(Posted 2023 May)

We are excited about an important partnership between Fairfax County Public Schools and two programs within our Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Services. The Neighborhood Networks and Volunteer and Partner Services programs are working closely with London Towne Elementary School to support students’ mental health. 

On March 22, our Prevention Services staff offered their first grief group session to students at London Towne. Neighborhood Network’s mental health specialists, Nicole Wilson and Leah Frazier, with the support of our facility dog, Rylynn, and her handler, Sam Carrico, co-led weekly sessions of the grief group. These sessions were held for six weeks, one in the morning and one in the afternoon for both older and younger students who have suffered unimaginable losses.

As one seven-year-old child in the grief group was petting Rylynn, she was overheard whispering to Rylynn, “This is the best group I’ve ever been in.” Life-changing moments like this are happening due to the efforts of the mental health specialists leading the groups, and the advocacy of London Towne Elementary’s school social worker, Mercedes T. Tikoyan, and school counselor, Emily Habermeyer’s. Their out-of-the-box thinking has led to an amazing partnership that Prevention hopes to replicate in other FCPS schools.  

We’re very excited for this partnership and hope it is the beginning of groups like this throughout Fairfax County Public Schools.