School for School Counselors Podcast

Dignity-Driven Holiday Outreach Programs

• School for School Counselors • Episode 122

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How can we create holiday outreach programs that truly lift up our students, without compromising their dignity? Join me, Steph Johnson, and let's discuss the heart of compassionate holiday outreach. We'll explore practical, ethical strategies that make a real impact, especially for students facing economic challenges or homelessness. Together, we’ll look at what works (and what doesn’t) with programs like coat drives and gift trees, and how we can avoid the common pitfalls that sometimes reinforce the very barriers we're trying to break.

It takes more than just good intentions to plan a successful holiday outreach program: it takes foresight, collaboration, and a solid game plan. We’ll walk through the essential steps for organizing an initiative that hits home, from early planning and community buy-in to volunteer coordination and mindful promotion. With a little strategic thinking and support from resources like the School for School Counselors Mastermind Initiatives, even the smallest contributions can make a huge difference. Let's make this holiday season not just a warm memory for our students, but a meaningful experience for the whole school community.

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Start planning now to ensure a rewarding holiday outreach effort.

00:00 Introduction: Are Your Holiday Outreach Efforts Effective?

03:18 Empowering vs. Reinforcing Challenges

04:24 Special Populations and Holiday Stress

07:51 Coordinating Outreach Efforts

09:41 Aligning Outreach with Ethical Guidelines

10:49 Inclusive Giving: Everyone Can Contribute

13:12 Creating a Successful Holiday Outreach Program

21:14 Sharing Success and Impact

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References/Resources:

American School Counselor Association (2016). Ethical standards for school counselors. ASCA. Retrieved from ASCA Ethical Standards

Evans, G.W. and Kim, P. (2013), Childhood Poverty, Chronic Stress, Self-Regulation, and Coping. Child Dev Perspect, 7: 43-48. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12013 

Gershoff, E. T., Aber, J. L., Raver, C. C., & Lennon, M. C. (2007). Income is not enough: Incorporating material hardship into models of income associations with parenting and child development. Child Development, 78(1), 70-95. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.00986.x

McNeely, C., & Falci, C. (2004). School connectedness and the transition into and out of health-risk behavior among adolescents: A comparison of social belonging and teacher support. Journal of School Health, 74(7), 284-292. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ743601

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Speaker 1:

Are your school's holiday outreach efforts really making the impact you think they are, or could they be doing more harm than good? As school counselors, we're often asked to step in this time of year to head up coat drives, food donations or gift trees, but if we don't plan these things well, our good intentions could actually end up undermining the dignity of the students we're really trying to support. In this podcast episode, we're going to explore how to create compassionate, ethical and effective outreach initiatives that truly uplift your school community outreach initiatives that truly uplift your school community. Hi y'all, I'm Steph Johnson. Welcome back to the School for School Counselors podcast. I'm a full-time school counselor, just like you, on a mission to make school counseling more sustainable and more enjoyable, and I'm so glad you've joined me this week.

Speaker 1:

Before we jump into this podcast episode, I would love to take just a second to share a few more of the amazing reviews we've received from listeners just like you. One review came from Gracie J 1216. They titled their review Such a Helpful Podcast. They gave us five shiny gold stars and went on to say this as a first year counselor, steph's podcast has given helpful advice and information that has helped me as I'm getting started. We also received another review from Mrs M Arbogast titled New Listener, and that review said this I've just started listening to the podcast in the mornings while getting ready for work. It's a calm way to start my day. But I also have a lot of takeaways to get my mind revved up and steps to take to make changes in my program. Last week I took my what you say in here stays in here, sign down and threw it in the trash. I appreciate Steph's knowledge and expertise. That review is referring to a podcast episode we did previously called the Giant Lie. School Counselors Tell Every Day. So if you're wondering what that reviewer was talking about, go back in the archives of the podcast and listen to that episode, because I'm here to tell you it's going to give you a whole new perspective on how you explain confidentiality and gain assent from students. Thanks to both of these listeners for providing such amazing reviews. That's the heart and soul of our podcast, because I want to make sure that what my team and I are putting out is helpful to you and that it's making a difference. So thanks to these folks for letting us know that it has, and if you would like to submit a review of the podcast. Please go to your podcast player of choice, leave a quick review and then, if you want, to screenshot it and email it to me, I just might have a little something for you. Hello at schoolforschoolcounselorscom. All right, so back to the topic at hand.

Speaker 1:

As school counselors, we want to give back. We want to make sure that our students are taken care of, especially as we reach the holidays. But as you organize these types of things at your school, have you ever stopped to wonder if your outreach efforts are actually empowering your students, or are they unintentionally reinforcing all the challenges they face on the daily anyway? We're going to walk through some practical approaches, but also some ethical considerations, to holiday outreach, so that you can honor the dignity of every student and every family while still creating that sense of community and belonging. Whether you are charged with organizing a coat drive, food donations, gift trees, whatever the case may be, we're going to talk about how you can make your efforts more impactful and more inclusive and more inclusive. This month on the podcast, we've been talking a lot about special populations, how to best serve them, what are the challenges and the approaches to that, and we've also talked about how a lot of the paper-based counseling activities may not be appropriate for students in special populations. We're going to continue the Special Pops theme this week as we talk about these holiday outreach needs, when we're likely considering our students that may be economically disadvantaged or perhaps homeless.

Speaker 1:

The holidays are so joyful for so many people on our campuses, but for students who experience poverty, perhaps unstable home environments or other kinds of similar hardships, these holidays are stressful. They can significantly affect their well-being, including their sense of belonging to the greater group, and perhaps even their academic performance, depending on the need. We know from the research that chronic stress, especially when it comes from a root of poverty, can affect students' abilities to self-regulate and use coping mechanisms, and Evans and Kim 2013, tell us that, with the increased social pressures of the holiday, as well as the financial burdens, this actually increases stress in these already vulnerable populations. Now, one of the great things about outreach programs on our campuses is that it can serve as a pretty significant protective factor. Things like food drives and coat drives and gift-giving programs build that sense of community across your campus, for sure, but they also build support for students who may not feel connected to peers or to the staff. That's according to McNeely and Fauci 2004.

Speaker 1:

But on the other side of things, according to Gershoff and Team 2007, an inability to meet basic needs, especially when that occurs during the holidays, can cause feelings of shame and isolation in children and adolescents. So things that provide direct support, like food and clothing, can help mitigate some of their challenges, can maybe help boost morale and decrease the likelihood that we're going to see some big behavioral issues coming out of deprivation, feeling of lack, feeling of not being included. However, we have to be careful that we orchestrate these programs in the right way to avoid highlighting students or unintentionally calling them out. Now, I know none of us really set out to do that, but I do think the way that a lot of these programs are structured sometimes leads to that end, and so we want to be very careful. So let's kind of walk through the common components of these outreach efforts so that you can identify what you have in place already or perhaps some components that you need to give some further thought to.

Speaker 1:

First, I think it is super important that you do not commit to doing this on your own. So many school counselors have the biggest hearts ever for their students and they're willing to take on pretty much anything and everything to make their students and they're willing to take on pretty much anything and everything to make sure students have what they need right and I'll bet that describes you too. So we have to be careful about over-committing ourselves when we get into this holiday season. Currently, we're in Shocktober, and you know exactly what I'm talking about when I say that word. Behaviors are on the upswing, challenges are growing, lots and lots of things going on on our campuses, and then just our pace and the amount of activities we have going on seem to be increasing. Things are going faster and faster and faster. We also know that as the holidays approach, the needs are going to intensify. We're going to see some students that really kind of panic once holiday breaks start looming on the horizon, once the weather changes, once resources dry up from the beginning of the school year. There are lots of things that can spark that off, and so we're going to be running fast, we're going to be working furiously and we want to make sure that we're not adding too much to our plates as we're looking at these holiday outreach efforts.

Speaker 1:

So who can you coordinate with? Are there local businesses that you can work with in order to make this happen. Are there local charitable organizations, perhaps some parent groups, or maybe even your school staff, who would be willing to give you a hand to create an effective and impactful holiday outreach for your school? Second, I think we need to give a good deal of consideration to aligning these efforts with ethical guidelines to make sure that we ensure dignity for all of our students. Our ASCA ethical standards require us to keep participation in programs like coat drives or food drives confidential in order to avoid stigmatization, and we need to offer services in a way that everyone in the school community is invited to participate so that we can reduce the divide between the givers and the receivers, the givers and the receivers Sometimes that looks like multiple options for giving, providing a way that even students who don't have much and perhaps may be recipients of these programs still have the opportunity to give, because it's not about the items so much as it is about not stigmatizing them, not calling them out, not making them seem different from everyone else because they have nothing to give, and I think this is something we really overlook.

Speaker 1:

This came to my attention one year as a teacher. We were doing a canned food drive on our campus and a student showed up and she was just giving and giving and giving. She just kept bringing cans and cans of food and we kept saying, wow, you are so wonderful for helping all these people in our community, way to go. And then one day she showed up without any cans and she seemed really down about it, really saddened by the fact she hadn't brought any, and we all just kind of assumed she'd forgotten them. So someone asked her hey, by the fact she hadn't brought any and we all just kind of assumed she'd forgotten them. So someone asked her hey, we noticed you didn't bring any canned food today. Have you decided you're just about done? And she looked up at them and said no. My mom said we can't give any more of our food bank food to other people. We need to keep it at home people, we need to keep it at home. And man, that really hit my heart hard, because these folks were receiving food from the local food bank but they were giving as well because the student didn't want other children in her class to know that she was different.

Speaker 1:

And I think that's something we don't often think of. What is a small ask that we could make in conjunction with these efforts so that everybody has the opportunity to give something small. As another example, when we do our holiday gift outreach, we do a giving tree on our campus and we provide gifts for some of our families that are in economic hardship, and one of the ways that we let all students participate in this thing is not to ask everybody to buy anonymous gifts for other children, but to allow them to bring coins or dollar bills to donate toward the fund. That way, a student could bring a bag of pennies, if that's what they have, or they could bring a dollar bill and still feel like they're part of the effort, even if we're turning some of those funds around to provide gifts for their very own family. It is a way to allow them to be part of the giving but also to be included in a community effort, regardless of who's on the receiving end of those. All right. So then, how do we create a successful holiday outreach program If you've never done one before?

Speaker 1:

Or perhaps you've done one but haven't felt it's successful? It just feels like untangling this huge wad of yarn right. There are so many moving pieces and so many things that have to be done that sometimes it feels overwhelming knowing where to even start. So let's kind of talk through the components of a successful holiday outreach program. Number one you need to set a realistic goal for your outreach. You don't want to promise too much before you know you can deliver. For instance, if you were doing a coat drive and for some reason promised recipients before coats were received, you wouldn't know if you were going to receive enough coats to fulfill that need right. So we've got to be careful about the way we present this. If we are preloading names or families into a list, hoping to be able to fulfill those requests, we need to be very upfront with families and say that we may not be able to fulfill all requests. And signing up for the initiative isn't necessarily a guarantee of receiving items. That's really important and I know that seems kind of callous and cold and contrary to the spirit of the outreach. But I promise you that potential recipients are going to appreciate your candor because if they need to start looking elsewhere for the essentials, they need to know that now.

Speaker 1:

So ideally, if you're going to be running one of these outreach efforts this year, you have already begun to identify needs Now. If you haven't yet, don't panic, there's still time. But typically I like to do this two or three months in advance and again, that probably seems so crazy to some of you, but I do that to give myself plenty of time to work through them effectively, and I'm able to do that because of the way I plan my school year out from the get-go. We do a lot of talking in School for School Counselors at the start of the school year about how to set yourself up for success, and many of our Mastermind members already have this in place. They have a calendar already set up reminding them hey, three months from now we're going to be running a coat drive, let's start doing A, b and C. Now we're going to be running a coat drive, let's start doing A, b and C. So they have their year already mapped out. They're not relying on their memory, hoping that they're going to be able to recall all the components from the previous year. No, they've got it all written down and ready to go.

Speaker 1:

So you may need to identify the needs by surveying students and families confidentially to see who could benefit. You may be looking at your school data who's on free or reduced lunch, who are part of other programs. Whatever information, you have to really focus your outreach efforts, community information, community surveys, charitable organization information or perhaps a brief campus needs assessment for things like coats, food and gifts. Set your goals for how many families or students you want to help and what resources you're going to need to collect. Then, one to two months out, you're going to reach out to your partners businesses, community organizations, whoever it is you're going to be working with. Reach out to them to line out the details and finalize how things are going to work. Where are the donation drop-off locations going to be? Will there be any matching funds? Are there volunteers available to help process the initiative? Those kinds of things.

Speaker 1:

At this time, we're also finding our candidates, so we've tried to identify the needs, but in this phase we are refining our selection process and determining if we're going to be using some sort of criteria. Are we going to allow nominations? Is it going to be a lottery system? Is there going to need to be a wait list for high needs campuses? You need to determine all of those things ahead of time and be sure your admin is on board with these decisions. Also, one to two months in advance, you're gonna start promoting this outreach program through your newsletters, social media and posters around the school.

Speaker 1:

Remember, I said to me four weeks is the sweet spot, but if you have some fall breaks, winter holidays in the middle of that, you may need more than four weeks. That's why we say one to two months. You're going to want to secure your volunteers of student leaders, staff and parents, making sure that everybody is signed up, they're ready to go and they understand what their job is going to be. And you need to set your collection schedule. What are the dates for collecting donations? Where are the locations? Communicate these, over-communicate these, because it never fails. Someone says I didn't know about this, I had no idea. You're going to feel like you are repeating yourself over and over again throughout the season and if you feel that way, you know you're doing it right.

Speaker 1:

As we move through this outreach initiative, the next phase is collecting donations, sorting those and organizing those, hopefully with the help of your volunteers, and then preparing distribution plans. What are the logistics of this? Do you need to coordinate pickup times? Do you need to arrange delivery for families who can't come to school? And again, take that stigmatization factor into mind as you're thinking through this. A student may not want to walk through campus carrying a bag of donated holiday items. They might not want to be seen with that. So what are some ways that you can get these to students without drawing attention?

Speaker 1:

Then, a week before the outreach initiative is scheduled to end, you're going to want to confirm those distribution schedules or deliveries with families and the volunteers. You want to begin preparing your thank you notes to recognize your volunteers and your donors for their contributions and you want to hold a final meeting, kind of review your plan for the initiative. Troubleshoot any last minute issues that pop up, but also don't forget to write down what went right. Create a brief timeline for yourself of the good and the bad so if this comes up as a responsibility for you again next year, you'll know exactly what to do. And then, after your outreach initiative is over, make sure that you send some thank you emails or letters to your donors and volunteers and really highlight the impact of their support.

Speaker 1:

Don't just say thanks so much for participating in our holiday coat drive. We were able to help so many students at XYZ campus. We appreciate your help. That's thoughtful, but it doesn't quite hit the mark. Instead, you might highlight the specific impact of their efforts. For example, thanks to your generosity, we were able to provide coats for 241 students on our campus. Or, thanks to your generous giving, we were able to provide 250 pounds of canned food items to the local food bank. Get specific Let people know exactly what the outcome was of the outreach initiative and as they learn about that and it becomes real in their minds due to the concrete information you're giving, they're going to be more likely to participate the next time.

Speaker 1:

And then this last step is one that I think a lot of people overlook or feel like they shouldn't do, because they don't want to call attention to themselves or they don't want to come across as though they're bragging. But you do need to share the success of the outreach with your school community. We also need to share the success of the outreach with our administrators. Don't assume that they've really understood all that has gone into this outreach initiative. Line it out for them in black and white so they really understand exactly what happened. Give the number of volunteers. Where did they come from? How far out did you start planning this? How many people were impacted? What's the monetary value of that, so that they really understand the awesomeness of what you've just done.

Speaker 1:

I hope that is helpful for you as you prepare for these holiday months and remember that your outreach has the potential to transform students' lives, and it's about more than just meeting material needs. It's about building a sense of community and also a sense of dignity. If you plan thoughtfully and remember those ethical considerations, y'all it's going to make all the difference and you are going to feel so proud and your students are going to feel so loved. If listening to all the steps of this holiday outreach effort has your head kind of spinning right now and you're thinking man, I would love to do that, but that seems like a lot. I don't know how to take all that on and I don't want to go back and listen and write all that down.

Speaker 1:

Guess what I've got you. I have a free resource for you about initiating and sustaining a holiday outreach effort, a step-by-step outline of everything you need to know, and it is all yours. All you have to do is head over to our website, schoolforschoolcounselorscom. It'll be right there on the homepage waiting for you to click and grab it. I hope that's helpful to you as you embark on this journey. And please remember you heard me talk about pre-scheduling all of these efforts.

Speaker 1:

Through our School for School Counselors Mastermind Initiatives. You can be a part of that. We can help you not only build, but follow a plan that is going to keep you from feeling like you're chasing your tail all year long. We're going to be giving you a heads up on things that are coming up, how you can plan and prepare for them, and then we're going to support you all the way through. If that sounds like something you think could be helpful to you in your school counseling practice, I encourage you to head over to schoolforschoolcounselorscom slash mastermind and learn more about our community of counselors who are truly banding together to transform their schools. All right, I'll be back soon with another episode of the School for School Counselors podcast, so keep listening and remember even small efforts can make a big impact, so start planning now and create a holiday outreach that you will be proud of. I hope you have the best week, keep being awesome and take care.