Fox 29 Philadelphia and NBC 10 Philadelphia recently highlighted Å·±¦Æ½Ì¨'s push to address students' mental health, interviewing students and staff about .
Suicide is the third-highest cause of death for those between the ages of 15 and 24. The Green Bandana Project aims to increase awareness of resources and empower students to seek help to decrease the risk of mental health crises and suicide among students.
The program is an offshoot of Dan's Bandana Project, which was started in 2014 by a professor at University of Wisconsin-River Falls who lost her son, Dan, to suicide. Dan's everpresent bandanas became the project’s symbol. Under the Green Bandana Project, students take training — question, persuade and refer — then display a neon-green bandana on their clothing or bookbags to show they are mental health advocates.
The program was brought to Alvernia by softball coach Allie Bridgman, who learned about the project when she was a student at Fairfield University. Bridgman, softball player Kalli Bunnell '26 and Gina Manidis, a counselor at Penn Medicine - Alvernia Medical and Counseling Center, discussed their experiences in the newscast segments.
