In partnership with the Blaine County Mental Well-being Initiative, the Communities for Youth team met with Blaine community members, school leaders, and organizational partners on March 7th for a Strategic Action Plan Meeting. This meeting focused on building out specific strategies to help increase youth social connection for Blaine County youth. Data from the most recent Youth Well-being Survey, taken by Blaine County School District students in November 2024, showed that one of the main drivers of depression among students is a lack of social connection. Based on this data, the Communities for Youth Blaine Initiative is focused on building youth social connection, and is working with the Blaine County Mental Well-being on their first goal – creating welcoming community-connecting environments and activities for youth that foster connection.
At this meeting, the Communities for Youth Blaine Initiative presented a deeper dive into the
data on social connection in Blaine youth, and facilitated the co-creation of concrete and
actionable plans that enhance parent, neighborhood and community engagement in strategic plans to improve youth social connection. The attendees built out specific strategies for three areas of focus – building youth friendly businesses, using communications that increase adult knowledge and behaviors that support teen connection, and building neighborhood and community supports for youth connection.
If you missed this meeting, it’s not too late to get involved! Email Sarah Seppa at
seppas@slhs.org for more information.
For more information on the Communities for Youth Blaine County Initiative please visit our
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