254 - Centering Youth Voice In Behavioral Health Equity Decision Making & Evaluation

Abstract Information: What would it look like if philanthropic assets truly belonged to the community and if community members had a voice in how the impact of those assets was defined and evaluated? The Natrona Collective Health Trust (NCHT) is a new conversion foundation that built itself from the ground up with the premise that the community owns and informs their work. This presentation will explore how NCHT, a private health foundation in rural, conservative central Wyoming, and Elevate Consulting LLC, their contracted independent evaluation and strategy consulting firm, intentionally centered youth voice and expertise in evaluation design and decision making. Based in a state where suicide is the second leading cause of death for ages 15-25, NCHT has prioritized youth experience and expertise since inception - from youth involvement in mission formation to a youth-led participatory grantmaking program that distributed $250,000 in grants in 2023. As they’ve done so, they’ve learned successful techniques for maintaining consistent and strong engagement. In this session, we describe how the Elevate team built a strategy around the priority to engage youth in creating NCHT’s evaluation framework, building upon the techniques used by NCHT in their strategic planning and participatory grantmaking efforts. Join us to hear an incredible example of what it can look like to define, measure, and report change through community empowerment. Discussion topics include: How can we engage historically marginalized communities, including LGBTQ and BIPOC youth in designing and implementing an evaluation framework? How can we foster ongoing community participation to better inform advancing behavioral health in their community? How does using youth voice work “on the ground”? How can we balance structure with flexibility and maximize organizational resources? What reflections and lessons can be learned from this partnership between NCHT and Elevate?