Norwood High students to create "Mindful Mustangs" magazine
By Olivia Tucker and Tori Roderick, Staff Writers
February 15, 2024
Impact Norwood’s Youth Coalition plans to create the “Mindful Mustangs” magazine, a magazine created for and by Norwood community members of all ages, from grades 1-12 and older.
Founded in 2014, Impact Norwood is a local substance abuse prevention coalition that works to keep Norwood drug-free and healthy. The organization consists of volunteers of all ages who have dealt with a family member or friend who has been affected by substance abuse or addiction or who just want to make a beneficial change in our community.
Impact Norwood’s Youth Coalition is made up of youth ambassadors who work hard to encourage others to make better choices and make a difference in the world. The Youth Coalition also focuses on counteracting negative stereotypes regarding solvent and substance abuse amongst minors and our population.
One of their most recent social campaigns was publicized in 2021, named #WeAreTheNorm, where public service announcements, statistics, billboards, and other means were utilized to share the healthy, good decisions made by the young citizens of our town.
The Impact Norwood Youth Ambassadors have spent months brainstorming ideas for a new social campaign to promote community participation and health. They settled on the creation of a magazine and began planning the layout and magazine content in the early summer of 2023.
Youth Coalition member Hillary Zanon Medeiros shared some of the steps taken in preparation for the magazine’s publication.
“Well we have a meeting like once a week and then we just talk to each other… We spend a few weeks working on posters for Instagram and also spend a lot of time emailing teachers and NCM to try and get the poster on the TV,” she said.
Youth Coalition member and Norwood High’s Class of 2026 President, Joann Yamoah also shared a little about the hard work going into the magazine.
“Ok so we spent most of our summer thinking about what we were going to do and then we decided we wanted to do a magazine, we thought that it would be easier if we contacted the English department throughout the high school, middle school, and elementary schools because we wanted to get different perspectives,” stated Yamoah.
“Another thing we did was put in different submission places like the library and town hall and we meet weekly with Conor Brosnan and Bob Blood from the health department and they give us ideas on what to do. We also work with [Senior] Heather Begg and she takes notes on our meeting to see what we could fix and what is good,” she detailed.
The members of Impact Norwood hope that the magazine will help contribute to change in our community and the stigmas around mental and physical health.
“I hope people really enjoy looking at the magazine… Hopefully people in Norwood know that there are places to get help and there’s people that you can talk to,” said Yamoah.
The magazine’s primary focus is on mental health and substance abuse, but it also centers around community participation and pride.
Impact Norwood member Sophomore Hilary Zanon Medeiros. Tori Roderick/ The Mustang Gazette
“We want to make Norwood a more welcoming community for everyone and try to represent everyone,” said Medeiros.
“[We want people to know] that there’s so many great places in Norwood to eat food or go on a hike, or something like that,” Yamoah chimed in.
As they were writing the magazine they put a lot of thought into what they were writing and who their target audience would be.
They anticipate much community support and solidarity.
“We hope to get a lot of articles [and submissions] from all ages and put them in one magazine so that Norwood residents can look at it and see ‘Oh my god! This person’s also dealing with this’ and maybe they could talk to each other,” Medeiros noted.
Most English classes in school have posted an article assignment for extra credit if anyone would like to get involved with the magazine and the community.
Some submissions accepted are drawings, paintings, articles, and much more.
There are submission places in school and in town, one location being Town Hall, for those interested in turning in a paper submission instead of a digital one.
“Mindful Mustangs” will be accepting submissions until March 1st, and will get back to those who submitted content by early April.
The magazine is estimated to be available to read on the Impact Norwood website in May.