavily in student and family wellbeing and mental health supports, but with another surge in cases in the state, the team made the decision that they would take the unprecedented action of continuing to provide this critical service by checking in on students during winter break.

Between December 19 and January 4, Desiree Mitchell will be one of College Achieve’s four social workers who along with four counselors, will be available for four hours every day to continue conducting regular online check-ins and home visits with students struggling with mental health.

“These are extraordinary times that call for extraordinary measures and our team agreed that we needed to step up to meet this reality head-on. COVID-19 cases are surging in Asbury Park, the weather’s getting colder and our students are looking at two weeks of being locked in at home, which in many cases are small apartments inhabited by many people and no outdoor space,” Mitchell said. “Most of these kids have never had it easy and to add a COVID-19 surge on top of that during the holidays, we’re concerned that it could fuel the anxiety and depression we’ve already been treating over the past several months.”

Research shows that younger adults and racial and ethnic minorities have experienced disproportionately worse mental health outcomes associated with COVID-19, urging increased interventions and prevention efforts, according to a press release. The majority of the nearly 400 students at College Achieve Asbury come from families living below the poverty line. More than 90 percent qualify for the Free and Reduced Lunch Program (FRLP).

As school districts throughout the state made steep cuts or eliminated mental health and counseling programs, College Achieve Asbury invested in student mental health, expanding the role of its social workers to provide home visits and daily online wellness check-ins with students, according to the release.

“When you’re struggling, two weeks is a long time to go without support. We don’t want to abandon our families during this very challenging time,” Mitchell said. “We see how much of a difference our conversations have made in helping students and families cope. That’s why our students are engaged in school every day and are improving in their academics. We can’t take our foot off the pedal now.”

College Achieve Asbury students receive two meals a day along with five hours of synchronous remote instruction with a teacher each day, and each student was provided with the tools required to attend class every day, including a computer, wi-fi and basic school supplies. The school’s wraparound supports have produced the results they had hoped: 96 percent of students are attending school every day and internal assessments reveal that academic outcomes are improving during online instruction.