Our Focus Areas
Innovative programs promoting well-being, resilience, and positive growth
Our Focus Areas
Mental Health/Suicide Prevention
Mental health challenges affect many—especially youth. We lead regional suicide prevention efforts in schools, providing peer mentoring, skill-building, and resources for students and school staff.
Our prevention work focuses on raising awareness, building community knowledge and skills, and supporting effective, culturally relevant programs that promote a healthy and thriving environment.
Together for Youth uses the strategic prevention framework to reduce community and gun violence in Chelan and Douglas Counties through local engagement, planning, goal setting, and evaluation.
Together for Youth focuses on prevention because we believe that stopping a problem before it starts is the most effective and healthy approach.
Drug misuse, mental health issues, and violence come with serious individual and community health problems. Prevention addresses the root causes behind these issues, protects our families and young people, and stops addiction before it starts.
Within our focus areas, we focus on substance misuse/abuse, suicide, and violence using the SAMSHA Prevention Framework. The strategies we employ are:
Information dissemination
Provides awareness and knowledge of the nature and extent of drug misuse and its effects.
Alternatives
Provides activities that don’t include drugs, including alcohol and tobacco, in hopes that participants will have their needs met without resorting to drugs.
Community-Based Process
Enhances the ability of the community to provide prevention and treatment services.
Environmental
Establishes or changes community standards, codes, and attitudes to influence the misuse of drugs in a community.
Education
Communicates to improve the life and social skills of participants. This is different from information dissemination because the teacher and participants interact with each other.
Problem Identification and Referral
Identifies people who have initiated drug misuse to assess if their behavior can be changed through education. As a prevention activity, this does not refer people to treatment but provides intervention before treatment is needed.
Together! For Youth focuses on peer-led suicide prevention, equipping parents with effective strategies, and educating youth on the risks of substance use. We also promote and foster social-emotional learning, and strengthen family relationships. Through these efforts, the organization empowers the community to create a safer, healthier, and more supportive environment for future generations.
