Youth Development Insight

By Amy Sparks        In 2023, Minnesota State Fair 4-H Building visitors        were asked to share the needs in the world they care        most  about and place them on a Universe of Service.        Many fair-goers identified mental health care as        a need.  Photo by Amy Sparks. "How is everyone?" A simple question, yet it holds profound power in igniting discussions about mental well-being. Earlier this year, Elmo from Sesame Street posed this question on social media , triggering an outpouring of responses. From tales of relationship strains to battles with financial difficulties, fatigue, isolation, and disconnection, individuals shared their innermost feelings. Elmo's post garnered millions of views, reposts, likes, and comments, underscoring a reality we cannot overlook: many among us are grappling with challenges. And that's alright. What's crucial is acknowledg...

By Sarah Odendahl In spring of 2008, I was a junior in high school struggling with the fallout from a recent breakup.  One day I walked into the band rehearsal room - a class I shared with my ex-boyfriend and about 50 other teens - feeling particularly upset. When I saw my ex walk in, suddenly it felt like all the oxygen left my body. I couldn’t catch my breath, the warm-up noises were overwhelming, and I didn’t know what to do. A good friend pulled me from the room and sat on the floor of the hallway with me until I could get a deep breath again. Looking back on it now, that breakup doesn’t elicit much emotional response, but to teenage Sarah it cut incredibly deep. I was coping the best I could, and learning social-emotional skills along the way, but I didn’t have the language to address what I later learned was the first of several panic attacks I would suffer that spring. In 2010, a study in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry found th...