Education and Prevention Staff provide the following types of educational programs, presentations, and specific training as part of our agency’s mission. All presentations are tailored to the type of audience we are presenting to taking into account size, age, content, and length of time allotted for the presentation. We are committed to educating our community about our organization and the issues we respond to.

Groups and programs

YAC: Youth Advisory Committee
The Youth Advisory Committee (YAC) is a passionate group of student leaders who serve as the official youth board for Family Support Services. Open to students in 8th–12th grade, YAC empowers young people to use their voices to create real change through activism, outreach, and service learning.

Sounds Of Success

This hands-on program uses music based activities to empower students to develop essential life skills. Students will explore key qualities like critical thinking, self-worth, leadership, emotional expressions, and healthy decision-making. Activities such as songwriting, instrument playing, and music production links music and personal development. Students will walk away from this program with a basic understanding of music and a deeper understanding of who they are. 

Social Advocacy
All too often, society stigmatizes the issues of mental health and suicide. We hoped to encourage teens to “re-think” the issues and get to a point where they felt safe and comfortable talking about them at a monthly support group designed and organized to meet their needs!

Education:
Educating young people about mental health was crucial. As students, we’re taught everything from calculus to physics to English. But we’re rarely taught about mental health. We wanted to change that. Now, we present a variety of topics from suicide prevention to coping with anxiety and depression all over our community in a school-based, community or church setting.