School is out for the summer, but there are still programs inside the schools that kids can attend to help them in ways other than academics. One of these programs is Alluma’s North Star Summer Program, that’s happening at the Highland Elementary School every Monday through Thursday.
The program takes place in 15 locations throughout northwest Minnesota, and offers help to students from grades K through 6 but also provides support to students of all ages to help kids with their mental health and social well-being. The program works to meet the needs of kids in grades K through 6 and is related to mental health and overall well-being with them addressing lacking social skills or emotional regulation at a pointed time of the summer where they can work on those goals without the stressors of the school year and learn to use them for the upcoming school year.
The program here has grown thanks to the support from the Crookston School District so that it now offers services to students of all ages. Such as Tiny Stars, which is a similar service for preschool students, and two unnamed services that serve as an extension service that focuses on issues for Middle and High School students. “So, we’re still looking at how do they manage stress, how are they coping with things going on in their life, friendships, how do they navigate social media, and all those types of challenges that kids face,” Alluma Youth & Family Services Supervisor Tara Rodriguez explained. Casey Anderson, Jessica Shockman, and Erica Pruneda head the Middle and High School programs and work in the High School during the school year. Tara Rodriguez, Jenna Sullivan, and Crystal Osowski run the North Star program at Highland Elementary School, while Lisa Hofstad and Crystal head the Tiny Stars program at Washington Elementary School.
The programs aim to make their lessons fun while also trying to incorporate the skills they teach in real-life situations around the city. “We try to make it fun partly because it’s summer and the other part because they’re kids. I feel like we have our best success for kids when we get to incorporate those social skills into real-life examples,” Tara Rodriguez explained. “So, you may see us around town going swimming, going to Dairy Queen, or playing at the park. Being able to coach social skills in those real-life example moments seem to be more impactful for kids than if they’re just sitting and listening to us in a classroom setting with a lesson about how to be a good friend, how to handle conflict, or what to do about bullying or an unkind friend.”
With the students partaking in various activities that put them in these social situations, the staff and sometimes even the students will sometimes pause an activity when an event or example happens to a student to teach the others about what they can do if they come across a situation like this in the future. “We might play kickball, and partway through, somebody gets out, and you’ve probably experienced this in gym class, some kids don’t handle that well, so somebody might throw a fit, walk off, and say, “I’m done!” Rodriguez explained. “So that’s our moment to maybe, as adults, pause the game and have it be less about the outcome of the game and more about like, “I see Billy is walking off over there, how can we help him get back to being a part of us?” or maybe we just keeping carrying on with the game but somebody goes over and walks alongside him and coaches him on, “I see you’re upset,” “How does that feel?” “What could you do differently? “How do you think the other kids are feeling about your reaction?” Rodriguez explains that due to them having a different ratio of youth to adults than what teachers usually can have in summer programs, they have more of an opportunity to do more of the coachable moments like those than in a classic setting. The program also has more summer events and trips planned to help practice their social skills, such as going to the ARC Bowling Lanes in Ada and also going to Maple Lake.
The program began on June 13 and runs every day from Monday to Thursday, with the students being split into six groups of around twelve students in them, with each group meeting about twice a week. The program is set to run until Thursday, August 18, but while the program has started, they are open to incorporating any students who feel the program is good for them and their families. The program takes a comprehensive evaluation at Alluma of the student to learn their strengths and weaknesses and what they want to fix with the program and will aim to assist those students and their situations.
If your child wishes to join the North Star program at Highland or any of the other programs at Crookston High School or Washington Elementary School. You can sign up by contacting Alluma at 218-281-3940 and ask for a referral to the North Star Program or Highland Elementary School at 218-281-5600 and talk to any of the Secretaries in the front office. They’ll direct you to any of the directors of the program. Public transportation and bussing are available for all students in the program.
