SPOKANE, Wash. — Teen mental health continues to be a top concern and local students are stepping up to make a change.
“Teens struggle, especially with mental health and just feeling unheard,” said Miles Day.
Day is one of the teens who shared his project during Wednesday’s Youth Wellness Showcase, an initiative led by passionate students at the On Track Academy who are taking part in a unique class called ‘Youth Voice Wellness.’
“Me and many of my friends just struggle with different mental health disorders,” Day said. “A common thing is all of us don’t know how to approach it, especially with adults.”
This was echoed by Day’s classmate Wens Adams whose project didn’t just spark conversation between students, but also with parents.
“I’ve heard from many students that their parents have this will and want to do better, but they just don’t know how,” Adams said.
Adams has spent nearly five months working on a sculpture that represents the disconnect between parents and teens.
“I really just want to display that it is a very real thing in hopes that it inspires people to want to provoke community amongst parents of teenagers,” she said.
Wednesday’s event took place in Spokane City Hall, but the idea for the project started in classroom 232 at the On Track Academy.
“This little room, 232 where we sit today, they were able to share stories and person, raw problems and issues that they probably wouldn’t have anywhere else,” said Lori Beaty, Wellness PLUS teacher at the On Track Academy.
The trust established in that room sparked a motto: ‘What is said in 232, stays in 232.’
For both Day and Adams, it the sense of support and understanding that showed them the power of community.
“We have this general understanding now that like, we all struggle with something, and trying to help them out and trying to just learn to love each other, despite all our differences and struggles,” Day said.
For more information about projects from Youth Voice Wellness, go here.
COPYRIGHT 2025 BY KXLY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.
