Wellness alliance is ‘flourishing’ in Anne Arundel County Public Schools: ‘It’s a springboard into living life’

At Broadneck High School a mural is in progress in a school bathroom with a silhouette, flowers and a statement: “You spend most of the time in your mind, make sure it is a beautiful place to be.” The painting began last year as part of a community project for the school’s Student Alliance for Flourishing, a new initiative in Anne Arundel County Public Schools funded by the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund. Now in five high schools and three middle schools in Anne Arundel, the alliance uses a scale with six determinants of well-being or flourishing: happiness and life satisfaction, mental and physical health, meaning and purpose, character and virtue, close social relationships and financial and material stability.