Together for Youth outlines prevention programs and use of opioid-settlement funds

Pete Tagan, executive director of Together for Youth, described the organization's prevention-focused work serving local schools and coalitions, including the Wenatchee Alliance for Youth and Together for Waterville Youth. He summarized programs that target suicide prevention, mental-health promotion, substance and violence prevention, and social-emotional learning in schools. Tagan cited youth-led workshops (including a regional behavioral health leadership workshop that brought over 300 youth to the Convention Center) and school-based programs such as Second Step and evidence-based parenting curricula.

Tagan told council the organization uses the statewide Healthy Youth Survey to guide program choices and measure outcomes. He also said Together for Youth received $10,000 from the city's opioid-settlement funds last year to increase capacity for family and social-emotional learning programs and to train additional facilitators, enabling the organization to scale classes and workshops across local schools.

Councilmembers thanked Tagan for the work and noted interest in annual updates; one council member suggested Tagan return in roughly a year to provide progress updates.