Morgan Cares aims to make a difference in youth suicide prevention

A new youth organization formed this year by Weber-Morgan Human Services is making a difference in the community of Morgan County. Currently, Morgan Cares has 14 youth members and two adult volunteers, and it is still growing.

On July 16, six members of Morgan Cares and their adviser Kate Dickman shared with the Morgan County Commission several of the activities the youth have been involved in. Commissioner Matt Wilson has been working closely with the organization and introduced Dickman and the teens at that meeting.

“We decided to do some great things within our community with your help, and we wanted to come and share with you some of the things we've been working on and the vision that we have for the future,” Dickman said.

Then the teens (who did not individually introduce themselves) took turns sharing the goals of Morgan Cares and what they are doing to accomplish them.

“We are a community-based youth committee focused on supporting healthy lifestyles and connection for our community, families and individuals,” one young woman said. “We focus on prevention efforts directed towards substance misuse as well as offering mental health resources.”

Morgan Cares is working to “decrease the risk factors and increase protective factors in our drug misuse and alcohol misuse and suicide prevention programs,” another said.

The organization recently sponsored Operation Graduation which offered high school seniors a drawing for several prizes such as an inflatable raft, a kayak and a life jacket.

“They're going through a time when they're changing, going from high school to whatever they're doing,” another said. “It’s supporting a healthy lifestyle and good choices.”

Morgan Cares members also attended a suicide prevention night at the Utah Raptors.

“We invited young people and old people to get them all involved, and we had over 100 people attend from our community,” another youth reported.

Recently eight Morgan Cares kids and adult volunteers joined 200 youth from across the state at a three-day youth leadership conference at Bryce Canyon.

‘We were able to learn more about policy from Congresswoman Celeste Maloy,” another youth said. “It was really cool because we were able to learn that we have a voice and that you guys can listen to us, and we can make a difference here, and it was a really cool realization.”

At the conference, the youth learned about many of the resources available to help prevent suicide among their peers.

“We also learned what works and what doesn't with this and how we can be most effective as a group and council and to help our youth in our community,” one said. “We were able to meet more than 200 kids from all over the state that are doing the same important work, and they are making a difference in their communities, and they are sharing awesome ideas.”

“As you can see, they are remarkable and they are invested in making our community really healthy and positive and offering programs that will benefit all of us,” Dickman said of the youth. “We know that when young people are involved they become bonded to our community and we know that then they go and take those skills into their whole life and they continue to make a difference and do maybe what you're doing in their future and have an opportunity to serve and to make an impact in the world.” 

Morgan Cares is partnering with Utah State Extension Teens Lifting Teens peer mentoring program and has secured a grant to help implement some of the initiatives the group has been working on, Dickman said,

They are planning a Feb. 2025 trip to Washinton, D.C. to a national CADCA (Community-based Advocacy-focused Data-driven Coalition-building Association) training. In the meantime, Morgan Cares is sponsoring a family dinner night on Sept. 16 at Kent Smith Park. 

“This group has secured funding to provide dinner for 500 people in our community, and we are going to highlight all of the amazing protective factors we already have at our disposal,” Dickman said. “We’ve got many, many businesses that are local; we have community groups and different things that we want to highlight.”

The commissioners seemed impressed by the group’s efforts and encouraged them to stay involved.

‘This is really fantastic,” Commission Chair Mike Newton said. “Thank you for standing up here; I know it it's a little intimidating. You were all brave and awesome so thank you for doing that and hopefully one day you'll be sitting up here instead of us because as you can see we're all getting older and…we need young people involved in government. It's important for the next generation to know what's going on and to get involved so I encourage you to continue doing what you're doing. It looks like you're doing an amazing job at it and we're happy to have you involved in in our discussions.” λ