“I believe the children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way.”
A popular 1980’s song created an image of the ideal life cycle where children’s experiences and education helped them evolve into effective adults. The nearly 40 years since the inspiring anthem was published have significantly impacted growing up in America. Domestic and international terrorism, school shootings, the impact of the internet and popular culture, plus a world-wide pandemic have all changed the faces and minds of young people. Adults who grew up in simpler times can only guess at how these young people are impacted.
A recent youth activity has taken some of the guesswork out of delving into the thoughts and emotions of teens and pre-teens. Regionally, youth summits, as they are known, have been held in Tippecanoe and surrounding counties for five years. During the past school year, Montgomery County held its own version of youth summits: one for high school in October, and a middle-level summit in March.
What is a youth summit? The Search Institute in Minneapolis explains the purpose of a youth summit as “… a forum for young people to organize, network, learn new things, and share their hopes and concerns in a public setting.” Search Institute goes on to describe the focus and outcome of a youth summit. “…We see young people addressing the issues they care most about and that often affect them most directly. This might be in their schools, neighborhoods and youth serving organizations. We see young people playing active roles in addressing issues being a part of creating solutions.”
How did Youth Summits evolve in Montgomery County? When the Mind Committee of the Montgomery County Wellness Coalition sought to focus on a single facet of mental health in Montgomery County, it was a simple choice to begin with youth mental health. A Centers for Disease Control survey released in March 2022 found that “more than a third (37%) of high school students reported they experienced poor mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic, and 44% reported they persistently felt sad or hopeless during the past year.” (Centers for Disease Control, March 31, 2022)
Such studies reflect global data, but to truly focus on local youth, the Mind Committee felt sampling student thoughts and emotions through a youth summit would produce more current data collected in an interactive environment.
To collect the data, the Mind Committee did not have to look far. The well-known Wabash College Democracy and Public Discourse initiative has a successful history for surveying various populations. Under the direction of James Proszek, program associate, Wabash students worked with the Mind Committee to create a collection of discussion questions that covered categories to learn about mental health stressors and challenges, resources and relationships. DPD fellows worked in pairs to lead the discussions and make a careful record of the responses for a small group of students.
The Mind Committee worked with the student services departments in the local high schools to select students who could represent the total student body as much as possible. The high school summit in October gleaned insights from 28 students from Crawfordsville and North Montgomery. In March, 36 students attended from Crawfordsville Middle School, North Montgomery Middle School and Southmont Junior High School. It is believed that the middle-level summit was the first of its kind in this region of the state.
Following each summit, Proszek and the Wabash fellows analyzed the records of the students’ deliberations and produced a report of the findings. The summit participants also responded to a post-summit reflection. What information did the Youth Summits reveal? In our next article, we will learn some of the data collected.
Denise Booher Walker of Volunteers for Mental Health in Montgomery County contributed this column. She can be reached by email at dbw@vmhmc.org or call 765-275-2689 (landline and message machine).
