Support Group Action Plan

My Issue

Many students from my school have been the victims of homicide and their lost has created fear among us all. There is no group to talk about these issues or to spread awareness.

My Plan

My action plan is to create a support group at my school where students can make and have a safe space to speak out to help grow awareness on this issue and to make a supportive community. I will also be able to provide help or resources where they can find help on a more personal way, such as 101 counseling, and having someone they can trust on.

For resources I will need to go to my school’s administration since they are the only ones that can help. I will need a place to hold group meetings and I know for a fact that the health center at my school will be happy enough to provide me a with a place. Authoritative leaders such as my principal, staff members, and  police officers will be needed because they’re the ones that influence students in choosing better decisions. First I will need to educate myself  so I can also educate those who will work with me. I will need to run a few workshops that I can use to help educate others. Voluntary speakers such as; relatives to a victim who has been lost due to this cause will be a huge part of helping students reflect and think about why teen violence overall is a bad thing. In events that I will need money in order to help fluctuate the group then things such as fundraising or finding sponsors will be used, and it won’t come from my school funds because there is a huge budget cut that has already taken out many of our programs.

I know this plan can be very effective if I put deadlines in which can encourage me to get everything done by a certain time or else I will leave it all for later and never get anything done. My plan is to get a group of people to help support me by October which 3 months into the school year and enough time to talk to my school’s authoritative staff to get them on board. By 5 months, in December I plan that those who will help me will be educated by  enough to handle a situation where a student needs help. By sometime also in December or early January I will be able to have access to a place and run my first meeting.

Goals and Rating My Success 

I want to start in my school by creating a small group where students and staff can come together and share their personal experiences and the ways they learn to deal with such an aggravating issue.  Starting small as a school group could mean more possibilities of becoming successful then it can gradually start including community members to join so that they can also take initiative to access a place to discuss concerns and share personal thoughts on teen violence and how we can help reduce the rate of it but to also help those affected by it. If by any means this plan becomes successful, I will most definitely want to expand on my original plan into something as big as an organization that can soon spread in different communities. Students and everyone else in the community need to realize that this is a really serious problem, and that it’s not okay to have so deaths or violence like if it’s something normal. I want them to know that the desensitizing feeling about teen homicides or any violence is not normal and we shouldn’t be living in a community where we don’t even feel safe to open our own doors or enjoy a nice day outside. 

Saying things are much more easier than actually doing them, and I think one thing that I can really think about being a huge challenge when creating a group or club at school or anywhere is convincing people to join. It is very hard to get people to become a part of something like this and becoming open, but it’s also hard fulfilling all the plans and goals that com along with a plan. A solution to this challenge is possibly just having authoritative adults and staying persistent in trying until one day many will want to join.

I will define success by the amount of popularity the group gains, if more people join rather than leaving then that means that I am doing something right and that group is being successful and has more opportunity of growing. Another thing is the increase of educational goals. I know that many students believe that because they come from a low income and violent community they feel as if they’ll always live like that for the rest of their lives, and they don’t tend to look outside the shell and if the rate of students that apply for college to get out the community such as Richmond and intend on returning to help it change then that most definitely will display my success in creating a group.