PA Youth Advocacy Presents During Community Outreach Events

Sarah Pesi presents at the PA Career Tech Administrators School Counselor Conference.

Members of the PA Youth Advocacy Network were busy conducting outreach events across Pennsylvania in October. This comes as the Network develops an agenda of teen mental health policy priorities, spearheaded by youth advocates and the Jewish Healthcare Foundation's (JHF) Adolescent Behavioral Health Team staff, and aims to engage more youth advocates.  

For World Mental Health Day on October 10, Jewish Healthcare Foundation Policy Assistant Sarah Pesi, MSPPM and youth advocate Connor Dalgaard (senior, West Allegheny High School) presented on Network opportunities during a Friendship Circle Pittsburgh teen gathering.

On October 21, Pesi presented on the PA Youth Advocacy Network for the PA Career Tech Administrators School Counselor Conference in State College, PA. Pesi conducted a listening session on the attendees' perspectives on teen mental health priorities, especially increasing the number of school counselors in schools. These discussions will help to inform a more comprehensive policy agenda that represents the views of stakeholders across the Commonwealth.

Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative Practice Transformation Specialist Carol Frazer, LPC and JHF Program Manager Deborah Murdoch, MPH also joined Network member Beaver County Youth Advocates Program's After Dark event on October 19^th event to encourage youth to complete a survey of the PA Youth Advocacy Network's priorities. Initial responses indicate that the priorities align with Beaver County youth's perspectives on teen mental health.