Name: Anisa Siddeeq
Position: Senior Mental Health Counselor
What led you to your current position: I've always wanted to get involved in work centering mental health and when I saw the opportunity to be a counselor, I thought it would be a great experience.
What inspires you to do this work: Some days are difficult in this work, but I believe in the impact of what we do and that is what keeps me grounded.
What is a recent highlight you’ve experienced in the work or an important lesson you’ve learned in this role: An important lesson I've learned in this role is accepting that you're human- it sounds silly but when you are in a position of being a role model it's hard to remember that. Showing up as my authentic self helps the students more than acting like you have it all figured out every single day. 
Share your life motto or something unique about yourself: My life's motto is you don't have to show up perfectly because showing up as you are is enough. 

Name: Sarah Percy
Position: Clinical Intervention Specialist 
What led you to your current position? I started at Seneca 6 years ago as a Mental Health Counselor at Catalyst and was always drawn to the clinical piece of the work. I learned so much working in a Non Public School (NPS), including the difference that resources and early intervention can make for kids. I wanted to be a therapist and provide services to kids at the mainstream school level so that they don't reach the point of needing to go to an NPS or other more restrictive environment. 
What inspires you to do this work? ​I grew up in Oakland and attended Oakland public schools my whole life, so it feels meaningful for me to now be a clinician within the school system that I attended. As a student growing up and now a staff member in schools for many years, I have seen too many kids who have learned to believe that they are not good enough because they don't have what they need to be successful in schools.  I see my role as helping to empower kids to figure out what they need and what works for them so that they feel confident, capable and loved in their school environments.
What is a recent highlight you’ve experienced in the work or an important lesson you’ve learned in this role? ​I have a client who I have been working with for the past 3 years whose progress has been amazing to see. In the past when triggered, she had a hard time managing her feelings safely. This year, we have seen her use her skills to self-regulate and maintain a safe body through each and every triggering situation that she has experienced. It has been such an honor to see her growth and also the pride that she has in herself. ​​
Share your life motto or something unique about yourself: I don't have a life motto per say but I always try to remember to be kind to myself and others and to ground myself in the thought that we're all just doing the best that we can. ​

This year, Unconditional Education West Bay launched a brand new partnership with John Muir Elementary School in San Francisco. With our incredible UE Coach, Raquel Monge, we hit the ground running with several assessments to gather information about the school's cultural strengths and growth areas. While the school is teeming with amazing, skilled adults who love their students and do incredible work with them, there were a few structures and systems needed to harness that energy into effective interventions that move the needle for kids. First, the team came together to create a gorgeous Wellness Center with a defined protocol where children can come to practice coping skills and self-regulate when experiencing strong emotions at school. The room contains centers into which kids can self-select and practice a skill that aligns with their strengths and interests (i.e. art, building, meditation, movement, etc). Next, the team saw a need to support adult wellness on campus, as educators are overwhelmed by elevated student needs in the wake of the pandemic. Raquel teamed up with other leaders on campus to design a series of workshops for staff around wellness, self-care and community-care. Finally, the data illuminated a need around building consistency in staff's responses to behaviors that disrupt learning (i.e. elopement from class, fighting, throwing objects, etc). Raquel worked with the admin team to draft an in-depth behavior response guide and brought it to a larger team for feedback and input. The team is now designing a workshop for staff to train them on the new protocol. With so many innovative approaches happening in the first 3 months of this partnership, we cannot wait to see all that this team accomplishes this school year. Goooooooo, Team Muir!

As November comes to an end and some of us get more into the holiday spirit, I want us to continue to have conversations about our Native American and Native Alaskan communities. For years November is a month many of our classrooms learn about the first Thanksgiving and review some brief facts about Native Americans. Here are some helpful resources and topics that we can use in our classrooms to increase awareness of Native American and Native Alaskan communities. There are over 500 tribes in the U.S that fall into the Native American and Native Alaskan categories. Each tribe is unique and has contributed to the foundation of the land that we currently live in. We constantly see Native Americans represented as one large group of people in our textbooks without acknowledging the impact that each tribe had on the land. Bringing alternative resources into our classroom can help us educate others about the different tribes, customs, rituals, and power dynamics that those before us had. It allows us to present a different point of view from the one most of us found in our textbooks. I hope you use this information to continue to have conversations and celebrate the richness of our Native American community. I also want to acknowledge some of the challenges our Native American communities have and continue to experience due to the ongoing trauma that they have experienced in their own land. I have added some information to spread awareness of some of the challenges that Native American communities face.

This poster that describes the meaning of the first Thanksgiving to the different tribes and their contributions to our agriculture system.

The Smithsonian's feature on the National Museum of American Indians provides videos and topics to continue the conversations in our classrooms.

And finally. the non-profit, Native Hope, works to address the injustices done to Native Americans, in part by promoting healing through sharing their stories.

Name: Myila Granberry
Position: Education Specialist, Sequoia Elementary, K-2 Counseling Enriched Classroom
What led you to your current position? I wanted to come back and teach in Oakland, which is a community that I love. I also wanted to work with younger students and help them build strong academic, social and emotional skills to be successful in the school setting. So, when I saw Sequoia Elementary was looking for a K-2 teacher, I quickly took a risk and applied for the position. 
What inspires you to do this work? I enjoy the art of teaching and feel that all students deserve an equitable education in a loving and structured classroom. 
What is a recent highlight you’ve experienced in the work or an important lesson you’ve learned in this role? This year started off rocky. We were a new team, at a new school, in a new classroom. Despite our rocky start, the students are now making progress. We have recently been invited to join grade level fields trips and we have a student mainstreaming into a reading block.
Share your life motto or something unique about yourself. "Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle."

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​Blog Post by Justina Wu, Assistant Director of School Partnerships for Rooted to Rise in Oakland

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Blog Post Written By: Jenny Ventura, Senior Director of Education Innovation

Name: Cristina Sanchez-Cruz
Position: Assistant Director of School Partnerships, UE West Bay
What led you to your current position? What leads me to my current position is my desire to grow as a leader, to utilize my voice toward systemic change and to support creating healing centered spaces.
What inspires you to do this work? Within my own adversity, I have learned how valuable it is to create and have a community behind you to support you in times of joy and hardship. My community has helped me to strengthen my voice, given me reassurance that I can overcome the challenges I am faced with and has provided me with so much care when needed. These experiences have inspired me to help build supportive communities for youth, families, and staff because I strongly believe that there is healing and empowerment within community and connection.
What is a recent highlight you’ve experienced in the work or an important lesson you’ve learned in this role? I have learned so much since I started the role in July. However, one that I would like to highlight as Latinx woman and 1st year Assistant Director , is that it is okay to be nervous when trying to take up space, it is okay if my voice shakes, and it is okay if I don’t always know the answer. I am learning and growing and not aiming for perfection, instead aiming to elevate the voices of others and build supportive communities.
Share your life motto or something unique about yourself. Something unique about myself, I love and value creative expression, if it's through arts and crafts, photography, drumming, collaging! I love it all!

Welcome to October – the new school year is officially in full swing! Through the start of the year our education teams have been hard at work building and deepening their connections with students and each other as the foundation for the year ahead. There has been incredible joy in the new school year as we settle into what a year of learning that looks more “normal” than anything in recent memory. We have also witnessed deep grief alongside our school partners as gun violence has continued to wrack our school communities both on and off campus including the devastating shootings at the King Estate Campus and the loss of two incredible young people from the Berkeley High community. It is absolutely unacceptable that gun violence incidents like these have become nearly common place. Since 2020 guns have surpassed car crashes as the leading cause of death for children and teenagers and gun related homicides have shown a dramatic uptick during the pandemic.
 
At the center of our education work at Seneca is creating schools where students are safe and cared for so that they can learn and thrive. We will continue to work to be part of the solution and promote policies and practices that reduce the prevalence of firearms in our communities, address the extensive mental health impacts of the pandemic, and increase safety and wellness in and out of school.  We have been pleased by the investments put forth by Governor Newsom and the attention being given to the mental health needs young people deserve including:

• $4.1 billion on a community schools strategy to connect students and families to essential services, including health screenings, meals, and more. 
• $5 billion to support the implementation of California’ Medi-Cal reform effort, CalAIM 
• $1.4 billion to build a more diverse healthcare workforce that expands  CA’s capacity to meet the health needs of children and families 

 
We have also been proud to work with our partners at the California Alliance of Child and Family Services to support legislation that promotes mental health access and support at school, including most recently the passage of AB 58 which requires LEAs to review and update their policy on pupil suicide prevention, encourages LEAs to provide suicide awareness and prevention training to teachers, and requires the California Department of Education (CDE) to develop and issue resources and guidance to LEAs on how to conduct suicide awareness and prevention training remotely.