Youth Summit Summarizes Children Are Our Communities Future

Children are the future; teach them well and let them lead the way! Youth summits continue to reflect the grasp young people have on their own futures and the future of our community. “The Youth Summits have empowered our youth in our community to voice their own experiences with mental health. Through the Youth Summits, we have learned that our youth want to help our community learn more about mental health, and help individuals get connected to trusted adults and services. Not only do the Youth Summits empower our youth, they empower the members of our community to take the information gathered during the Youth Summits and create action and initiatives to help our youth achieve their goals,” observed Diamond Justus, MCHD Health Educator and Wellness Coalition co-chair

A year has passed, and after much review, reflection, and effort to improve, another high school youth summit will be held on October 26 at Hoosier Heartland State Bank Success Center. The Mind Committee of the Wellness Coalition is very excited to learn from 47 students representing all three county high schools. As an outgrowth of the review process, a special goal has been to select representatives that best reflect the demographic and academic strata of each high school.

Wabash Democracy and Public Discourse fellows, under the direction of Dr. James Proszek will lead eight small groups of six high school representatives to learn from the students about the mental health circumstances of local teens. Categories for discussion will include: Stressors and Barriers, Resources, and Relationships.

In addition to the formal discussions, students will also have the opportunity to participate in brain break activities and simple crafts, win door prizes, enjoy great food and interact with other teens. “The communication with the other schools,” “Being able to talk to people I would have not talked to at school,” “Being able to comfortably discuss in small groups about important things and sharing my views and ideas” were some of the strengths of the program that participants shared last year.

The summit receives financial support from Hoosier Heartland State Bank, Montgomery County Health Department, and Volunteers for Mental Health in Montgomery County, a United Way partner agency.

Mishell Amick’s Salty Sweet Boutique donates funds and labor toward creating colorful commemorative t-shirts for the students and summit staff.

Local businesses and agencies are also supportive in providing discounts and donations. Brother’s Pizza and Street Penguin Gelato/Wildfire348 Pizza help fuel the energies of the teens. Youth Service Bureau, Valley Oaks Health, Montgomery County Community Foundation, Franciscan Healthcare, Tri County Bank, United Way, InWell, Cummins Health, Indiana Youth Institute, Wabash College, United Healthcare, and Big Lots are some of the generous donors which provide self-care items for the students’ ‘swag bags.”

The summits would also not succeed were it not for the wonderful support of the school student services/mental health staffs and administrative teams.

Wabash Democracy and Public Discourse fellows will present some preliminary data analysis with the students and sponsors at the end of the summit. WDPD will continue to analyze and condense the recorded summit data into a final written report. May 8th has been set as the date for the data-sharing gathering, and representatives from all three county school corporations have been invited to attend. Students will also complete a post-summit standardized evaluation and reflection that will be analyzed by WDPD and the Mind Committee.

The Middle-Level Youth Summit is planned for February 22, 2024 at HHSB Success Center.

The goal of all agencies and individuals involved in making the summits happen is to impact youth today and in the future as well. “I liked that all of our feedback will actually go towards accomplishing something.” and “Knowing that people are going to try to do something about what was said” were benefits that summit attendees noted last year. As Cameron Cole, youth program director at Youth Service Bureau observed, “The Youth Summit is such a valuable experience for all of us now but also for our future. Giving these youth the opportunity to participate in something so great now, is empowering them to really do amazing things for the community as they get older and as they become those outstanding citizens in society!”