Resilient Teens, the Augusta youth mental health initiative, held its second annual Teens Summit at the KROC Center, Saturday.
Sixth through 12th graders, along with their parents, were invited to participate in a day-long series of seminars, panels and activities to learn about healthy ways to deal with adversity.
Two slogans that were pervasive throughout the day were “Tomorrow wants you here” and “You are loved,” encouraging teens to remember their worth amid life’s challenges, a key theme for a day devoted to cultivating resiliency.
“We want to give them the tools in their toolbox to be able to navigate challenges in their life,” said Resilient Teens Director Rebecca Best, alluding to struggles faced by youth such as depression, stress about school, bullying and even suicidal ideation. “Because challenges are going to come up, and it can feel confusing and it can feel devastating and like it’s the end of the world, but it’s not.”
Learning consultant Crystal Gail Crawford, and author and developing coach JaShanna Graves were among the panelists at the summit. Angie Hart spoke on her experience with homelessness, Eric Hart on his struggles with substance abuse, and Crystal Farrow about how she was unable to walk after giving birth to her second child. The speakers all aimed to encourage and educate attendees, said Best, on how to make “good decisions, to keep yourself moving on a path and find your purpose and live in that purpose… that’s really what today is all about.”
Best estimates roughly 100 people registered to participate in the inaugural Resilient Teens Summit, a number which seems to have doubled this year, in part due to increased participation in the Resilient Teens program, which has cohorts throughout the year.
“It helped me cope with anxiety,” said Skyy Baker, a recent high school graduate from Warren County who has been in the Resilient Teens program since not long after its inception in 2020. Baker has gone on to be one of its trained facilitators, speaking to youth at events like Saturday’s, and was even presented with an award for her service during Saturday’s event.
Her mother, Chranda Baker, calls Resilient Teens a “life saver” proudly recalls how Skyy improved since starting with program.
“At the time of the pandemic, Skyy was dealing with anxiety, and counseling was going on, but counseling had stopped, so Teen Resilience stepped in. That was free mental health.” she said. “It has saved a lot of kids. It saved my daughter.”
Medical students from MCG also volunteer as facilitators in the program — some 250 since Resilient Teens was launched. Working with kids to help them develop coping strategies and work through their issues helps develop skills they will use as doctors.
“Learning how to talk someone through a lot of those struggles or mental challenges is just an important tool for anyone to have, let alone physicians,” said med student Shannon Foley. “A big part of patient care is also caring for their mental health.”
Madison Waters, another MCG student who facilitated at the summit, underscores the importance of understanding from experience how to use the coping strategies they seek to help children learn.
“We have to work through this stuff prior to getting in front of them and talking about it,” she said. “And even when we don’t know it, we’re like, ‘Listen, we’re fighting through it right now. Here’s how we’re dealing with it. Here’s our struggles. And I’m going to try to adapt this, and I’ll let you know how it goes and they get to see us work through it, or hear about us and how we work through stuff. And it helps them build like strength.”
Arthi Shankar, who is studying to be a pediatrician, feels that participating in the program is helping the future doctors learn to give a voice to children.
“We’re able to let them talk about whatever they need to talk about. I’ve learned so much from them about coping mechanisms and healthy habits,” she said. “And those things will carry over into your with your patients.”
Dr. April Hartman, a local pediatrician and among the medical professionals who developed the Resilient Teens program, recalls that her training 25 years ago was primarily in infectious diseases, whereas a major focus in pediatrics nowadays is development and behavior.
The program, she says, helps her spend more time with kids who screen positive for anxiety, depression or other mental health issues.
“We can talk about how to deal with some of those stresses and things like that. So it’s been really positive,” she said. “I also really like it for the medical students, because a lot of the medical students come from backgrounds not like the kids we serve, and so it really helps them to lead out in these small groups and hear how the kids talk, what their experience is. It helps make them more rounded and change their perspective so that they’re better doctors in the future.”
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
