FLORENCE, Ala. —  On Thursday, November 14, The Florence City Board of Education held the Behavioral Region 1 Mental Health Services Coordinator Meeting. There were numerous guest speakers, such as Haley Phillippe, representatives from the Harrison College of Pharmacy, Auburn University, and Professor Doug Brown from the Department of Social Work at the University of North Alabama.

Numerous schools from the region attended this meeting and collaborated on how they are running their programs at their respective schools, all while pitching ideas to help each other.

FCS Mental Health Coordinator Cynthia Casteel was excited about how it's not just Region 1 receiving these different ideas. "The Region 1 meeting is very important; Dr. Warfield took notes on what we do, and she will send that out to everybody else in the other regions," Casteel said. "Not only is Region 1 helping each other out, we are able to help the other regions in the State of Alabama."

The different schools and state staff talked about how each school helps their students in different categories, such as Peer Helper programs, bullying campaigns, suicide ideation, and mental health.

During the meeting, Dr. Kay Warfield and Mr. Tracey Goreed spoke to all the attendees and shared some exciting information with Casteel. "Dr. Kay Warfield and Tracey Goreed shared that they are wanting to implement our plan here at Florence City Schools for all districts, in conjunction with the juvenile court systems, which was very exciting," she added.

After Florence hosted the meeting in 2023, it was excitingly announced that it would be hosted here again this year. In 2025, Casteel said she would pass the torch to another Region 1 school system to host.