P2 The SpokeSman • WedneSday, ocTober 27, 2021
BRYT Future
BY SHEILA MILLER
For The Spokesman
A
nyone who spends time around
education will see an alphabet
soup of terms floating around —
long and complicated concepts shortened
to acronyms. Now, the Redmond School
District has a new one, and it’s
well worth understanding.
BRYT is an intensive in-
tervention for students fac-
ing mental health conditions
and extended school absences
who struggle to stay and suc-
ceed in the classroom. The
Miller
program is designed to pro-
vide short-term intervention
that gets students back into their reg-
ular academic schedule and prevent
students dropping out. Each student
has an individual plan and goals —
and the top goal is that students will
gain the skills necessary to be success-
ful in the classroom and exit the pro-
gram. Intervention is designed to take
between eight and 12 weeks.
BRYT — short for Bridge for Resil-
ient Youth in Transition — is based in
Brookline, Mass., and is also being im-
plemented in the Bend-La Pine Schools
and other school districts around the
country.
This fall, the Redmond School Dis-
trict began implementing the program,
targeted at kids who miss a
significant amount of instruc-
tion. That absence could be the
result of something as basic as
being in the office as part of an
in-school suspension or other
behavioral issue, or it could
be due to hospitalization for a
mental health crisis.
The school district has
added student success coordinators and
student success instructional assistants
to the teams at nearly every school.
Their role is to support the BRYT work.
Each school has also added a dedicated
classroom space that serves as a home
base for students in the program.
The rooms, which help students who
may struggle with sensory overload, are
designed to be soothing, offering calm-
New program at Redmond schools provides interventions
for students with mental health struggles
ing lighting, seating options, and things
like kinetic sand that can help students
regain control of their emotions. The
rooms are also filled with informa-
tion to help students understand their
brains, emotions and their progress in
the program.
The goal of BRYT is to teach students
self-regulation strategies. Students will
learn what their personal triggers are
that cause their problematic behaviors,
and allow them to take charge in con-
trolling those behaviors.
Students who may benefit from
BRYT intervention are identified by
school teams, who then invite the child’s
parents or guardians to discuss whether
the program is a good fit. The BRYT
program requires a great deal of fam-
ily involvement — families also learn
the strategies their students are learn-
ing in school, so they can practice them
at home. Communication between
the family and school teams is vital to
BRYT’s success.
If a student needs therapy, the pro-
gram identifies that and helps families
access qualified professionals to assist in
that work.
Typically, a BRYT staff member will
observe a student to see what is going
well, which environments seem to trig-
ger the behaviors, and then help that
student come up with a plan. For ex-
ample, if a student tends to struggle in
math class, that student may practice
strategies, then go with the IA to the
math classroom to put them into action
in class. That allows the IA tvo help the
student, but also help the teacher learn
the strategies as well.
Ultimately, the district hopes all
school staff will undergo professional
development to learn the strategies that
help students regulate their behavior.
And districtwide, the goal is that this
type of intervention will allow students
to learn vital strategies and techniques,
allowing them to be successful grad-
uates ready to contribute to the Red-
mond community in the most mean-
ingful ways.
e
Sheila Miller is the public information officer for the
Redmond School District.
BBB advice: Think twice before you think pink
awareness of the disease has helped
direct billions of dollars to breast can-
he color pink has been asso-
cer research. Those funds have led to
ciated with Susan G. Komen
the development of early detection
for the Cure, a BBB Accredited
methods that have raised the annual
Charity, since the organization’s incep-
number of new breast cancer cases re-
tion in 1982. Three years later,
ported and decreased overall
October was deemed Breast
death rates.
Cancer Awareness Month.
So, why is Better Business
Then in 1992, Self magazine’s
Bureau talking about breast
editor-in-chief created a pink
cancer? We’re here to help
ribbon and enlisted several
you understand where your
cosmetics companies to help
money is going. A well-exe-
cuted cause-related marketing
distribute them in promotion
Gardipee
campaign should have all the
of their second annual Breast
details tied up in a pretty bow,
Cancer Awareness Month pub-
leaving little question as to the impact
lication.
your purchase will have.
Now, pink ribbons are synonymous
If easily swayed by the opportunity
with breast cancer. Each fall, packaging
labels and websites turn pink to encour- to make a donation through your pur-
chases, then it’ll pay to be a savvy con-
age sales and generate donations.
There are certainly upsides to the in- sumer. Before dropping these items
into your cart, ask the following ques-
creased prominence of pink ribbons,
tions:
especially since roughly 13 percent of
• How much of your purchase will
women in the U.S. will develop breast
be donated to charity? Some cam-
cancer in their lifetime. Increased
BY KELSEY GARDIPEE
bbb advice
T
CROSSWORD
paigns offer a donation per item pur-
chased, such as 10 percent of the pur-
chase price or a $1.00 per unit sold.
Others are based on total sales volume,
meaning the value of the donation
may vary depending on the success
of the promotion. Generic statements
that “net proceeds” or “profits” will go
to charity are not specific enough, by
BBB’s Standards for Charity Account-
ability.
• What are the limitations? Does
the campaign have a guaranteed mini-
mum or maximum donation? Is there
a timeframe in which purchases must
be made? In cases where a company
has guaranteed a minimum dona-
tion, your purchase may not impact
the overall donation, which should be
transparent.
• Which charity will receive the do-
nation? It should be clear exactly which
charity will receive the funds raised.
Keep shopping if it’s too vague. Many
charities, both national and local, re-
quire companies to sign agreements be-
fore using their trademarks — you can
reach out to an organization to confirm
authorized use of their logo in cause
marketing campaigns.
• How will the organization use do-
nations from this campaign? Cancer
research, outreach, services for patients
or survivors? Advertisements and la-
bels should make it very clear how your
money will be spent. Check the label
and double check the organization on
Give.org to verify that the organization
is one you can trust.
If the answers to these questions don’t
add up the way you might like, then
keep strolling (or scrolling). If you put
an item back on the shelf because the
$0.50 donation from your $20 purchase
didn’t feel like enough, how about do-
nating directly to the charity?
Here is a list of local and national
BBB Accredited Charities cancer-fo-
cused, including organizations serving
various forms of cancer beyond breast
cancer.
For more giving tips visit trust-bbb.org.
SUDOKU
Youth
mentorship
program
in need of
mentors
Spokesman staff report
Big Brothers Big Sisters
of Central Oregon is seek-
ing mentors, over the age of
21, who can spend six to 12
hours a month for a mini-
mum of one year with their
“Littles,” or child mentees.
There are 20 young boys
and girls who are waiting to
be matched with a mentor
in the Redmond area, ac-
cording to a press release.
Big Brothers Big Sisters is
a national mentoring pro-
gram affiliated with J Bar J
Youth Services, which has
operated in the area since
1994. The program served
234 children facing chal-
lenges in Deschutes, Jeffer-
son and Crook counties in
2020 and over 300 in 2019.
“A mentor assures young
people that someone cares,
will be there through chal-
lenges, and help them see the
strength in themselves,” said
Bridget Albert, an outreach
specialist for Big Brothers Big
Sisters of Central Oregon.
The organization is a part
of the nation’s largest men-
toring network solely sup-
ported by donors and vol-
unteers, the release said.
“Truly, our kids need
mentoring now more than
ever because of the pan-
demic,” said Albert. “This
has been a very scary time
for kids, and they need pos-
itive adult role models who
will listen to them and be in
their corner. We want our
mentors to get their Littles
away from the screens and
out enjoying the beauty of
Central Oregon.”
To learn about becoming
a mentor, go to bbbsco.org
or call 541-312-6047.
WEATHER
Fill in the grid so every row, every column and every
3x3 box contains the numbers 1 through 9, with no repeats.
FORECAST
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
monday
Tuesday
LAST WEEK
HIGH
LOW
58
70
64
56
54
55
60
46
46
40
33
34
36
37
HIGH
LOW
partly cloudy
partly cloudy
partly cloudy
partly cloudy
partly cloudy
cloudy
partly cloudy
PRECIP
monday, oct. 18
61
34
0
Tuesday, oct. 19
67
32
0.08
Wednesday, oct. 20
57
46
0.01
Thursday, oct. 21
72
39
0.29
Friday, oct. 22
57
44
0.36
Saturday, oct. 23
56
44
0.02
Sunday, oct. 24
63
41
0.06
precipitation to date this year: 4.33 inches
* = daily record
national Weather Service broadcasts are on 162.50 mhz.
Answers on Page 5
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