Teaching life skills to reduce stress

Palm Coast Observer
Neighbors

Being a kid, especially a teenager, is hard. Being an adult that deals with children can also be difficult. Pat Williams, master life coach, knows this and has a plan for Flagler.

Williams, a Palm Coast resident, is the founder of Coaching the Global Village. The non-profit organization will present training workshops to promote wellness in Flagler County.

“Three schools agreed to participate, at no cost to them -- Bunnell Elementary, Matanzas High School and Buddy Taylor Middle School,” Williams said. “It’s training leadership coaching for community development all over the world. This year we partnered with Michael Eisen, motivational speaker and founder of the Youth Wellness Network.”

The initial program is being funded by a State Farm grant. William hopes that additional sponsors and businesses will want to become involved in the future.

“There were 890 applications and 64 grants awarded,” Williams said. “We were given a grant for $30,000.”

The program is about wellness beyond exercise and nutrition. The programs delve in to student decisions on dating, drugs, learning, attitude, and emotions.

“Each school receives full service mental health prevention and wellness programs implemented to help students, teachers and parents overcome the challenges associated with low self-esteem, anxiety, depression and even bullying,” Williams said.

Students will be trained in mindfulness, meditation, and yoga.

“High school kids have stress -- their peers, parents, families, and financial stress,” he said. “The teachers will be coached by my coaches and the youth groups will be coached by my coaches, but we aren’t going to tell them what to do, we are going to ask, ‘How can you create programs within your school that will promote wellness concepts for your kids?’”

The programs and workshops are not limited to the students enrolled at the three schools. They are open to anyone who is interested.

“Hopefully we can create something that will have sustainability,” he said. “We are planning a wellness fair in May. I would like to see this district-wide by next year.”