Northwest Louisiana Teen Summit

Robert Lawrence and educator April Carberry are addressing the growing mental health needs in their community of Shreveport, Louisiana, while fostering their desire to engage young people civically. They identified there were not enough youth sharing their perspective and who had “a seat at the table” to act alongside adults to raise awareness on the importance of mental health and wellness. They worked with their school district and surveyed more than 5,000 high school students to learn more about their needs related to mental health and wellness. In partnership with Step Forward’s Teen Advisory Committee, the duo will use gathered data to bring small delegations of students and educators from various schools to the Northwest Louisiana Teen Summit to engage youth and community leaders. The summit will feature meaningful speakers and discussions on student mental health and policy change in today’s education system. There will also be opportunities for students and influential adults to breakout into small groups to share their unique ideas. The summit seeks to promote student-adult partnerships at various organizations in their region. 

Due to COVID-19, Robert and April had to cancel their in-person event and instead planned a virtual summit as well as shared data and learning from their district wide mental health survey to influence their district on how to better support student mental health moving forward.