Aimee Bright Joined The Mix to Discuss the Non-Profit, Alignment Bay County
Segment 1
The Mix
Aimee Bright, the Executive Director of Alignment Bay County, joined Caleb Jordan and Dana Erskine on The Mix to discuss the Non-Profit, Alignment Bay County, their podcast, and the mental health resources in Bay County.
Alignment Bay County was established in 2015 and is a 501c3 nonprofit collective impact organization that works with community organizations to facilitate the success of youth in Bay County. Their goal is to support the success of youth in the county from cradle to career. Alignment Bay County works with volunteers, organizations, and community partners to help find solutions for the needs of children in the community.
The Goal of Alignment Bay County
Cradle to career is a broad goal, Aimee says, but for each volunteer group, their focus is on the specific needs for different age groups. They have A-Teams that look at needs for early learning which focus on birth to kindergarten. Elementary is focused on elementary-age students and their secondary is middle school and high school focus. They also have some needs that go into college-age post-secondary, as well.
Some of the things they have been doing are Little Listeners with moms reading to their unborn and small children. From there they moved into elementary schools where they focus on getting books to children. The goal is to help get kids thinking about what the story is about and the characters they are reading about. Right now, ABC is focusing on post-secondary skills for students who are graduating high school and the process of making plans to move into college.
How Covid-19 and Hurricane Michael has Changed the Needs in the Community
Hurricane Michael and the pandemic have had a huge impact on students and their families. But it has also been tough for teachers in Bay County. One thing that Alignment Bay County has done is a teacher and staff appreciation in the schools.
ABC did a “Build a Fridge” initiative where they took snacks and drinks to every school in Bay District Schools for the teachers and staff. Aimee says it was a community-wide effort and through the donations, they were able to show appreciation to teachers and staff. Aimee says they even did some brag boards for the elementary schools where teachers could write on post-it notes and brag on each other for the board.
Alignment Bay County is not only a great resource for Bay County students of all ages, but they have started a new initiative focused on mental health resources through their podcast, “How Ya Doing, Bay County?”
Segment 2
How Ya Doing, Bay County?
“How Ya Doing, Bay County?” is a mental health matters podcast focused on resources available in Bay County, Florida. It is an initiative of Alignment Bay County, as well. Aimee and her cohost, Sonya Caldwell, are your host and their goal is to ask the questions that you may be wondering about when it comes to your mental health.
One of the biggest things that make How Ya Doing so great is that they bring on local experts to talk about specific topics and the resources out there for Bay County.
Due to Hurricane Michael and Covid-19, Aimee says they wanted to support youth and their families by providing a way for people to take care of their mental health. They have a directory of over 70 local behavioral health resources. The different youth resources can be broken down for youth and adults, too. Some of their episodes also include resources for parents, teachers, and the students themselves.
Contact
If you want to listen to How Ya Doing, Bay County? they can be found where podcasts are played. Either on Itunes, Spotify, Sticher, IHeart, and the podcast is also linked on their website, howyadoing.org.
There is information on their website if you would like to volunteer and get more information about the great resources that Alignment Bay County offers.
