Marin Youth Intern Projects 2024/2025

A team of Marin County high school students developed a countywide wellness campaign that  addresses concerns deeply impacting you, your classmates, your friends... including overall mental health and wellness, drug misuse and overdose, sexual health and safety, gender identity, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts. This campaign is now a program called Find Your Way, and aims to connect young people to accessible resources and drive wellness initiatives made for youth by youth.

The Find Your Way Youth Visioning team meets twice a month in person (Mondays at 5:30pm in Larkspur) to plan quarterly collaborative meetings, develop social media, plan youth  gatherings, work on projects, develop/implement a scholarship program and more. Come join us!

The Find Your Way Scholarship Program is made up of youth in Marin County (like yourself) that are engaged in a community initiative or interested in participating in a community initiative.  You also welcome the opportunity to meet other young people to talk about what you’re doing and learn about what they’re doing. 

As a scholarship recipient, you will continue to do the good work that you’re doing with one of our partner organizations (or we’ll work with you to find a project you’re excited about), while also attending Find Your Way gatherings, training and connecting with other youth in Marin. The criteria is designed to be flexible recognizing that you have a lot going on during the school year.

Scholarship recipients will receive up to $500 for their work running from October 2024 to July 2025, depending on how many criteria you are able to meet. We value your work and you deserve to be compensated. 

Learn more here and apply by October 7th!

In honor of May Mental Health Month, the Suicide Prevention Collaborative Youth Action Team hosts an art and film showcase  surrounding mental health and suicide prevention. The event, now in its fourth year,  is part of the larger Wellness Festival hosted by partner Marin County Youth commission. The goal of this event (held the last two years at Terra Linda High School) is to increase awareness and conversations around mental health and well-being within Marin through sharing youth art and perspective. 

The showcase features poems, drawing, films, music, photography, storytelling and more. We are looking for team members that would like to plan, promote, line up live performances, and lead the showcase in collaboration with partners. The team also holds art workshops at schools and youth-serving organizations leading up to the showcase for those youth that otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to participate. 

The team will meet biweekly - a mix of in-person and virtual meetings starting in November 2024. 

Come join the team and help us make this event bigger and better than ever before! 

Caring Cards is an initiative that sends heartfelt messages of hope, recovery, and support to those who have been struggling with mental health, suicidality, and/or substance use issues. Words of hope and encouragement sent in a card can be a reminder that they are not alone, and recovery is possible. We were recognized with the state-wide Striving for Zero (suicides) Excellence Award for our program, which has been shown to be an effective intervention technique.

Join the Caring Cards team to support those in recovery from mental health and substance use, as well as those transitioning from incarceration. Last year, students from across Marin wrote over 3,000 cards (about 12 local schools  participated) and we plan to do the same if not more this year. These cards are then distributed to service providers in our community to hand out to those in transition that need extra support.  The team oversees, plans and executes this project throughout the year. 

The cover of the 2024-25 cards features new artwork created by students for the May Mental Health Art and Film Showcase and supportive phrases selected by the Suicide Prevention  Youth Action Team. The back of the cards has updated resources on the back, including 988.  The team has developed online sensitivity training videos in both English and Spanish for card writers and an online survey to get feedback from writers. 

The Caring Cards team will hold bi-weekly workshops starting in October… join us!

This fall, Find Your Way will be launching our resource guide training and toolkit (made by youth and for youth) to youth-serving organizations and schools, working in partnership with Marin County Office of Education’s SWAP. The resource guide is a hub of information on support services, hotlines, and community resources available to youth in Marin. We will be creating a toolkit that contains everything needed to promote and train others on our resource guide -  communication blurbs, social media posts and captions, videos, and more all available in both English and Spanish. Our goal is to train all youth in Marin on how to access the resource guide so young people can easily access the help they need. Check out the printed resource guide in English and Spanish and digital resource guide here. We will also be building awareness for the 988 suicide and crisis hotline number among all students through handing our 988 Bag Tags. Starting in October, this team will meet bi-weekly, a mix of virtual and in-person.  Join us!

In partnership with Multicultural Center of Marin, this team will be working on developing a culturally relevant resource guide for Spanish speaking youth. We are planning a series of focus groups with monolingual and bilingual youth to identify how they receive information, what type of resources are needed, and how to best address cultural stigmas associated with asking for help. Newcomer youth will be involved throughout the process, providing input and guidance, and we will work with the Marin County Newcomer Resource Coalition to provide appropriate resources for inclusion.Once developed, youth and community partners will receive training on the use of the guide and also be equipped with marketing and outreach tools to engage their peers.

If you’re monolingual or bilingual, please join us for this impactful project!  

Passionate about running, ​mental health, substance use recovery and overdose prevention? Join the OD Free Marin and Suicide Prevention Youth Action Teams in hosting our second annual One Stride at a Time 5k for Hope, Help, and Recovery in May 2025. Featuring our very own mascot, Bart the Heart ❤️! This planning team will be working on location (previously held at McInnis Park), volunteers, slogan/logo design, tabling sign ups, partner planning, and organizing the shoe drive. We collect shoes for those in need and had over 50 shoes donated last year. This is a great opportunity for organizations to table and bring their own running/walking team! Our goal is to have 150+ folks of all ages walking/running for wellness. Meeting times will be confirmed once the team is assembled in November 2024. We hope you will join us!

Join the Homework Helpers Team, a program created and run by high school interns and the  Marin County Free library. The program offers a free “homework help” program for English  learners and underserved students at four Marin libraries: Corte Madera, Fairfax, Civic Center, and Novato.  

Our Homework Helpers strongly believe that all kids should have equitable access to homework  help. The program began in Corte Madera in February of 2022, expanded to Fairfax and Civic Center during the 2022-23 school year, and now has launched in Novato.

Homework Helpers not only offer homework help, but also create a welcoming safe space for any student who would like to attend. Whether it is a one time visit to help prepare for a test or weekly visits, they welcome your participation. 

We’re looking for Homework Helpers at the Civic Center, Novato, Corte Madera and Fairfax! HH times are as follows: Saturdays from 10am to noon at Corte Madera library, Monday, 4-5pm  at Fairfax library, Wednesday, 4-5:30pm at the Civic Center library and Wednesday, 3:30-5:00pm in  Novato. Join us! 

Join this dynamic group of youth planning two major events in partnership with Marin County Youth Commission - Queer Homecoming (November) and Queer Prom (May/June) plus a monthly craft night during the winter months. This team aims to create a safe space for queer youth to express themselves and take part in quintessential teenage experiences that have so often been off limits. Currently, planning is in place for Homecoming - including location, theme, food, activities and more.

The team meets virtually on Monday evenings. We welcome your ideas and creativity!

Join the Restrictive Covenant project to educate fellow students and community on the effects  of redlining in Marin. We are undertaking this project to address the enduring impacts of historical government policies of redlining and racially restrictive covenants, which have had significant and lasting effects on society. These policies, although implemented in the past, continue to shape present-day social and economic conditions. Understanding these impacts is crucial for developing strategies to remedy the harms they have caused.

Our goal is to educate students about these historical policies and their current effects, providing them with the knowledge needed to recognize and address these issues. By integrating this education into US History, Ethnic Studies, and African American Studies classes, we aim to fill a gap in traditional curricula, where these topics are often overlooked.

Through this project, we are creating a comprehensive curriculum that educators can use in full or in parts, allowing flexibility in how the material is presented. The curriculum will cover the history and consequences of redlining and restrictive covenants, helping students understand how past decisions continue to influence the present and what steps can be taken to remedy past injustices.

This project will begin in late September. If interested in joining please contact Crystal Martinez at Crystal.Martinez@marincounty.gov.

The Marin County Suicide Prevention Collaborative’s Men and Boys’ Action Team is working to redefine strength. Together, we can inspire new thinking and action around mental wellbeing for men and boys who often find it difficult to seek help. Join this team to help spread the word of the redefining strength campaign, connect with men and boys of all ages, plan activities (e.g. hikes) and a large event for May Mental Health Month. This group meets monthly on zoom at 4pm, based on when members can attend. 

Join the ODFM Youth Action Team to reduce drug overdose through overdose prevention, harm reduction strategies, and treatment referrals. They work towards reducing stigma, increasing access to naloxone, and providing educational training and messaging geared toward the youth audience.

The team is led by youth ages 11 to 25 and includes middle and high school students, college students, and Transitional Age Youth from all areas of Marin County. They work with local adult allies who are professionals in advocating for and serving youth. Team members also work alongside County communication specialists to develop youth content for the Where’s the Fentanyl campaign.  

This team meets in person twice a month at the Find Your Way meetings on Mondays at the Larkspur office and once a month virtually on Zoom every 1st Thursday of the month from 4-5pm. 

OD Free Marin and Find Your Way are partnering to develop a Care Package program for those young people graduating from high school and moving away from home (TAY/transitional age youth) whether that be for a job or college or just moving out. It's a transitional period of more responsibility that comes with a new freedom of choice. It can be a time for experimentation and risk-taking, as well as a sense of disconnection.Our goal is to support these young people during this transition by offering a touch of home, including a supportive message, information on overdose prevention/substance use, Naloxone, mental health/wellness, resources, a snack or two and more. 

This team will help plan and coordinate care packages, conduct outreach and surveys, and seek partnerships with organizations that work with TAY. Meeting times will be confirmed once the team is assembled. We hope to get started in late October/November.  If you are interested please reach out!

What else would you like to create? What else would be of interest to you and your peers?  How do we bring young people across the county together to promote community, connection and wellness? We welcome everyone and love new ideas!

Please contact Nancy at nancy.vernon@bluepathhealth.com to learn more.