Your Life.Your Story (YLYS) is an evidence-based, interdisciplinary, and community-based youth development program. It is a one-week summer day camp where 30 Latino youth go through a resilience-building curriculum, followed by a selection of art and movement based activities to explore their identity, develop goals for the future and identify barriers and opportunities. Activities are led by expert professionals from the community. College-aged mentors work with the teens to enhance learning and act as resources and role models. Throughout the week teens interact with others like themselves and learn skills that will help them deal effectively and positively with the many challenges they face. By teaching teens skills to thrive, we are not only preventing problems, but helping them reach their goals.

 

We focus on Latino teens because there are disparities in mental health in this group – in Indiana, a 65% higher rate of suicide attempts and a 24% higher rate of depression among Latino high-school students in comparison to their non-Hispanic White peers. Our own work revealed that nearly 60% of Latino teens had some form of depressive symptoms, that they were 10 times more likely to have depression if they suffered from moderate levels of acculturative stress (the stress someone faces when straddling two cultures) and that resilient teens and those with bicultural identities were 6 times less likely to suffer.

 

Every year we have complete evaluations of the program. The program rates high in teen and parent satisfaction with the camp. Importantly, teens experience increases in resilience and decreases in depression that are maintained 6-month post-camp (which is as far as we’ve evaluated).

 

This program is funded through small grants from foundations, organizations, and individuals, and with substantial support in resources and manpower from IUPUI. We are always in need of additional funding for material for camp and payments to the professionals and students who work with our teens. Donations can also be made toward food purchases, as we provide breakfast, lunch, and afternoon snacks to our teens and staff.

 

Would you like to contribute to our efforts? Donations can be made to the community partner, the Latino Health Organization, or the academic partner, IU Foundation; both are non-profit organizations and so your donations will be tax deductible. If interested, please contact us.

 

Thank you!