7th annual Schuylkill youth summit to be held April 11

The Schuylkill County Commissioners will convene the seventh annual Schuylkill County Youth Summit on April 11 at Penn State Schuylkill.

Every year, the summit continues to develop its basic mission to engage, equip and support our youth for the future.

The summit will gather youth from all county high schools to engage them in making the county a better place for them to live, work, play and raise their families.

This year’s summit will wrap up work on the opioid epidemic in Schuylkill County and introduce “Positive Schuylkill.”

Students live every day with the results of the drug epidemic in their communities. They are working on prevention strategies this year in three areas: drug take back days, school programs and social media.

The youth ambassadors have been meeting every month with government officials, school advocates, prevention specialists, and others to understand the scope of the problem in the county.

They have chosen several approaches that they will share with the gathering.

The projects include supporting the county Drug Take Back day, creating a Youth Summit website, and developing peer-to-peer education.

Students will also transition focus for upcoming year and will be introduced to community members and businesses in panel discussions to gather ideas and support future projects around Positive Schuylkill: Live, Work and Play.

The project’s goal will be for students to highlight the county’s assets that encourage live, work and play in Schuylkill County.

The youth summit continues to be supported by community leaders who serve as an advisory group.

If anyone is interested in knowing more about the summit they can contact Mandy Fitzpatrick at 570-622-6097.