Hey there folks! Elizabeth here! 

September is designated as Suicide Prevention Month, emphasizing the crucial need for awareness and highlighting ways to support those who are struggling. While this month brings heightened awareness, it’s essential to remember to care for ourselves and those around us throughout the entire year. Below is a prevention guide that serves as an excellent resource.

2024-Pennsylvania-Suicide-Prevention-Guide.pdf: Published in September 2024 in honor of Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, this guide gives an overview of suicide prevention in Pennsylvania and includes resources on how to advocate for suicide prevention in our communities.

Hi everyone, Elizabeth here!

Just a reminder of our Thrive for Hope Drop-in which occurs every Thursday at 4:00pm EST. 

What is Thrive for Hope? 

Thrive for Hope is a weekly drop-in which focuses on overall wellness and allows attendees to set goals and share goal progress, as well as discuss topics chosen by attendees. 

Are there clinical professionals at Thrive for Hope?

Thrive for Hope is peer run and is not facilitated by clinical professionals. 

What does "peer run" mean?

Peer run means that it is facilitated by fellow peers who are in recovery from mental health or substance use disorders.  

How can I get involved? 

For more information or to join a session click Here.

Hey everyone, Elizabeth here! 

We are looking forward to our next wellness day, which will take place on July 11th. This years wellness days are focusing on the 8 dimensions of wellness. There will be worry stone or stained glass paintings depending on your preference. 

The first dimension is Intellectual where you will fill out a mad lib with the appropriate type of word. You will receive 1 credit for completion 

 

The second is physical, where you will get up and start moving by completing the tasks in the physical dimension which will award 1 credit upon completion  

 

Social is our third dimension- connect with people you don't know- get a name and a fun fact about them. You can get credits for up to 5 new friends, with each connection being 2 credits. 

 

Existential is our fourth dimension. At the existential dimension you will either record a video or write your answer to the following question "What does wellness mean to you?" this will be 1 credit upon completion.

Our 5th dimension is emotional- you will focus on yourself for a minute. Complete a short journal entry answering the following question: "What is one healthy activity you can do to work through anger, anxiety or sadness" at the completion of this dimension you will be awarded 1 credit 

 

Career is our 6th dimension. For this you will go around to our vendors and fill out a vendor passport by visiting all tables. You will receive 1 credit for completion 

 

Our 7th dimension is financial- for this dimension you will purchase your paints, rock/stained glass, paint brush, and cup of water. 

 

Lastly, Environmental where you will sit down and paint the rock or stained glass with the materials you purchased from filling out the rest of the passport. 

 

We will also be playing games , some of which will hold prizes for the winner, and doing a raffle at the end. Lunch will be served and drinks and chips are available all day. 

 

We can't wait to see you there! 

 

Hey gang! Zo here :)

WOW, is it just me, or did last month FLY by?! I can't believe we're already almost a quarter of the way through the year!

Let's see, what have we been up to recently at YMPA? Just last week, we attended a Youth Mental Health Summit at Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit, where we met lots of great folks and shared information about our Sources of Strength (SOS) program with students and faculty. SOS is spreading FAST across the state; we have 6 schools officially signed on for the training, with more soon to be confirmed! We're feeling excited and proud that this program is taking off and bringing messages of Hope, Help, and Strength to students all over PA.

This week, we hosted an Easter egg hunt at our office in Harrisburg for some fun team/family bonding time. Turns out, our staff can get pretty competitive when there's candy on the line!

Otherwise, we've mostly been busy bees preparing for the upcoming summer. We're ramping up for Wellness Days (registration is now open!) and planning for our Build Your Best School Year summer camp in July. Be sure to follow along on our social media and stay tuned for all our updates about YMPA summer fun coming to your area!

And of course, I can't forget to share that our Advisory Council continues to be AWESOME and is already providing us with some amazing, insightful feedback about how to take Youth MOVE PA to the next level. Next step is to elect two of our Council members to serve on the Board of Directors at our parent organization, PMHCA!

That's all I got for you this week. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend everyone!

 - Zo

Hey-hey guys, gals and non-binary pals! Chris here, bringing you an update in this, the falsest of Springs! (seriously, I'm floating between two entirely different wardrobes over here. MAKE UP YOUR MIND, Weather-Chan!)

You know, we work pretty hard around here. There's a lot going on in the Commonwealth and we at Youth MOVE PA want to do our best to make an impact and ensure young people have a voice! But sometimes, just sometimes, we like to recharge with some fun and games…which is exactly what we did this week! Here are some shots of our staff playing as hard as we work:

Little did they know how competitive this game of Mario Kart was about to become!

Despite making my teeth chatter, simulated rollercoasters are still pretty fun!

No outing is complete without a group photo!

Nothing says wellness like some fun with good peeps, am I right? Now we're all back at our respective homes spread out across the state, we're feeling more ready than ever for the season ahead. Perfect timing too because next week, we'll be heading out to Lewisburg for a Youth Mental Health Summit! The summit is hosted by the Project Aware Student Interns at the Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit (CSIU). If you're going to be there, be sure to look out for us as we'll be sharing our resources there for the entire event!

As we move into spring, I encourage you all to take advantage of the sunlight! Winter can be a tough time for our mental health, and with the change in season can come a change in mindset. Be kind to yourselves. Be kind to each other. Until next time, keep your heads up, and your hearts strong!

Happy Friday everyone!! Zo here wishing you a happy first day of March! 

How was everyone's Leap Day? Ours was a lot of fun here at YMPA. We finished up the last day of our Peer Generation Youth Empowerment training in Beaver County with the Copeland Center, which was awesome! We truly love doing this training and introducing young people to the foundations of peer support and resiliency. Plus, we all got some delicious treats from Oram's Donuts, so who can complain?

 

In other news, we held the first ever meeting of our brand new YMPA Advisory Council last week! This group of passionate youth and young adults will help advise YMPA and shape the mission and vision of our organization. We had a fun first meeting of ice breakers and getting to know more about Youth MOVE PA and what we're all about.

That's all from me for now! Thanks for reading, and have a beautiful rest of your day :-)

- Zo

Hey there Youth MOVErs! Chris here, and I'm pretty pumped about what's been happening this week.

On Tuesday we supported the PEAL Center in hosting a virtual Youth Mental Health / Disability panel where three young people spoke to a large group of professionals and youth about their lived experience with mental health and disabilities. We got to learn straight from youth how they were impacted by stigma, what the overlap of mental health and disability felt like, and how they practice self-care and support.

Stephanie, Christian, and Andre (seen in the photo) all did AMAZING jobs and really spoke from the heart in a way that I think really resonated with everyone there. My heart was so full from listening to them! Ahhh I'm getting teary just thinking about it…We're so proud of you all!

In other Youth MOVE PA news, we've just hired our latest Sources of Strength Trainer, Julia Serao! She's bright and fun and is already making a wonderful addition to our staff, who are delivering this incredible program to schools across the state. Check out her full bio on our Contact Us page to learn more.

 Alright, that's all from me this week. You all stay warm out there and don't forget to be kind to your minds and look out for each other. Keep your heads up and your hearts strong!

- Chris

Hey Youth MOVErs! Zo here!

YMPA has had a busy start to the new year! Last week, we headed to Beaver County to attend their Youth Ambassador Program event. We had a great time meeting an impressive group of high schoolers who are doing awesome work to promote mental health in their communities.

Also, we got to meet some sweet therapy dogs :)

We've also been busy with our get-to-know-you interviews for the applicants to our brand-new Advisory Council. It's been a real treat getting to meet so many of you! We're hoping to make our final decisions soon and have our first Council meeting by the end of February. We can't wait to get started with this first step toward making YMPA a more youth-led, youth-driven organization.

I also can't WAIT for an exciting project we're launching soon - our new Discord server!! If you don't know what a Discord server is, it's basically like a big group chat where people with a shared interest can gather together online. Chris, our Youth Coordinator, has been hard at work building the server to be a place where young people in Pennsylvania who are passionate about mental health can come and connect with one another and find resources. The server will be invite-only for Youth MOVE PA members and will be moderated by our staff for safety.

Well, that's pretty much it for now! I'm feeling grateful to be a part of this awesome team and I'm excited for what we'll accomplish in the coming year.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a great rest of your day!

- Zo

Hello Youth Movers! Chris here. We just had our quarterly membership and allies meeting this week, and I thought I'd share a bit of what we talked about and what we're up to. We're developing new programs, existing ones that continue to MOVE across the state, and are increasing our advocacy efforts. Let's dive in!

YMPA is about to conduct interviews for members of our soon-to-be-formed Youth Advisory Council! This council would be a group of young people ages 16-29, and two junior members as young as 14, who would guide Youth MOVE PA's activities using their experience, values, and expertise to ensure that we are operating in a way that is true to today's youth values. That's right, Movers, that means YOU can help us take the next step to becoming truly youth-driven and make an impact on the issues that YOU care about! 

We've been hard at work in the Transition Age Youth and Young Adult (TAYYA) Subcommittee of our state's Mental Health Planning Council (MHPC) as well. YMPA has supported the development of an Advocacy 101 workshop that will be going for a test-drive soon. So if you've ever wanted to learn how to become an advocate, let us know and we'll tell you how to you can check it out!

We've got a whole bunch of upcoming trainings for FREE from now through May, such as our youth-friendly Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and more! Check out the Training and Education tab on our website for more info.

Finally, our school-based programming is continuing to crush it out there! Sources of Strength, our newest program, has been offered in 3 schools now and continues to gain traction. Our partnership with The Copeland Center's youth-focused "Doors to Wellbeing" program continues going strong as we bring their Peer Generation: Youth Empowerment (PGYE) curriculum to more students! PGYE is about to train the 3rd cohort of Pennsylvanian students next month in Beaver County, with many more to follow!

Phew, you made it! It's been an exciting time over here for sure, and even with all this snow and cold weather, YMPA continues to keep the fire burning! If you want to get involved or have any questions, shoot us an email at ympa@youthmovepa.org.

That's all for now. I hope you're all staying warm out there. Remember to be kind to your minds and motivate others using your voices of experience. See you in the next one!  

Join the meeting on October 17th at 4pm here: 

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82958662228