Recently, a collaborative effort quietly launched an online platform called meHUB to support students and families dealing with big challenges in Manchester and Essex, some of which a school district study revealed to be very real risks for young students today.
During its launch, meHUB was integrated into the Manchester-Essex Regional School District’s (MERSD) official website. But the story of how it came to be goes way beyond the school district — to the diligent work of volunteers spanning parents, school administration, public safety officials and current and ex-town board members from both Manchester and Essex as well as school committee members (past and present). Ultimately, the team that designed and built meHUB (which can be found at www.manchesteressexhub.com) wanted to create a one-stop resource for research, data and practical resources, which they hope will grow to become a true community support system for families and young students as they navigate life into adulthood.
In its current form, meHUB has a lot of “meat.” It houses all of the findings from the comprehensive 2018 Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted by the MERSD as well as national research on the same risk behaviors (which provides much-needed context to the school district’s own findings). MeHUB also makes connections to vetted information and resources so that families, parents and especially the students themselves can access practical support.
It was actually the 2018 MERSD study that served as the trigger for the project, originally taken on by just two local parents, one from Essex and one from Manchester. Over two years, the pair was supported by community members outside of the school district who had a vested interest in healthy students, including members of the Essex and Manchester Boards of Health, public safety officials (read: police officers) and even Board of Selectmen members. Other parents — especially those with ties to the regional school committee — joined, and so did current school committee members and, not surprisingly, MERSD administrative officials. The group (members are listed on the meHUB website) came together as a collective, all in the name of building a community-wide source of judgement-free support.
When meHUB came to life over two years later, the group finally got their wish. As mentioned, over time, meHUB will grow to offer even more reliable, publicly available resources as well as information around success factors, all of which research has shown works successfully in communities like Manchester and Essex. There will be events and programming designed to encourage engagement in parents and students, connecting them to resources here in the community and to each other.
