Sources of Strength is an international wellness model and student-led club around the nation that is focused on youth mental health and spreading awareness. The wellness model consists of eight protective factors: family support, positive friends, mentors, mental health, physical health, spirituality, generosity and healthy activities.

Sources of Strength is not just a club around the world, but it is also a club at Silver Creek High School and in the St. Vrain Valley School District (SVVSD). Those eight aspects are applied all throughout the school for students and staff to use and train on.

“Those eight areas of the sources of strength [wheel] are the eight that are most helpful and most proven to be protective factors,” says Whitney Mires, a counselor at Silver Creek and one of the Sources of Strength club advisors.

The 2023-2024 school year Sources of Strength club is run by Mia Frazier, a senior at Silver Creek High School, for her senior capstone project. A senior capstone project is something seniors for the Silver Creek Leadership Academy (SCLA), and it shows all of the skills students have learned throughout their years in SCLA through a project of their choice. There are plans and goals that are focused on going towards benefiting this year’s Sources of Strength. The club’s advisors, Frazier, and members of the club all work to contribute ideas for how to possibly improve the club and spread awareness. Frazier hopes to build on Sources of Strength and develop it into more of a club atmosphere.

“There are clubs that [students] know, like Art Club PSA [and Peace and Service for Africa], but when they hear Sources of Strength, they don’t really think of it as a club,” Frazier says.

There has been a lot of hope for some changes for the club and to help make students more aware of it. According to Mires, each month will contribute to one of the eight different factors on the wheel. For example, Mires says that the month of December is dedicated to the Mental Health factor of the wheel because of finals and holidays. Mires also hopes to spread awareness across the school so every student can be aware of what Sources of Strength is about.

“I would like to see it pushed out in all advisories at some point so that no student can leave school without knowing what it is and how they can apply it to their lives,” Mires states.

Frazier hopes to start holding more club meetings. However, she notes that there is an obstacle to scheduling between the members of the club because not everyone has consistent availability. Frazier wants to change how the club is executed by possibly holding more events, making activities more interactive and allowing for anyone to join.

“I don’t have any grand plans to change the club at all because I like how it is.” Frazier says. “It’s a good club that has good messages, it’s just not being executed in the right way.”

Other members of the club have their own ideas that they might want to contribute as well for this year’s club and for what Frazier and the advisors can do to help make it better.

Story McMurtry, a freshman at Silver Creek, says that she hopes to create more of a safe community where everyone—students and staff—can bond with each other. Besides just the serious matters of the club, she also states how she wants to go outside and have fun activities with the members of the club.

“I want to build a snowman [with everyone],” McMurtry states.

Even if the ideas are fun-based and smaller, such as McMurtry’s ideas, they are still goals for Sources of Strength. There are a lot of plans and goals for this school year’s Sources of Strength. There might be some obstacles but Frazier hopes to work around them and find better solutions.