Teen Volunteers Organized A Youth Summit For 750 Dearborn County Students

The Dearborn County CASA Youth Ambassadors hope their big event helps other area kids make the right decisions.

Lawrenceburg Community Schools director of Student Services Andrea Spaeth leads an "escape room" challenge with students at the Dearborn County CASA Youth Ambassadors Youth Summit at the Lawrenceburg Event Center on Wednesday, April 3. Photo by Mike Perleberg, Eagle Country 99.3.

(Lawrenceburg, Ind.) - Almost every 8th grade student in Dearborn County descended upon the Lawrenceburg Event Center on Wednesday to learn about making positive life choices.

The Dearborn County CASA Youth Ambassadors’ 14th annual Youth Summit brought local leaders and organizations together with kids to talk about the dangers of drugs, alcohol, and smoking and vaping. Responsible use of social media, mental health, dating violence, and other topics young people have to navigate were also part of the programming.

“I’ve learned that you are four times more likely to start smoking when you start Juul’ing. Many kids have started bringing drugs into school and they’ve gone to juvey for it. That’s not a good thing,” said Ella Shelton, a Greendale Middle School student.

Shelton was sitting at a table with other students participating in an “escape room” game, answering questions and solving problems in order to open a locked box. Aiding them were Greendale Mayor Alan Weiss and Lawrenceburg Community Schools director of Student Services Andrea Spaeth.

The Youth Summit was almost entirely organized by the CASA Youth Ambassadors, which is a group of approximately 35 local high school students.

743 student attendees!!!!
16 Community partner booths!
21 adult volunteers
=
1 successful event#idareyou #Youthsummit #dearborncounty #teenleaders #indiana #prevention #drugfree pic.twitter.com/q1MQXgZm2s

— CASA DCYA (@DCYAinfo) April 3, 2019

Thirteen previous Youth Summits had been held at Ivy Tech Community College in Lawrenceburg, but limited space only allowed for about 100 students to attend. Moving the event across the street to the Lawrenceburg Event Center allowed about 750 public school, private school and homeschooled students from the county to attend the valuable day-long program.

“This is the first time we’ve had it at the event center. Because of that, our activities have been a lot more hands on and interactive, which helps to relay our message of prevention a lot better than just Powerpoints,” said Madison Bennington, a CASA Youth Ambassador and Lawrenceburg High School senior.

Students took part in breakout sessions to hold peer-led discussions. They also had the opportunity to meander through the event center lobby while meeting with representatives of local organizations including the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Pregnancy Care Center, Highpoint Health, the Heal Don’t Hurt anti-bullying initiative started by a South Dearborn High School student, and local libraries and community centers.

Today roughly 600 eighth graders participated in the @DearbornCASA summit. This was a great learning experience for our students and even better opportunity for ALL Dearborn County students to collaborate! Special thank u to Amy Rose for her planning and leadership pic.twitter.com/IYsMJX1ud2

— Sunman-Dearborn MS (@SDMSTrojans) April 3, 2019

Dearborn County Circuit Court Judge James Humphrey was the opening program’s keynote speaker.

“It set up the day. It got everyone into the mindset of what was going to happen. He did that through telling stories,” said Youth Ambassador Ashley Terrill, also a Lawrenceburg student.

Greendale Middle School’s Lola Safaviyan hopes Humphrey’s address helped students realize that positive decision making is important.

“He doesn’t want anyone to be in a situation that he has to deal with in court,” she shared.

Learn more about the Dearborn County CASA Youth Ambassadors at www.dearborncountycasa.com.

Students speak with representatives of one of the community organizations at the Youth Summit. Photo by Mike Perleberg, Eagle Country 99.3.