Boise Citywide Coalition Update

The Boise Citywide Coalition has been meeting monthly since January to develop action plans for increasing youth social connection in Boise after the results of the Boise Youth Well-being Survey (n=6,355) showed that a citywide driver of youth mental health challenges is lacking social connection.

To address this issue, Boise Coalition members are currently in the final stages of developing strategic actions around the following areas:

• Creating Youth-Friendly Spaces and Opportunities 

• Increasing Parent, Neighborhood, & Community Engagement

• Increasing the Capacity of Schools and Youth-serving Organizations to Increase Youth Connections to Same-Age Peers and Non-parent Trusted Adults

These areas were chosen by the Boise Citywide Coalition based on existing evidence on how to meaningfully increase youth social connection/decrease social isolation and loneliness. There is also an ongoing effort  to increase community knowledge about the importance of social connection for young people. All of these steps are being taken as part of the Communities for Youth process for building upstream prevention capacity in Boise!

We anticipate releasing the Citywide Action Plan in April 2025 so please stay tuned for more updates!

If you are an individual or organization interested in contributing to the Citywide Coalition planning and implementation process for increasing youth social connection please complete this brief 3-minute survey to decide which option is right for you. If you would prefer to more directly connect:

Parents/grandparents/concerned community members, please email Andrea Hill (andreahill565@boisestate.edu).

Youth-serving organizations, agencies, local businesses, please email Heather Allan (hallan@cdh.idaho.gov).

For more information on the Communities For Youth Boise Initiative please visit our main page or sign up for our newsletter.