Toolkits At-A-Glance
Toolkit Competencies Working Definitions
Mental Health Literacy
Mental health literacy refers to the collective knowledge, understanding, and practical skills necessary to recognize, promote, and effectively address mental health challenges and well-being. Mental health literacy encompasses a deep understanding of mental health concerns as well as the factors that promote positive mental health/well-being in addition to the skills required to manage mental health challenges and enhance well-being. Mental health literacy involves fostering awareness, reducing stigma, providing access to mental health resources and help-seeking services, encouraging open and empathetic conversations about mental health, as well as teaching practical coping strategies, stress management, and resilience-building techniques.
Mental Health LiteracyMental Health Framework
Commitment to Mental Health and Optimal Development
Commitment to mental health and optimal development is a profound dedication to nurturing and ensuring the well-being of self and others, including students, staff, and the broader school context/environment. It represents a commitment and responsibility to prioritizing mental well-being and holistic development through the promotion of a culture of support. This commitment can manifest across multiple levels – namely, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and across systems. It encompasses a personal commitment to nurturing one’s own health and well-being, including fostering self-awareness and developing resilience and the skills necessary to thrive academically, emotionally, and socially. It also involves the intentional cultivation of a safe, inclusive, supportive culture within the school environment, valuing empathic, positive relationships that empower individuals to support one another’s well-being and flourishing.
Mental Health at WorkMental Health in the Workplace
Hopkins Medicine Well-Being Statement
Anna Freud Center Classroom Wellbeing Toolkit
Anna Freud Center Staff Wellbeing Toolkit
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is the ability to manage both your own emotions and understand the emotions of those around you. At a more specific level, emotional intelligence encompasses four key attributes: self-management, self-awareness, social awareness, and relationship management.
What it Means to be Emotionally IntelligentWhat is Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace
Social Intelligence
Social intelligence is a person’s ability to understand and manage interpersonal relationships and interactions. Social intelligence encompasses a wide spectrum of skills that include primal empathy (instantaneously sensing another’s inner state), empathetic accuracy (understanding feelings and thoughts), and social cognition (“getting” complicated situations). Social intelligence goes beyond what is directly stated and also encompasses the ability to smoothly read social cues and situations to respond accurately and synchronously to another person.
Social Intelligence Character CardWhat is Social Intelligence
Belonging
Belonging is a feeling of deep connection with people, places, and experiences, where individuals feel welcomed, known, included, supported, and connected within the school environment. Belonging extends beyond mere inclusion, encompassing acceptance, validation, appreciation, and equitable treatment. Individuals feel connected, seen, respected, and celebrated for who they are and for their contributions to the school community. Belonging fosters a sense of community and emotional well-being among students, staff, and families, reducing isolation and enhancing mental health and optimal development.
School Toolkit (K-8)School Toolkit (9-12)
Fostering School Belonging
Resilience
Resilience is a dynamic process that allows for an individual, system, or community to adapt successfully to disturbances or challenges that threaten the individual, system, or community’s viability or development. More broadly, resilience is the successful adaptation to difficult or challenging life experiences. Since resilience is a dynamic process, individuals’ resilience can vary across situations, time, and access to supports. Resilience can be cultivated in everyone through supportive contexts that foster belonging, empowerment, and a growth mindset.
Resilience Definitions, Theory, and ChallengesResilience: American Psychological Association