Assistant Director, Mental Health Education and Flourishing Initiatives at University of Dayton in Dayton, OH

Job description

Position Summary: Are you a passionate educator, committed to helping college students strengthen their mental health through education and experiential learning? The Brook Center at the University of Dayton is hiring an assistant director, mental health education and flourishing initiatives, where you will work with peer educators, build out an intentional rest space, lead suicide prevention efforts, and deliver mental health education through presentations and programming across campus. Join our team to make a difference! The assistant director, mental health education and flourishing initiatives will serve as a member of the larger integrative team within the Brook Center, which houses wellbeing and health promotion education, mental health education, LGBTQ+ education, sexual violence prevention education, and alcohol and other drug education. As a critical member of the Brook Center team, the assistant director, mental health education and flourishing initiatives will develop, implement, and assess campus-wide mental health education and flourishing initiatives. These initiatives will increase mental health literacy, reduce stigma, strengthen resilience, and increase flourishing. This critical position co-advises the Co-Pilots (our mental health and wellbeing peer educators), mentors student leaders, oversees the university’s suicide prevention program, and creates opportunities for students to harness their optimal mental health journey throughout their college experience. The assistant director will oversee the day to day operations of the WELL (the Wellness Experience Learning Lab), an innovative space where students will put their learning into action and incorporate intentional moments of rest into their weekly routine using state of the art wellbeing technology, and create intentional programming to support student engagement. DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES [%] Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention Education, Programming, and Training: 45% · Create, implement, and assess comprehensive, trauma-informed, evidence-based, educational programming that is applicable to traditional aged college students and has a high likelihood of achieving measurable improvements in mental health behaviors and/or student success. Education will be delivered through classroom presentations, partnering with student organizations, and delivering campus wide programming, and will be targeted to all students, with specific programs designed for specialty populations (specific student organizations, student groups with shared identities, students engaging in high risk behaviors, etc). Education should include valuable insights taken from theory and best practices, including public health, student development theory, inclusive pedagogies, social determinants of health, and the UD Step Care Model. Education topics include mindfulness, resiliency and adaptive coping, flourishing, goal setting, empathy skill building, grief and loss, supporting peers in distress, anxiety and coping strategies, depression understanding, suicide prevention, stress management, self-care, and other topics that the assistant director sees developing as a need across campus and in national trends. · Manage, facilitate, and coordinate the REACH suicide prevention training program, including scheduling REACH trainings, advertising, managing complementary programming, facilitation, assessment, and building an intentional relationship with the national coordinators of REACH at Ohio State. · Oversee the success of key programmatic mental health initiatives, such as Fresh Check Day, World Mental Health Day, Suicide Prevention Week, etc. · Utilize findings from climate and wellbeing surveys to improve programming and target education toward topics that are most relevant for UD students · Stay up to date on national trends, best practices, and relevant research across disciplines (public health, psychology, sociology, education, prevention, etc) - Articulate and enact a vi