Youth feelings of isolation and poor mental health outcomes, enhanced by the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighted the need for safe and open community conversations on adolescent mental health in Idaho — leading to the creation of Communities for Youth (C4Y) in 2022. Getting back to her K-12 roots, Smith and her team set out to build a stronger understanding of the individual needs of Idaho’s school communities. “Schools are this beautiful institution that our society came together to create to help support families and communities to raise our young people,” Smith said in the episode. In this episode, Smith dives into what has made C4Y and her own research so compelling: using an upstream prevention approach in tackling youth mental health challenges. Learn more about Communities for Youth and ways get involved.