The Youth Initiatives committee is composed of ERYC board members, individuals from ERYC member organizations, and community members. The committee develops and implements strategic plans around the priority issues facing youth: alcohol and substance abuse and depression/suicide.

The 2010 plan is being implemented. If you want to get involved in making change happen in your community, please call 949-9250 to find out how you can volunteer. The group is working on a resource list, building awareness and leadership, and finally looking toward a single point of entry system for intervention.

Gap Analysis

The committee conducted a gap analysis of youth providers in prevention and intervention offered around alcohol abuse and depression/suicide. The first and most noticeable gap is in the area of intervention, where only a third of those responding to the provider survey had programs targeting intervention. If we infer from survey data that 42 percent of the youth already drink alcohol underage, and half of them binge drink or drink heavily, Eagle County currently has a strong need for alcohol intervention programs for youth.

In the area of depression and suicide, 40 percent of the surveyed youth suffer from strong and extreme signs of depression and 10 percent report being suicidal. If this is an indication of how the population of youth is suffering, then in the area of depression/suicide intervention the number of providers is tragically low.

The second gap is in the missing potential of prevention programs. The number of prevention providers who reported actively targeting underage drinking is eight. The number of prevention organizations that responded that they actively target depression and suicide is four. The number of prevention providers who responded they discuss or approach underage drinking is 12, and for depression, 14. There were only eight organizations that held regular training in the area of suicide and nine in the area of underage drinking.

The third gap is in the area of students and their relationship with their parents and family. There is a great need to examine parent and family impacts, and to look for a way to offer parents help and connect them to the community system when they have a youth engaged in risky behaviors

The fourth obvious gap has to do with the increasing number of Latinos/Latinas moving into the area. According to data from the CARES survey a greater percent of Latino/Latina students suffered from extreme depression and suicide then Caucasians.

To find out more about what young people are doing and feeling in the Vail Valley, please read these surveys, which are featured below.

• 2005 Eagle County CARES Survey
• Health Kids Colorado Survey, 2007-2008 Results, Eagle County RE-50 School District
• ERYC Gap Analysis 2006-2007
• Colorado Healthy Kids Survey