Adulting 101: This is a course that many other people wish they had taken in their youth. Yes, English and math are important, but how do you know if you’re in a healthy relationship?How to apply to college with little money? What if you suffer from addiction?
Columbia River Mental Health Services sought to answer these questions at its annual youth summit Tuesday at River City Church. Seniors ages 14 to 24 ate lunch and played games while learning where they could go in housing, intellectual health, health insurance, money literacy, and nutrition.
“I think what’s amazing about this occasion is that they all come in combination and being in one area removes a lot of barriers when it comes to locating resources like this,” said Arianna Suarez, one of the coordinators for the occasion.
Some of those systems are difficult to navigate, he said.
“For a variety of reasons, they weren’t learning those things,” said Michelle Karnath, coordinator of the state’s Family Youth System Partner Roundtable.
Teaching those resources to Clark County youth now puts them on a path to greater support, she said.
“You have to do prevention, but you also have to have the right care,” Karnath said.
Columbia River Mental Health Services CEO Victor Jackson said the organization was looking to host an event specifically geared toward youth.
“They’re dealing with behavioral fitness issues to a greater extent than the population as a whole, so it’s vital to have them and make those connections,” Jackson said.
Janet Bentley-Jones, clinical director of the Substance Use Disorders Program for the India Cowlitz Tribe, wanted to attend the event to inform people that the tribe has youth available for Clark County residents, whether Indigenous and non-Indigenous.
“I worked for Clark County Juvenile Court for 16 years and left because I was so frustrated with the limited resources for youth in the network with behavioral fitness issues. I just couldn’t take the little kids anywhere. I know there’s a wonderful need,” Bentley-Jones said.
Matt McKay, also a member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, said the fentanyl outbreak has overwhelmed the resources available to youth and families suffering from addiction in Southwest Washington. He hopes that youth, especially those exposed to drugs at home, can locate assistance through the resources presented through the event.
“We have kids who test positive for fentanyl and they’re not,” McKay said.
While Clark County still lacks resources for troubled youth, they have more opportunities than their parents, said Dylan Forbes, program and outreach manager for the National Alliance on Mental Illness for Southwest Washington.
“If parents have their own struggle, then they transmit this generational trauma. There are parents without parents who are parents. What you want is to give the children the equipment to the parents themselves,” Forbes said.
Other tables featured loose haircuts, advice on the school application process and nutritional information. People from the Clark County Food Bank taught youth how to locate and prepare healthy foods.
“I think Clark County youth are some of the people who face food insecurity the most,” said Ben Folger-Vent, a food bank volunteer. “It’s vital to display them in places where there’s accessible food. “
Another table from an organization called Called To Love apologized to other young people who felt wronged by their devout faith, especially LGBTQ youth. Eunice Ingermanson sat at her rainbow table, chatted with teenagers and apologized for the negative reports they had at church.
“We are painfully aware of the damage that the network has done to the LGBT network,” he said.
It was difficult for her, she said, when her son came out as transgender, but now she wants other young people like her son to feel accepted, she says.
This is the third year Columbia River Mental Health Services has hosted a youth summit, Jackson said. A state grant funded the first two events, but he attempted to use the CRMHS budget and collected donations to host this year’s event.