Marin Youth Intern Projects 2023/2024

A team of Marin County high school students developed a countywide wellness campaign that addresses concerns deeply impacting you, your classmates, your friends... including overall mental health and wellness, drug misuse and overdose, sexual health and safety, gender identity, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts.The campaign is called Find Your Way and provides ongoing support through events, a resource guide and more to Marin County youth.

This school year the Find Your Way Visioning team launched Find Your Way and the resource guide (by youth and for youth) in all Marin County high schools by tabling at wellness events and other school events. The resource guide is a hub of information on support services, hotlines, and community resources available to youth in Marin. The FYW team developed this vital tool so young people in Marin can easily access the help and opportunities they need. Check out the resource guide here. In the spring, we’ll be rolling out and supporting events for May mental health month.

The Find Your Way Youth Action team meets twice a month in person (Mondays at 5:30pm in Larkspur) to plan quarterly steering committee meetings, develop social media, plan youth gatherings, work on projects, develop/implement a scholarship program and more. Come join us!

Key partners in this effort: Suicide Prevention Collaboration Youth Action Team, Marin County Office of Education, Marin 9 to 25, OD Free Marin Youth Action Team, Marin County Free Library.

Find Your Way now has a scholarship program to connect with young people (ages 12-25) that are already participating in community programs in Marin County, or those who are interested in volunteering or participating in community work. You will receive a stipend of $500 if participating for October 2023 - July 2024 or $250 for participating the last half of the school year. See requirements below:

• Participate in community initiative, activity or internship (or we can help you find an opportunity!)

• Join virtual Quarterly Steering Committee Meetings

• Complete quarterly surveys

• Attend the Wellness Festival in May

• Participate in two check-ins with a Marin 9 to 25 staff member

If interested, fill out an application and you’ll be contacted for an initial conversation. You’ll receive a Find Your Way sweatshirt and qualify for community service hours for meeting attendance, plus hours for additional work put in.

Find Your Way's purpose is to encourage youth to seek helpful, reliable support and connection. Our mission is to deliver a variety of accessible resources, most of which are in the Youth Resource Guide. This is a movement created for youth, by youth, to ensure a supportive, accommodating, and relatable message is spread. Everyone is welcome. JOIN US!

In honor of May Mental Health Month, the Suicide Prevention Collaborative Youth Action Team — in partnership with Marin County Youth Commission, Health and Human Services, Marin 9 to 25 and Marin County Office of Education — hosts an art and film showcase (will be third annual) surrounding mental health and suicide prevention. The event is part of the larger Wellness Festival hosted by partner Marin County Youth commission. The goal of this event (May 11, 2024 @Terra Linda HS) is to increase awareness and conversations around mental health and well-being within Marin through sharing youth art and perspective.

The showcase features poems, drawing, films, music, photography, storytelling and more. We are looking for team members that would like to plan, promote, line up live performances, and lead the showcase in collaboration with partners.

The website is live and submissions are open! Come join the team and help us make this event bigger and better than ever before! Let us know and we’ll do our best to support you.

Join this team to launch and implement the third year of the successful Caring Cards program! Our partners wrote and distributed over 2,000 cards last year (about 12 local schools participated) and we plan to write 3,000 cards this year!

Caring Cards is an initiative that sends heartfelt messages of hope, recovery, and support to those who have been struggling with mental health, suicidality, and/or substance use issues. Words of hope and encouragement sent in a card can be a reminder that they are not alone, and recovery is possible. We are also providing hand written cards to those in the justice system.

The cover of the 2023-24 cards features new artwork created by students for the May Mental Health Art and Film Showcase and supportive phrases selected by the Suicide Prevention Youth Action Team. The back of the cards has updated resources on the back, including 988. The team has recorded new online sensitivity training videos in both English and Spanish for cardwriters and an online survey to get feedback from writers.

The planning team will be moving this important project forward and working with their respective schools to get cards written by the end of April, creating surveys and collecting data about previous year’s performance. Cards will be delivered to our partners and service providers late May/early June, including Centerpoint, Helen Vine, the VA, Marin County jail, Kaiser to name a few. Let us know and we’ll do our best to support you.

The goal of this new project is to build awareness for the 988 suicide and crisis hotline number among school athletes (and all young people) by promoting 988/Find Your Way bag tags for high school athletes. Athletes, who frequently experience a lack of mental health resources, need to understand that they can always call or text to reach somebody.

The planning team will design the tag and work on outreach to teams, athletes, and youth organizations across the County for Spring seasons. If interested, click the button below to email us.

Love to run or walk or just be outdoors? Join the OD Free Marin and Suicide Prevention Youth Action Teams in planning a fun run to celebrate May mental health month and bring awareness to 988, the suicide and crisis lifeline. This planning team will be working on location, volunteers, slogan/logo design, tabling sign ups and how best to partner with other events happening in May. Goal is to have 100 folks of all ages walking/running for wellness. This team will work closely with the 988 Bag Tag team. If interested, click the button below to email us.

Join the Homework Helpers Team, a program created and run by high school interns and the Marin County Free library. The program offers a free “homework help” program for English learners and underserved students at four Marin libraries: Corte Madera, Fairfax, Civic Center, and Novato.

Our Homework Helpers strongly believe that all kids should have equitable access to homework help. The program began in Corte Madera in February of 2022, expanded to Fairfax and Civic Center during the 2022-23 school year, and now has launched in Novato.

Homework Helpers not only offer homework help, but their dedicated community of volunteers creates a welcoming safe space for any student who would like to attend. Whether it is a one time visit to help prepare for a test or weekly visits, they welcome your participation.

HH times are as follows: Saturdays from 10am to noon at Corte Madera library, Monday, 4-5pm at Fairfax library, Wednesday, 4-5:30 at the Civic Center library and Wednesday, 3:30-5:30 in Novato.

We’re looking for Homework Helpers at Fairfax! Please consider! Let us know and we’ll do our best to support you.

Join the Restrictive Covenant project to educate fellow students and community on the effects of redlining in Marin. Work with a dynamic team and interested teachers to develop a plan to enhance current curriculum regarding redlining in the schools through use of hands-on activities, and discussion topics. The Restrictive Covenant Team is creating a teacher toolkit: a list of resources and localized lessons and activities that any teacher could use to supplement the current curriculum. Another opportunity is to interview and collect diverse stories connected to restrictive covenants for the project website.

We’d love to get more student interns from the San Rafael, Shoreline and Novato school districts! Let us know and we’ll do our best to support you.

The Marin County Suicide Prevention Collaborative’s Men and Boys’ Action Team is working to redefine strength. Together, we can inspire new thinking and action around mental wellbeing for men and boys who often find it difficult to seek help. Join this team to help plan a May Mental Health month event featuring Drew Robinson, a former Giants player who survived a suicide attempt and now is an advocate for mental health. Team involved in event planning and outreach. Date is May 9. Let us know and we’ll do our best to support you.

The aim of this intern team is to reduce the number of overdoses in Marin County through NARCAN® distribution and trainings, educate the community of Marin by conducting outreach at tabling events, provide resources to the community to prevent Fentanyl and opioid overdoses, and to gain skills in training and leadership. Let us know and we’ll do our best to support you.

What else would you like to create? What else would be of interest to you and your peers? How do we bring young people across the county together to promote community and wellness?

Please contact Nancy at nancy.vernon@bluepathhealth.com to learn more.