NextGen members / Michèle Griskey
On Wednesday, Dec. 10, officers from Orcas Island High School’s NextGeneration club attended the San Juan County Board of Heath meeting to present a compilation of their efforts to promote health, advocacy, and leadership in our school community.
Over the past years, NextGeneration has worked towards its mission of building school connectedness through spreading awareness on topics of substance use, mental health, and community strengthening. With the guidance of the club’s advisor, Julie Pinardi, NextGeneration has been able to carry out a series of projects that support positivity and health in a welcoming, nonjudgmental, and student-driven format. Projects such as Kick Butt’s Day, a health fair style presentation regarding substance use and the social media marketing tactics used by companies to promote their products, and Take What You Need, an annual campaign during which the club leaves sticky notes with positive affirmations on bathroom mirrors, have succeeded in spreading positive messaging to youth in our community.
Wednesday’s Board of Health meeting provided NextGeneration club officers with the space to share both the factual side of their work and the creativity and passion that has gone into creating events and campaigns that are engaging and appealing to other students. In the presence of San Juan County council members, as well youth advocacy groups from Lopez Island and San Juan Island who had also presented on their efforts to promote health in their own communities, NextGeneration members showcased their work on a variety of topics, debriefing data from the Healthy Youth Survey and addressing the dangers of misperceptions of youth substance use. The meeting served as a crucial step in the club’s goal of creating, as its name entails, a future, upcoming generation of youth that feels confident and empowered in sharing their voice. Feedback shared by council members, as well as strategies discussed by other youth groups, presented opportunities to grow and expand in the future, while also emphasizing the importance of highlighting youth voices in issues regarding mental health and substance use among students both in and out of our county. Supported by members of the community and the island’s Coalition for Orcas Youth, NextGeneration members will continue to focus their efforts in shaping youth policies and a school community that they wish to see; one that is led by youth, for youth.