Blaine Co. Youth Collaborative Exploring Ways to Build & Measure Youth Social Connection

The Blaine County Youth Collaborative, a network of youth-serving organizations that optimizes their resources in order to best serve young people in Blaine County and surrounding areas, is currently investigating ways that its member organizations can contribute to the shared community goals of increasing youth social connection and local young people's sense of belonging and mattering. As part of the Youth Collaborative's work with Communities for Youth initiative in Blaine Co., the Youth Collaborative has dedicated several of their monthly meetings to these topics.

Members of the Youth Collaborative during a "reflection moment" and small group discussion.

The April meeting was specifically dedicated to the topic of shared activities and evaluation measures for youth social connection and belonging. Communities for Youth Director Megan Smith provided a brief presentation and the rest of the meeting was spent reviewing tools and resources that local organizations can utilize to ensure they are actively contributing to the goal of increasing youth feelings of connection to peers, family, and trusted adults as well as their feelings of belonging within various spaces and places. These areas were found as some of the most prominent drivers of youth mental health challenges in the 2024-2025 Blaine County Youth Well-being Survey. *

*This is an annual survey of middle and high school students in Blaine County Schools and other schools in our area that aims to provide high-quality data to parents, youth, schools, and youth serving organizations and agencies for improving youth well-being. In school year 2024-2025 the survey included more than 2000 students from all Blaine Co Schools and Syringa Mountain School.

Youth Collaborative members review planning and evaluation options for youth social connection and belonging.

The Youth Collaborative's approach centers on cross-sector collaboration—sharing information and resources, identifying successes and gaps in services, reducing redundancies, and offering peer support. Staff from youth-serving organizations and agencies that would like to join the Youth Collaborative can contact Monica Reyna at monica@theadvocatesorg.org. 

If you want to learn more about the work happening though Communities for Youth Blaine County, reach out to community lead Sarah Seppa at seppas@slhs.org or please visit our

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