400+ Kentucky Educators, Support Staff Receive Access to Groundbreaking Digital Stress Management Platform

Ohio Valley Educational Cooperative (OVEC) partners with Bounceback to help educators identify and effectively manage stress

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Jan. 13, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Bounceback, a leading digital health platform designed to support K-12 educators, today announced its partnership with the Ohio Valley Educational Cooperative (OVEC), a consortium of 14 school districts in north central Kentucky. This collaboration aims to provide wellness-focused professional development (PD) for OVEC's 400+ employees, many of whom are dedicated educators and support staff in the region's Head Start program.

Educators nationwide are grappling with unprecedented levels of stress, and OVEC has seen the toll this takes on the teachers and staff they serve. To address this challenge, OVEC is integrating Bounceback's evidence-based wellness programming into its broader mission of making educators' work more fulfilling and sustainable. By empowering their team to proactively manage stress, OVEC aims to foster resilience and ensure that both educators and students thrive.

"The entire Bounceback team is thrilled to join with OVEC in helping promote educator wellness," said Dorothy Morelli, M.Ed., Founder and CEO of Bounceback. "This partnership allows us the opportunity to encourage educators to take care of themselves so they can continue to take care of others. We need to retain our dedicated education professionals and look forward to working with OVEC towards this goal. Bounceback truly is by educators for educators."

Established in 1976, OVEC provides resources and programs that serve more than 150,000 students and their families. With this partnership, OVEC sees Bounceback as a critical tier-one support tool —one that empowers employees to manage stress before it escalates into crisis. While traditional employee assistance programs address crises, Bounceback focuses on preventative care, offering educators the skills and strategies they need to navigate their day-to-day challenges.

"OVEC is excited to partner with Bounceback to support the mental health of our 400+ team members," said Jason Adkins, CEO of OVEC. "Our educators are resilient and strong not because they ignore stress, but because they identify it and proactively manage it. Bounceback will empower our team so that students thrive."

Bounceback's digital platform offers over 120 on-demand lessons led by career educators and wellness instructors. Topics include stress management, mindfulness, focused breathing, intentional movement, and adult social-emotional learning (SEL). Aligned with Learning Forward's Standards for Professional Learning, Bounceback provides educators with completion certificates for PD credits and supports their license renewal needs. The content's intentional design—featuring relatable stories from real educators—communicates resilience and demonstrates how teachers can thrive even amidst challenges.

E. B. Nygard, Ph.D., Director of OVEC Head Start, underscored the importance of this initiative:
"We're realizing more and more, each day, how much our teachers are up against. Nation-wide, we're facing critical teacher shortages, and OVEC Head Start is not immune to that. This work can be incredibly challenging—it can also be incredibly fulfilling. With the right support, we hope our teachers can learn to overcome the challenges they face in their work so that they can lean into fulfillment. Bounceback can help us achieve this."

With Bounceback's commitment to "job-embedded wellness," this partnership is not only a resource, but a message of care and confidence to educators. OVEC hopes that through this collaboration, their teachers and staff will feel empowered to continue making a difference in their students' lives while prioritizing their own well-being.

About Bounceback

Bounceback, part of 3LS Ventures, is a Nashville-based digital health platform that delivers wellness-focused professional development for K-12 educators. Through evidence-based programming, Bounceback supports educators in managing stress and building resilience to improve their well-being and professional sustainability.

About OVEC

The Ohio Valley Educational Cooperative (OVEC) is a consortium of 14 school districts serving over 150,000 students in north central Kentucky. OVEC's mission is to make educators' work more fulfilling and sustainable through intentional opportunities, resources, and relationships. Established in 1976, the cooperative provides a vehicle for conducting regional planning, development, and implementation of educational programs on a continuing basis. OVEC offers programs that serve member school districts, their student populations and families.

For more information on how Bounceback supports educator wellness, visit mybounceback.com or email [email protected] 

SOURCE Bounceback