About

What’s the Scoop about SNAPP?

CSU and UNC grad students run one 90-minute session per week for 12 weeks, creating a bond and community of safety. Middle school and high school participants are matched in a lil’ sis and big sis format. The sessions are casual, hanging out on bean bags, eating snacks, and talking about real stuff in a safe environment. Although confidentiality can’t be promised, the pledge to honor ourselves and others in the group is. That includes what they share! The group bonds and grows tighter as weeks progress. They learn coping skills and realize they aren’t alone.

We run fall and spring group sessions. There is an application process because we want to make sure you want to be a part of this great program and are aware of the topics discussed. Click here to apply.

Mission

SNAPP is an empowerment response to today’s culture for youth.

What is SNAPP? It is a prevention program for teens.

It is strength-based philosophy and mentorship.
It is learning to navigate collaboratively with effective coping skills.
It is being an advocate for a foundation of empowerment, grit, and resilience in young teens.
It is helping to persevere through puberty.
It is developing a purpose to stand tall and find inner greatness.

Knowledge is power and so is the process of developing a strong sense of self, community, and self-efficacy. With the support of the community and each other, this group will work to foster hope and optimism while building positive change and a willingness to share an authentic self.

The Story of SNAPP

When my daughter was in second grade, she came home asking me, “mom, what is fat?” I was curious why in the world my little girl was asking such a question assuming it had something to do with a science topic or English class discussion. When I asked her “why do you want to know what fat is sweetie?”, she looked up at me in an unassuming expression and said, “well today I was told I was fat and that I shouldn’t be fat so I want to stop being fat.”

This question started some of the most difficult, tumultuous years of my mothering and the moment my daughter began to reduce herself to pounds on a scale, looks, and if she were cool enough. Make no mistake, my daughter has always been a strong-willed and feisty thing who was like a bull in a China shop during her very young years. I spent many afternoons sitting with a principal or a teacher or even a sitter trying to explain my daughter’s rationale for the mischievous or bull-headed behavior. I worked relentlessly to teach her how to channel her energy towards positive, which continues to be a work in progress.

As 5th grade unfolded and middle school approached, our daughter began to manage her strong will while looking for friends to call her own. It was at this point our daughter began to be bullied more severely by some of her peers. Our daughter was constantly asked why she was so fat and big. She was not allowed to walk next to her ‘friends’ at school, instead, walk behind them. She wasn’t always allowed to eat lunch at the same table or play the same games at recess as her friends. One particular instance my daughter experienced was when she was playing as the goalie with friends at school she accidentally caught her head in the net…she was very embarrassed because she couldn’t free herself and was yelling for someone to help her but rather than help, everyone took the chance to kick their soccer balls at her as hard as possible. She freed herself and came home to me hysterical.

Every Sunday night my usually happy go lucky daughter who had always been excited for school on Monday would shake uncontrollably, cry and beg me not to go to school. It was then I realized the coping skills I had been teaching her were not enough and I had to do more. I wanted to do something to guide my daughter along with so many others who either engage in bullying or have allowed themselves to be bullied towards more positive relational methods.

-Alison Biggs, Board President/Founder

SNAPP – An empowerment response to today’s culture for youth.

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What is SNAPP all about?

SNAPP is a place where young teens can be authentic, celebrate differences, and find their inner greatness.

The overall methodology combines a strengths-based philosophy with positive psychology to create an approach that focuses on purpose, empowerment, perseverance, hope, optimism, collaboration, and potential, among others.