Tracy Vivo: Behavioral Health and Wellness Coordinator
Tracy Vivo was hired this summer as Lowellville Local High School’s Behavioral Health and Wellness Coordinator. In her position, she helps increase awareness, address gaps, and connect the dots in school behavioral health and wellness initiatives. This school year she plans to develop a Student Assistance Program and to begin developing Staff Wellness Program initiatives. She is excited to incorporate positive programming this school year, such as the Unity Project, Fork Farms Gardening program, Start with Hello, and Sources of Strength.
Start with Hello is a youth prevention program that has already been implemented at Lowellville by Mrs. Vivo. It focuses on inclusion, acceptance, empathy, and connectedness. This has been activated in Lowellville through “Start with Hello Week,” a dress-down week where students are encouraged to complete different positive and kind actions each day.
Mrs. Vivo previously taught college courses at Youngstown State University. Afterward, she worked in the entertainment industry and worked as a project liaison for companies such as Nickelodeon and Royal Caribbean International. She also has experience setting up employee assistance and safety programming and has served on an advisory board for Youngstown State University. She also took on a new project as a coordinator/administrator developing a Visual and Performing Arts/ STEM school for an area school district, which led to district-wide work. She also has been a gifted and talented assessor for nearly 20 years. After working in higher education, she missed working with K-12 schools and made the decision to come to Lowellville. She did this because she loves starting new programming to help schools, students, and staff. She also says that “Lowellville is a wonderful community.”
She believes that wellness is a very important thing to implement in schools and the community. Mrs. Vivo said, “School can play an important role in promoting health, wellness, and safety of students in order to establish lifelong healthy behaviors.” She believes that each school has a set of needs and that working together to identify those needs is the first step in school wellness initiatives.
She also believes that it is important to maintain your personal overall health and wellness. She does this by spending a lot of time running after her two daughters and spending quality time with her family. She also loves taking adventure hikes. She believes that gratitude is a very important aspect of wellness. “I try everyday to be grateful for all of the little things in life and for every opportunity that has come my way.”