President's Letter: Finding the Helpers

Your ability to help others is demonstrated every day in our schools, but what happens outside those walls and in the community? This fall has been filled with communities in need with flooding and devastation from hurricanes and many tragic young deaths from suicide and accidents. Tragedy often brings communities together, and the supports in those communities are the helpers. Mr. Roger’s quote, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping,’” comes to mind in moments of tragedy and despair, yet the peace I feel comes from knowing all of you are the helpers.
 
School counselors help daily beyond the tragic times. We listen to conflicts and needs that our students have that no one else can hear. Our passion is to make the lives of our students better so that they can be successful in school. We challenge our students when they could be content with adequate performance and we step in when a student could fall through the cracks. Our role in schools is defined by the American School Counselor Association in a great list of terms, but the premise beyond those items is that we help.
 
School counselors act as the experts, the support staff, the go-to person in their buildings every single day. Part of being an expert is knowing the world outside of our schools and who the helpers are outside those walls. School counselors can serve their students and families in the best way possible by connecting resources and community providers to their schools. When a family can be supported by a school counselor with the help of other resources, that family can begin to build their own support system beyond the school. We ultimately want them to achieve independence beyond us. We need to engage in this true form of advocacy to help our students be the best people they can be. I know how tough it can be to take time from directly helping our students to find connections to others who can help them, but it is a best practice that we all can do.
 
I invite you to join us for the 2017 Annual Fall Conference where you can make connections to resources and community providers in our exhibitor area. Our conference theme of “LOVE: Listen, Outreach, Value and Encourage” will support you while you are supporting others, so take the time to join many school counselors, counselor educators and counseling students from across the state. We have more than 50 exhibitors you can meet and connect with to help your students. Our fantastic line-up of sessions will leave you feeling inspired – they are chock  full of first-hand experiences and connections that will help you and your students. Join us on November 2-3 at the Marriott East in Indianapolis; learn more here. Thank you for being the connectors and the dependable helpers to our Hoosier children and families. You are truly making Indiana a better place each day.
           
Contact Jen Money-Brady, ISCA president, at jenmoneybrady@gmail.com.