The attached message is being sent on behalf of the Commissioner of Education

We are all aware that the pandemic has elevated the levels of stress we are all experiencing. This is especially true for students and school communities. Over the past few years, the Department has been working on a project to provide an evidence-based resiliency system to help build protective factors for our secondary students in New Hampshire. Through a grant from Pfizer, we initially partnered on this work with a New Hampshire company led by a UNH graduate, Sam Warach. Sam has a compelling story about resilience that includes navigating the loss of his brother from a prescription drug interaction.

Evidence-Based Social Platform for Students and School Communities

We are excited to announce that our new evidence-based resilience cultivation platform for students – NextStep GoodLife (nextstepgoodlife.com) – is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play for students and school communities to engage with for free.

NextStep GoodLife is designed to meet our students between the ages of 12– 18 where they are – on their mobile devices. It’s worth noting that older students and others within school communities can also benefit from the supports and resources in the platform. NextStep GoodLife is built on the Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets, which is considered a gold-standard Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Framework by leading research organizations like Harvard GSE. Using this framework, we are providing a safe social experience and have gamified the 40 Developmental Asset model so that as students engage the platform, they build resilience, protective factors and healthy coping strategies.

This is a modernized, proactive and preventative approach to build the capacity of our students to handle whatever life might throw at them, including the pandemic and its associated stressors. Embedded below is a link to a promotional video to give you a better understanding of the vibe of the application and how it can really engage our students in a way that they’re used to engaging with mainstream social apps.

My ask is that you would share this resource with your students as a new ‘Positivity-Based Social App’, giving them a tool to manage life and the pandemic. Please also consider using the check-in feature as part of your daily curriculum - this will assist us in providing early intervention support for all our students to best manage our available resources as we further our aims to ensure each community receives the behavioral health support it needs. Also consider submitting ‘Stories’ and creating your own groups in the app to connect and promote positive behavior with your students. If you are interested in a platform demonstration for your school, please send an email to: outreach@nextstepgoodlife.com.

What is NextStep GoodLife? Check out our Promotional Video Here.

Thank you so much for all that you are doing during this current surge.

Be safe. Be well.

Frank Edelblut | Commissioner of Education

New Hampshire Department of Education

101 Pleasant Street | Concord, NH 03301

Phone: 603-271-3494

Email: info@doe.nh.gov

Interested in Adult Ed. Information?

See below:

NEED FAFSA HELP?

Name: Heba Shabaka

Where: Guidance

When: Every Friday starting from 10/18...AS OF 3/13/20, THIS HAS BEEN SUSPENDED BY UNH UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

Time: 9:00-1:00

Free FAFSA help!

Heba is a sophomore at UNH Manchester. She graduated from Memorial HS 2018 after coming to the country from Egypt in 2016. We are lucky to have her!