When school or personal life become too stressful, Santa Barbara High School students now have a place on campus where they can regulate their emotions and re-group before returning to class: the Wellness Center.
“This mental wellness center will become a great resource on campus for students who can not get help outside of school or who just need to take a break,” said Juliana Horton, president of Santa Barbara High’s mental health awareness club.
The Santa Barbara Unified School District on Tuesday held a ribbon-cutting for the wellness center, with students, school administration, and other district employees in attendance.
“This is a space that’s so beneficial for me as a student,” said Grace Fisher, a Santa Barbara High alumnus, whose eponymous foundation underwrote the construction of the center.
The Grace Fisher Foundation partnered with the Sara Miller McCune Foundation and State of Mind Café to fund the construction of the center.
The former classroom-turned destress zone offers a space where students can take a 15-to-20-minute break to seek advice, soothe their anxiety or reset before returning to class.
At the center, students can color, complete puzzles and do other activities to regulate their emotions.
They can decompress in the center’s “calm corner,” which includes beanbags and several sensory elements that help reduce anxiety, including a sensory rug and bubble tube.
The center also contains a “wellness pantry” stocked with snacks, water bottles, hygiene products and school supplies.
Santa Barbara High joins La Cumbre Junior High School and Roosevelt Elementary School in welcoming students to its wellness centers this school year.
Dos Pueblos and San Marcos high schools opened their wellness centers last year.
Santa Barbara High’s wellness center unofficially opened in a smaller space in January and has since received nearly 600 student visits, said Natalia Valladares, the wellness center coordinator who recently earned a master’s degree in school counseling.
Valladares, the “trusted adult” students can turn to for help at the center, said the space destigmatizes reaching out for help.
“One of the things I believe makes the Wellness Center especially valuable is that students do not have to wait until there’s a crisis to ask for support,” said Valladares. “The goal is to normalize seeking support as part of everyday wellness, rather than something students only do during an emergency.”
