The PennZone

BURGETTSTOWN, Pa. - PennZone -- The Chuckie F. Mahoney Memorial Foundation is proud to continue its support of peer-to-peer education programs in Burgettstown School District with a $3,000 grant to combat online harassment.

Created to address cyberbullying; the Respect Online program has enriched Burgettstown School District for the past five years thanks to a collaboration between the Chuckie F. Mahoney Memorial Foundation and UPMC Washington's Teen Outreach program.

Last school year, Teen Outreach educator Amy Podgurski Gough trained 12 juniors and seniors as peer educators, who then taught lessons on empathy, cyber bullying, setting healthy boundaries and consent to 145 middle school students. The program hopes to teach the SOS Suicide Prevention Program in the 2025-26 school year. Burgettstown teens are part of the Teen Outreach Adolescent Advisory Board and are being trained in Teen Mental Health First Aid this year.

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Teen-to-teen teaching has been shown to help students retain information, according to UPMC Washington Teen Outreach Director Mary Jo Podgurski.

"Based on the responses from our pre/posttests we believe the students did an outstanding job of retaining the information we provided," she said. "The reality that cyberbullying is common in middle school inspires us to keep Respect Online going."

The Respect Online program aligns with the Chuckie F. Mahoney Memorial Foundation's mission to enhance mental health and suicide prevention programming, particularly in scholastic settings. Chuckie F. Mahoney IV was an honor student and three-sport athlete at Burgettstown High School and a dean's list student at Allegheny College who died by suicide in 2002. The Foundation seeks to educate and advocate for students in his memory.

"We've supported Respect Online from day one and are proud to partner on peer counseling initiatives offered by the Teen Outreach program," said Foundation President Chal Mahoney.

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About the Chuckie F. Mahoney Memorial Foundation

Founded by parents grappling with profound loss and unanswered questions following their child's suicide, the Chuckie F. Mahoney Memorial Foundation provides resources, education and financial support for programs to improve mental health and combat depression. Openly sharing their personal story of a preventable tragedy, founders Chal and Debi Mahoney promote transparent discussions about mental health and suicide. The Foundation has given more than $450,000 in scholarships and grants to equip schools with training and resources to educate parents and students and remove the stigma for seeking help. For more information, visit http://www.chuckiefmahoney.org