THE LAST WORD

Making a lasting impact

If you speak to any of my friends or family, they’ll be happy to tell you that my life is typically surrounded by weird circumstances, whether you’d call it luck or just bizarre coincidence: Being in a Japanese variety show, winning a trip to run the New York Marathon even though my lowest grade was in gym, or running into a person wearing a Marshall University shirt while in Germany. Not all of my situations have been great (or even good), and several are the result of my own (less than stellar) decisions.

When I consider those tough times though, I know that they played as much of a part as the good (and weird) circumstances of my life. More than that, however, is the support system that helped me become more resilient in the difficult times, for celebrating with me in the good times, or laughing with (or at) me during the weird times.

I feel that the Tri-State is on the same trajectory; in the positive, negative and bizarre. We often focus on the negative as opposed to those things we should celebrate: Close-knit communities and kinship, natural beauty and greater rejuvenation of our area. One of the key places we can see this positive change is through our young people.

I work at a local nonprofit called Impact Prevention, where our mission is to help prevent substance misuse and to promote mental wellness. While we do our best to support the community at-large, our population of focus is youth. It’s remarkable to see the things they’re doing to make positive changes in our area. They’re out there doing the footwork on creating that support system the community needs through social connectedness campaigns, events such as a recent suicide prevention walk and mentorship for younger kids to keep the momentum going.

So where does that leave the rest of us? Let’s do our best to support these young people so that they can continue to work together with us to provide the community with some much-needed resiliency. And let’s keep in mind to always roll with the good, bad and sometimes really strange punches.

For more information on how you can support our young people, or for information about our agency, please visit ImpactPrevention.org or Facebook.com/ImpactPrevention.

Meagan Joseph is the program manager for Impact Prevention, which is committed to providing evidence-based prevention strategies for youth.

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Contact maclean.james@irontontribune.com to get involved.

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