‘It’s opening doors’: Working with students statewide, WISE collaboration with FCCLA furthers mission of reducing stigma

01/16/25 12:30:pm

You often hear young people are the future, but already today students can play a critical role in championing mental health treatment and breaking down the stigma. 

As part of a yearlong collaboration, Rogers and WISE are working with Wisconsin Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (WI FCCLA) a national Career and Technical Student Organization that offers resources and opportunities for students through grade 12 to help them work toward careers that support families. 

“Thanks to this collaboration, they are teenagers from across the whole state who have an opportunity, not only for themselves to learn more about mental health challenges, but also to learn how stigma affects people trying to seek help and services,” says Alison Wolf, Community Learning Engagement (CLE) operations and development manager. 

WISE, a nationwide coalition facilitated by Rogers’ CLE team, will host a statewide virtual, Stigma 101 presentation for FCCLA on Jan. 22. Schools will also be able to send teams to be trained as Compassion Resilience facilitators free of charge. Additionally, six FCCLA state leaders had four mini-conferences where they talked about WISE and Rogers. 

“It’s opening doors,” Alison says. “I’m very excited.” 

Alison says six FCCLA state leaders came to the Ladish Center for a tour of the campus in October with great questions. 

“They're very involved,” she says. “They were excited, and I'm thinking just these six are going to go back now and they're going to tell their friends, ‘Hey, you know what? It's OK to talk about mental health challenges and it's OK to ask for help. And here's this really great website, eliminatestigma.org.’ I left pretty excited after meeting them, thinking about the trickle-down effect they’re going to have.” 

FCCLA is also hosting a coping skills drive to collect items for emotional toolkits, such as art supplies, mindfulness coloring books, and games for the Foundation. The items will be donated to WISE and Rogers at the FCCLA State Leadership Conference in April in Wisconsin Dells, where WISE members will be present with Safe Person Decals in both English and Spanish. FCCLA is also encouraging chapters to order socks through this website, which will be donated to Rogers. 

Alison says collaborations like this are a reminder of how WISE’s work can make a real difference in eliminating stigma and encouraging people to seek the help they need and hopes that some students will choose careers that support the work of Rogers. 