CARES focusing on eighth-graders this school year

By Martha Rasche, Assistant CARE-ordinator

This school year, Dubois County CARES is putting a big focus squarely on the county’s eighth-graders. 

This effort, dubbed You’ve Got This!, came about after CARES staff tracked student responses to the mental health questions on the 2025 and earlier Indiana Youth Surveys. The survey is taken by students in grades six through 12 across the county and includes these three questions: Have you felt sad or hopeless for 2+ consecutive weeks during the past year? Have you seriously considered suicide? Do you have a suicide plan?

For years on end, the class with the highest percentage of Yes answers has been the eighth grade. 

CARES asked its countywide youth leadership team of high-schoolers what they think the reasons are behind that. In short, the high-schoolers said eighth-graders face new or or more difficult challenges in several arenas that they think are too big for them to handle.

As eighth-graders anticipate their transition to high school, they often perceive an increase in academic and sports pressures, the older students said. Also, friend groups tend to become more distinct, and sometimes “hostile” to one another, and some adolescents feel very stressed when they experience new feelings that they don’t have the words for. 

That youth insight, along with discussions among coalition members with input from parents and teachers, led to CARES implementing a variety of activities and support aimed at eighth-graders.

“We wanted to demonstrate to the eighth-graders that they aren’t alone and that with adult and peer support they can meet the challenges they face. We summarized that as ‘You’ve got this!,’” CARES Director Candy Neal explained.

Often, feelings of depression, anxiety and overwhelm lead young people into alcohol and substance use. As a prevention organization that deals in resilience and empowerment, CARES tries to address that at every opportunity.

The yearlong program began in August when CARES staff and volunteers holding supportive signs – with dozens of messages including We care about you, We believe in you, and You matter – greeted students arriving at their schools. Volunteers from the county’s Alpha Delta Kappa education sorority later wrote similar encouraging messages on pencils that will be given to the eighth-graders.

Other components include putting You’ve Got This!  stickers on concession popcorn bags, CARES staff talking with school personnel and parent-teacher organizations about asset-building, and CARES volunteers learning team-building exercises from Jasper Engines’ employees to take into classrooms. Additionally, CARES club members at all four of the county high schools have designed You’ve Got This! T-shirts for their eighth-graders and currently are creating supportive videos to share with them in late spring.

The centerpiece of the project is a day of interactive presentations by a high-energy  speaker from prevention organization Vive18.

Presenter Tom Coverly will be in Dubois County on Feb. 24. He is an illusionist and comedian, and incorporates that into his messages of prevention and the importance of kindness and supporting one another. In 2023, L.A. Weekly named Coverly one of the 10 most positive influencers in the country.

All of the county’s middle schools and junior high schools have been invited to bring their eighth-graders to a Vive18 presentation at the Jasper Arts Center in the morning. Each principal was asked to select up to 15 students to spend the rest of the school day in a leadership workshop with Coverly and other presenters. Members of Jasper Engines and Transmissions’ team-building department will facilitate one of those sessions.

At 6:30 that evening, Coverly will present at the arts center to an audience of all ages.

“We’re calling it a ‘community night,’ and we want children, teens, parents and really anyone who works with children of any age or has an interest in these topics to be there,” Neal said. “Teen depression and teen substance use are community issues, and we need community members to show support in a big way.

“Coverly will share important information, but you’ll leave having been entertained and feeling inspired.”

CARES has received financial support for You’ve Got This! from Being For Others Health and Wellness Foundation and Jasper Endows Today and Tomorrow.