News

The Youth of Today Are the Leaders of Tomorrow

(ELMA, WA) – Summit Pacific Medical Center aligned its vision of focusing on preventative health with Summit Pacific Medical Foundation’s 2023 goal of cultivating relationships with community partners who share a commitment to create measurable improvements in the health and well-being of our youth.

“We have a responsibility to represent our youth and we need commitment to action through our collective efforts that will drive results,” states Josh Martin, CEO Summit Pacific Medical Center.

The Foundation and key stakeholders assessed our community’s current youth programs, activities, and services and identified the needs to build up our future leaders. The outcome of this research was to form the Youth Collaborative, formerly known as the Youth Summit, which is made up of 50 leaders from the community, including non-profits and educational partners that will serve as resources to bring fresh ideas and initiatives to better develop our youth population.

The Youth Collaborative reviewed existing youth programs, services and activities in East Grays Harbor, and identified additional programs, services and activities to build on the opportunities available for our youth to thrive. The group agreed on the top areas of focus for each category. Under the programs category, they concluded that job readiness, college preparation, financial skills, trade skills, STEM skill opportunities, childcare and after school programs are of high importance. Given the statistics our community’s youth has around suicidal ideation and the 60% increase in primary care clinics seeing youth for anxiety/depression, the group decided that mental health services should be the focus of the service category for 2023.

“Having the support of mentors and trusted adults is imperative to our youth’s mental health”, states Kody Harris, Community Development Manager for the Girl Scouts of Western Washington.

More engaging activities for youth in East Grays Harbor County are needed, and the Youth Collaborative’s goal to provide extracurricular activities focused on exercise and wellness such as open gym, swimming, gymnastics, mountain biking, hiking, cross-fit, yoga, cooking classes, and more.

The Youth Collaborative consists of five subgroups that will each focus on one of the priorities that the larger group identified for 2023. Going forward these subgroups will meet on a recurring basis to establish and execute an action plan. The next group gathering will be held on Sept. 26, 2023, at 4:00 p.m. at Summit Pacific Wellness Center where efforts to create opportunities for health and wellness for our community’s youth will continue. 

If you would like to learn more about these efforts or want to contribute to the work being done, please contact the Summit Pacific Medical Foundation at 360-346-2250 or email Foundation@sp-mc.org.

View the full press release here.