The Human Rights Education Institute hosted a brainstorming session Thursday with nonprofit leaders from across North Idaho.

Over lunch, representatives from organizations including Canopy Village, St. Vincent de Paul, Panhandle Health, 208 Recovery and Kootenai County Juvenile Diversion discussed the current state of youth services in Kootenai County and ways to improve support systems for struggling youth. Participants cataloged existing services and identified areas for improvement.

“We decided it was time to do some mapping in North Idaho that would allow us to see where our strengths are and where our gaps are,” said HREI Executive Director Jeanette Laster. “We will have a very broad snapshot of what programs are working, where our needs are in certain other programs, and what our youth are facing right now.”

The luncheon was the first of its kind in Kootenai County. The idea emerged after Laster and Scott Ferguson, executive director of St. Vincent de Paul of North Idaho, attended the Idaho Nonprofit Center Conference in Boise in late August. They were inspired to strengthen youth services in Kootenai County through greater collaboration among organizations.

“Are we working as collaboratively as we can?” Laster asked attendees. “We see a lot of different things because each of us is serving a specific niche. Maybe in the broader picture, there is something we are missing.”

St. Vincent de Paul of North Idaho recently received an $827,000, three-year grant through the Youth Housing Demonstration Project to build transitional housing and provide services for young adults ages 18 to 24. Ferguson said the brainstorming session will help inform how the grant funds are used.

“We want to make sure that we have asked all the right people who really have the expertise to inform our practice,” Ferguson told the brainstorm session participants, “because we know at some point that our clients will touch you. We know they are going to be involved with multiple resources.”

To collect data on youth services in the area, Laster posted sheets of paper around the room labeled with categories such as medical services, language and immigration services, teen shelters, mental health support, disability support and career support. She asked participants to write the services their organizations provide on sticky notes and place them in the appropriate categories.

On other sheets of paper, she posed questions such as, “what are some of the greatest unaddressed needs faced by youth?” and “what do you need more of to succeed?”

Participants identified a lack of emergency housing and crisis centers for youth as some of the area's greatest unmet needs. They also pointed to a lack of transitional support for young people aging out of children's services.

“I think immediate needs is a huge barrier,” said Tess Reasor, executive director of 208 Recovery. “When we reach out as a nonprofit and we need to get something for someone, it’s really difficult to get it right then and there.”

At the end of the lunch hour, participants gathered to discuss their findings. The data collected Thursday will be consolidated during a follow-up breakfast session in two weeks. Laster said student interns at HREI will enter the information into a spreadsheet.

Laster also plans to host a series of similar brainstorming sessions focused on other areas of need, including mental health services and veterans services.

“I feel like the hope for this is to really come together as a community,” said Reasor, “because things are constantly changing in the climate that we’re in. There’s so many moving pieces.”

    Amy Shannon, Kootenai County Juvenile Diversion;  Jeanette Laster, Human Rights Education Institute Executive Director; Tess Reasor, 208 Recovery Executive  Director; Raelynn Locken, Coeur d’Alene School District Mental Health Specialist, LMSW; Rosa Mettler, Canopy Village Executive Director; Angela Gifford, Village of Hope Executive Director;  Polly Gresham, Panhandle Health District Substance Use Disorder Prevention Educator; Becca Stinson, St. Vincent de Paul North Idaho Social Service Director;  Patti Reichert, CCM, Director of Family Support Services Center Canopy Village; Scott Ferguson, Ed. D., St. Vincent de Paul North Idaho Chief Executive Officer; Tricia Busson, Idaho Youth Ranch Case Manager(not pictured)
  

    Participants at the brainstorming session take notes at the Human Rights Education Institute.
  

    Becca Stinson, social services director at St. Vincent de Paul of North Idaho, takes notes at the brainstorm luncheon at the Human Rights Education Institute.
  

    Tess Reasor and Scott Ferguson at the brainstorming luncheon at the Human Rights Education Institute.
  

    Participants at the brainstorming luncheon at the Human Rights Education Institute.