Boise
Focus Areas
Regional Initiative
Community members within each Communities for Youth Regional Initiative vote annually on what they will focus on to improve youth well-being. Boise’s 2025-2026 focus area is increasing youth social connection.
Focus Area
2025-2026
Youth Social Connection
Youth social connection includes teens’ relationships with same-age peers, but also parents/family, people like teachers, mentors, and other trusted adults, as well as how supported and included they feel in their general community. Social connection is strongly related to mental health.
Current Projects
Boise's Youth Roadmap
The roadmap project is the City of Boise’s effort to consider youth well-being across their departments. It also brings partners across the city together to create a collective impact that identifies and/or enhances programs that support youth wellbeing, learning, creativity, safety, and career exploration.
Community Roles
Youth Engagement
Our Teen Action Team, supported by Central District Health, is a summer leadership institute in which students learn about upstream prevention of mental health and connect with partners and other like minded teens to increase local youth well-being. We also interact with youth in school based Hope squads, leadership and student councils, and other students interested in getting involved.
School Engagement
Our team works closely with public, private, and charter schools’ leadership, staff, and professional learning communities to help schools identify evidence-informed best practices that support student well-being based on findings from the Idaho Youth Well-Being Survey.
