Each week the Cohen Camps Kadima Teen Leadership curriculum—our redesigned CIT program which develops future Jewish community leaders—explores 21^st Century leadership and social emotional themes along with camper care skills.

While much of our summer is spent at our “home” camps of Pembroke, Tel Noar, and Tevya, the teens also come together as an all-camp group to tackle big ideas. (Big bonus: They join together to reconnect with the friends they made last summer on the Dor L’Dor Israel Travel experience.)

This week’s theme has been: Together, (we are) stronger, better.  

As part of this theme, the teens started their training in Teen Mental Health First Aid. This is a multi-part workshop conducted in partnership with Jewish Teen Initiative at Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston (CJP), for which the teens will earn a resume-worthy certification. We will continue this training over the next couple of weeks.

TMHFA is an evidence-based training that teaches teens in grades 10-12 the skills they need to recognize and help their friends with widespead teen mental health and substance-use challenges and crises and how to get the help of an adult quickly. The Kadima teens are learning how to:

• Recognize warning signs that a friend is developing a mental health challenge or is in crisis
• Talk to a friend about mental health and seek help
• Get a responsible adult involved
• Find appropriate and helpful resources about mental health challenges and professional help

Key takeaways from our training included how to: “Look (for warning signs), Ask (how they are), Listen (up), Help (them to connect to an adult), Your Friends (your friendship is important).”