^{By Genevieve Lindley, Community Education Coordinator}

One of the most impactful school partnerships at Response for Teens is with Rochelle Zell Jewish High School (RZJHS). In addition to delivering sexual health curriculum to the 10^th grade students there, Response’s Community Education team also sponsors the RZJHS Wellness Club! This year, the club has been a safe space for students to gather and decompress from their stressful lives.

The Response team has provided materials for friendship bracelets, slime making, coloring pages and delicious kosher snacks. Students in the Wellness Club value having a space at school where they can be in community with each other and with a trusted adult to talk to about the challenges they are facing.

The 12^th grade students who lead the Wellness Club recently reached out to Paws for Patrick, a local non-profit organization whose mission is to improve the mental health of young people through the emotional support of animals. The goal of the student leaders was to bring emotional support animals to RZJHS at the end of March, around the time many universities release their admissions decisions to future students.

Volunteers from Paws for Patrick visited RZJHS on March 31, bringing two emotional support dogs to the Wellness Club. The dogs, Chance (a golden retriever) and Lola (a golden doodle), were a hit, and the club saw its largest student turnout of the whole year!

Students across all grade levels came to interact with the dogs, and there was high energy in the building. We are so proud of our student leaders for successfully organizing this event, and we feel so lucky to be a part of the Rochelle Zell community.