The Youth Commission took time during Tuesday night’s meeting to introduce themselves to Superintendent Bonny Gifford as well as take steps toward redefining their mission statement. The goal was to create a greater awareness of the what the Youth Commission can do to better serve the students of the district.

This is a transitional point in the Youth Commission with a new youth advocate as well as a new superintendent.

“Onward to a good partnership,” Gifford cheered.

Gifford was invited by Youth Advocate Jennifer Cabral to “see the kind of work we do,” Cabral said. They discussed a variety of topics, primarily on internal issues that have held the group back from better publicizing their services and resources to Dartmouth.

The commission has not been able to be vocal about their resources, particularly regarding their counseling and suicide prevention services. Because only students in dire need of youth advocate services are receiving them, there isn’t enough dialogue throughout the district and within families about what the commission can do to help students should they need it.

“Unless you have a child in counseling… the other students don’t know about the commission,” said commission member Renee Leite.

Cabral was concerned that students and parents view certain behaviors as criteria that must be met.

“The way [the mission] looks is ‘abuse or neglect, harms himself or others.’ It looks kind of like a criteria so when they come to our door, a lot of families or community members look at that and think ‘that doesn’t really fit,” Cabral said.

The lack of a clear mission statement has made it difficult to show how valuable the commission is to the community, she said.

Commission member Jamie Jacquart said a redefined, consolidated mission statement would help students and families.

The Riverside Trauma Center provided Cabral with a suicide prevention kit containing screening tools, a DVD and various educational material. She added changes to the presentation so that it can be shown to students.

Students will be able to assess their emotional state after watching the presentation and then will be given a yes or no option to start seeing a counselor. These materials will first be screened in the high school health classes during the social/emotional portion of the course.

In order to garner attention from parents, the commission plans to hold a parent series to discuss topics like student anxiety management as well as a screening of the film, “Race to Nowhere,” which focuses on the detrimental side of American’s achievement culture.

The commission anticipates that parent-geared events will draw more attention to the services they offer.

The Youth Commission’s Facebook page and online presence has been largely absent. The commission discussed how best to begin utilizing the page, particularly to share their mission and services, events and goings-on, as well as share photos and event cancellations for public events and youth group meetings. In addition, they briefly discussed other advantageous social media sites to spread their message.

In her Advocate's report, Cabral shared that the middle school's Girl Power group has taken off. With 12 girls signed up and participating, Cabral has been teaching them about self-esteem, body image, health, drugs and alcohol, bullying, and a plethora of other topics. They also have a few field trips planned out.

"They are fantastic," Cabral said.

The next Youth Commission meeting will be on Dec. 15. They will be discussing the mission and statement of purpose.