The Oakland Counseling Association is a not-for-profit, professional and educational organization that is dedicated to the growth and enhancement of the counseling profession.

Mission

The mission of the Oakland Counseling Association is to enhance the quality of life in

Oakland County by promoting the development of professional counselors, advancing the

counseling profession and using the profession and practice of counseling to promote respect for human dignity and diversity.

No sweeter words have ever been spoken than: Summer is almost here!

As we approach the conclusion of another challenging school year, know that you are valued by your peers in the counseling community and by the counselors serving on the Oakland Counseling Association board. Thank you for being you!

There's a lot of great info in this OCA newsletter: From a few remaining upcoming professional learning events, to resources from past events and our board members, to the launch of the 2022-2023 mini-grant program... can you get all the way to the end?

Happy reading!

Authored by OCA board member, Kelly Messing-Mirabito, Rochester High School:

The end of the year is always a busy time of year, just about as busy as the beginning of the year. This is the time I like to start planning for the next school year. What do I want to accomplish? What programs do I want to provide? For me, this is a great time to start thinking of the next school year. I usually can generate great ideas and I have the entire summer to pull it together.

So, I am introducing an idea that our counseling department came up with a few years ago. Through our discussions as a counseling team, we realized that we were heavy with career and college class meeting but not very heavy with SEL topics. We started to brainstorm. What could we do? It is challenging to get into the classroom for a full period. It is hard for us to be out of the office and it is hard for teachers to continually give up instructional time. We also found that finding a time for all of us to commit to another classroom presentation was difficult. We all have different duties and counselors’ calendars are busier at certain times of the year depending if they are the MME coordinator, AP coordinator, College Fair coordinator and so on.

Here is where we landed. We decided to target sophomores and each of us committed to present to a subject area. For example, I have social studies, another counselor math and so on. This way we are not reaching out to the same teachers. We then each said we would create our own 15-20-minute SEL presentation and reach out to our assigned department (math, social studies, etc.) to schedule a mini lesson when it was convenient for each of our calendars.

So how has this been going? Good. Teachers love that we want to take some time to present this important topic, but not the entire hour. I love it because I can look at my schedule and fit it in when I have time. Sometimes I choose one teachers class each quarter to spread it out. As long as I am presenting to the same teacher in a day, nobody seems to mind and I am not MIA for a week in classrooms. And a bonus, I have fun with it. I enjoy creating interactive lessons and sharing SEL with students. I have a presentation on mindfulness and one on empathy. Another counselor discussed CBT and another self-care.

I am always looking to improve and next year I want to find a way to collect some quick data while in the classroom. If you are thinking you would like to be more proactive with SEL instead of reactive and you were facing some of the same obstacles our department was, maybe this would be something worth trying and organizing over the summer.

Registration is now full! If you didn't get a spot for this session, OCC has kindly offered to run the same training again in the fall.

Description:

Presented by the Oakland Counseling Association and Oakland Community College: Participants will receive implicit bias training required by Michigan Public Health Code General Rules (R 338.7004) for licensed counselors (LPC or LLPC). This training is specific to K-12 school counselors.

Objectives:

• Encourage participants to acknowledge and evaluative their identities
• To understand implicit biases and how they shape our behavior and perceptions
• Discuss strategies and the impacts on client experiences
• Discuss research related to psychotherapy services

Speakers: Kristina Marshall and Mary Thomas from Oakland Community College

Thank you to Meredith from Common App, Susan from Wow Writing, Katie from Ivy Wise, Hanah from College Essay Guy, Kim from UofM, Alex from MSU, Marni from Indiana University, Lezlie from Kalamazoo College, and Kristin from Kettering University for bringing such a wealth of great content to us throughout the day!

We had 81 counselors in attendance throughout this full day of learning around supporting student college ambitions. Some great resources (including recordings of most sessions) were collected from throughout the day in Google Doc linked below.:

• OCA Full Day Virtual College Event - 4/27 - Resources and Recordings

The OCA mini-grant program is back for 2022-2023 and the application is now open! OCA will award 8 total $250 mini-grants in this cycle with 6 awards geared toward school counseling programs and 2 awards geared toward community counseling programs.

We are kicking off this 2022-2023 mini-grant cycle with a priority application window which closes on May 22, 2022! Check out the 2022-2023 OCA Mini-Grant Program Flyer for more detailed information.

Here you will find highlights from a few of our 2021-2022 mini-grant recipients. Perhaps some of these successes might inspire ideas for some 2022-2023 mini-grant proposals!

Mini-grant recipient: Jennifer Frolock, Chippewa Valley High School

To support connection while returning to school returning from the pandemic and a year of virtual learning, during the orientation locker scavenger hunt incoming 9th grade students found resource cards, pencils, and positive message magnets waiting for them. Resource cards listed a variety of support options for students including a QR code for making an appointment with their counselor. These resource cards and pencils were distributing to all 575 ninth grade students and contributed toward increasing connectivity, relationships, and community during a difficult transition period.

Mini-grant recipient: Rania Kattoula

To promote awareness and participation during mental health week in April, counselors created mental health goodie bags to raffle off at the culmination of the week's activities. Goodie bags included a fleece blanket, reusable water bottle, reusable tote, coloring book, giant stress ball, and a Target gift card. These activities ultimately helped students increase knowledge and access to available mental health resources in the school and community.

• Supplies to support delivery of classroom lessons on executive functioning
• Incentives for students completing the FAFSA and college applications
• Transportation for trade/technical program field trip

Please share with any counselor colleagues who are not OCA members yet. OCA membership is free for the 2021-2022 school year! Current membership is good through August 31, 2022.

2022-2023 OCA membership information will come out at the end of the summer.

Each month the OCA conducts drawings for giveaways for current members as a small token of our appreciation for the important and challenging work you do as counselors. You must be a current OCA member in order to be eligible.

Abby Lorion, Warner Middle School (Farmington)

Kimberly McDaniel, Clarkston High School

Julie Ouellette, Michigan International Prep School

Email: oaklandcounselingassociation@gmail.com
Website: www.oaklandcounselors.org
Phone: ------------------------
Twitter: @OCACounseling

Selina Abraham

Nicole Bell

Sean Dougherty

Sarah Flagg

Elizabeth Germaine

Amanda Gohl

Lilianne Kowalchuk

Randy Maddock

Kelly Messing-Mirabito

Ben Morin

Laura Stanjones

Pamela Wesley

Jennifer Wilson