Residents of Wasatch County are invited to an event Wednesday evening to discuss a variety of issues including teenage suicide, bullying prevention, and civility in communication.
The 30th annual Issues Community Conference takes place this Wednesday at Wasatch High School from 6:00 to 8:30 pm.
Amaria Scovil director of the Burns Recreation Center explains the purpose of the conference is to address issues within the community.
“We do tend to address issues that the high school and the middle school have concerns about.” Scovil explained. “We’ll address suicide prevention and bullying those are two big ones recently that in the past few years we’ve tried to focus on. We also do positive mindfulness and happiness so that we’re not just focusing on negative issues.”
The event begins at 6:00 with a keynote address from Olympic silver medalist in the skeleton Noelle Pikus Pace followed by breakout sessions.
Wasatch High School students can receive three hours of attendance credit if they attend plus an additional three hours if they bring a parent with them. Scovil says that everyone in the community is invited ages 5 years and up.
“We have youth activities for kids from 5-11 years old,” Scovil continued. “12-year-olds through adults can attend the keynote and then we have 10 breakout workshops that are offered twice.”
Breakout topics will include discussions about resilience, vaping, electronics connection to suicide, the importance of civility and a presentation from a group called Rebels for Change.
“They are a group of people who survived the attack on Columbine high school,” Scovil said. “They have traveled the country addressing audiences, so I’m particularly interested in hearing that. Their focus isn’t on gun control but its about lessons they learned that day. They talk about healing and surviving and thriving.”
The night is a collaboration between Wasatch County Parks and Rec and the Health Department as well as the USU Extension and Wasatch School District. For more information you can click here.
