Festival for Healthy Living
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Establishing a Regional Steering Committee
Step 1: Create interest and hold orientation meeting
This first step is really about the conversations that take place before starting a Festival for Healthy Living Program. It is about someone hearing of, seeing, or knowing someone involved in a Festival Program in another area, and taking the initiative to explore the idea, and obtain more information about implementing a Festival Program.
In the early stages the feasibility of implementing a Festival for Healthy Living Program needs to be considered. After creating interest within the school, make contact with staff in neighbouring schools and relevant organisations. Establish, through the Festival for Healthy Living office, whether or not a Regional Steering Committee already exists in the region. Before making contact, consider who could be involved in early discussions:
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Drama/Health/Art staff
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Student Services Staff
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Representative of school leadership team
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Other
Those who participate in initial discussions, and do the initial groundwork, will represent the nucleus of the Steering Committee.
After initial discussions and contact with local schools, contact regional Mental Health, Education and Arts organisations to obtain more information. Next, hold an Orientation Meeting:
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Place a notice in the weekly bulletin of all targeted schools, inviting interested staff and parents to attend a meeting for dissemination of preliminary information on the Festival for Healthy Living Program.
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Invite a guest speaker with experience from a previous Festival for Healthy Living project to attend the meeting. A Mental Health Promotion Officer (MHPO) and/or a performing artist, a member of the Statewide FHL Coordination Team, or a school principal would be appropriate.
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Talk about the FHL model as an integrated part of a whole school approach to mental health promotion.
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Ask for expressions of interest to join a steering committee.
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Show a video/DVD from a previous performance, or the FHL promotional video/DVD (available with the guide).