Case Study

The goal of the Island Space campaign is to reduce youth substance use and address youth mental health issues. We collected information and community data to:

1. Understand current youth substance use and mental health issues
2. Identify current prevention strategies and campaigns
3. Create a logic model to identify and prioritize the goals of the campaign

What we discovered through the data, focus groups, and interviews with youth, parents, and community stakeholders was that the “need to succeed” in this affluent community–one of the wealthiest zip codes in the country–had a debilitating effect on Mercer Island’s youth.

Many kids told us that they “had to” attend a top college (like the Ivy League or Stanford) or, in their minds, they were “failures”. The stress at being the best at EVERYTHING was daunting and started in middle school for some students. The Island can be a pressure cooker. Youth reported that they used alcohol and other drugs to (try to) relax and ease their stress.