Resources and readiness

RATHDRUM — For parent Wendy Heintz and her son, Samuel Houston, a sophomore at Mountain View Alternative High School, Thursday’s resource fair was a welcome source of information.

“This is awesome. This is stuff that all the kids should have access to and knowledge of,” Heintz said. “I 100% believe that.”

Heintz guided her son and fellow student Noah Fagan to converse with Erik Anderson from the North Idaho College Dual Credit program.

Coinciding with parent teacher conferences, school counselor Kelli Aiken was the driving force behind the event, said principal Paul Uzzi. Hopefully this will be the first of an ongoing community collaboration event, he said.

With conferences scheduled throughout the day, numerous educational, health and wellness resource providers set up booths. Parents and students were free to peruse them, before or after their conference time.

Mountain View serves the most at-risk students in the Lakeland Joint School District. Many of Mountain View's students come from generational poverty, unstable housing and have experienced trauma or adverse childhood experiences.

Frequently as a result, many students suffer from undiagnosed and untreated anxiety, depression or PTSD. To assist students in overcoming difficulties and having success, support services are vital.

“I think kids need to have those wraparound services. So from the day I started, I started trying to build these relationships, connections and partnerships,” Aiken said. “Then it started growing from there.”

Paul White, the children’s and youth family director at Real Life Ministries invited students to join “life groups.” Getting students invested in a peer group to support them is vital, he said.

“They don’t feel that they have anybody surrounding them, but we can help point out who it is in their life,” White said. “They’re going to have us around to value them and reach out to them. One-on-one, face-to-face type stuff, versus social media.”

Kate Capone, with Safe Passage said about 70% of the “younger generation” isn’t aware of the services they provide. Providing help in domestic violence and sexual assault situations, children's and court advocacy and emergency safe shelter, young people need to know these resources are available, Capone said.

“Going around to the schools really helps the younger generation,” Capone said.

Safe Passage is preparing to launch a program called “Safer Bars,” said Capone, whose family owns Capone’s Restaurants. Partnering with hospitality businesses, the program will provide three-day trainings on “how to intervene” when witnessing an assault or how to protect oneself in that situation. Any hospitality business seeking staff training is welcome.

The ICARE program supports parents throughout their parenting journey, said representative Katie Simmons.

“Parenting is a very difficult lifelong job. And there's so many different stages. They’re little and you think it’s tough then, and then they become 15, and it just gets even tougher,” Simmons said. “If you don’t have those skills to begin with, how to communicate with your kids, how to recognize their feelings, how to be positive with them and how to play, it just becomes more difficult as they age.”

When there is a “problem child,” it’s often difficult for parents to look at themselves and address the root causes of the situation, Simmons said.

“We need to look back at ourselves as parents to see what we can do to change our parenting,” Simmons said.

Nancy Schmidt, regional coordinator for the Idaho Lives Project brought suicide prevention resources. Their Sources of Strength wellness program is used in about 140 schools statewide, Schmidt said.

Five in 10 high school students have thought about suicide, six in 10 say they have had a plan and one in 10 will make an attempt, Schmidt said.

Teaching students to connect with trusted adults and supportive peers before facing a crisis helps prevent suicidal behavior, Schmidt said.

“We’re normalizing help-seeking behavior,” Schmidt said. “If you know you have somebody you can talk to in your school, a teacher who’s committed to being a trusted adult for you, then you know that’s somebody you can trust to keep the confidence.”

Sources of Strength has been beneficial for middle and high school students, and they are launching a program for elementary students as well.

Other organizations represented were: North Idaho Job Corps, Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, Idaho Youth Challenge, St. Vincent de Paul, Panhandle Health District, North Idaho College collision repair technical program, Head Start and Job Corps.