BARTOW COUNTY, Ga. — It started with a whisper at one Bartow County School that turned into a community-wide initiative.
The Bartow County School System, along with the Bartow County business and faith community, united to launch a new mental health campaign.
The 10-month campaign titled “Everybody has a Story and Somebody Cares…in Bartow County” started after the county saw an increase in stress, anxiety, and loneliness in students after the pandemic.
“In the last few years, we’ve endured a pandemic, lockdowns, financial stress, and many other challenges,” said Dr. David Ferguson, Executive Director of Relational Values Alliance. “These have taken a toll on the already challenged relational health and emotional wellness of our communities.”
The idea for the mental health campaign came from Whisper, a local nonprofit organization that works to combat loneliness in students and teach them meaningful connections. In an effort to reverse nationwide trends, they landed at Adairsville Middle School during the 2021-2022 school year.
“Whisper helps kids break out of what I call a ‘shell’ that they lock themselves into,” said David Coon, a recent eighth-grader at AMS.
The nonprofit found success at AMS, with over 300 students participating in the program.
“It really helped so many kids and made the school a better place,” Coon said. We made it to where almost none of those kids were locked in a shell. Kids that didn’t talk to anyone would stop in the hallways to talk. That was the goal and the impact of Whisper.”
The county-wide mental health campaign launched in August.