Youth Leadership in Action: Building Connection and Systems Change with Youth MOVE Nevada

Host Carmen continues her conversation with Brenna, youth leader of Youth MOVE Nevada, focusing on Nevada’s rural isolation, lack of community connection, and the importance of social connection for health and healing. Brenna describes chapter challenges such as reaching rural youth and increasing awareness that youth voices are welcome, and explains how virtual meetings support statewide inclusion. She outlines multiple engagement pathways for youth—decision-making in meetings, polls and chat participation, podcast and social media contributions, toolkits, contests, and youth panels—within a peer-led model that builds leadership. Brenna shares experiences bringing youth voice into systems-level meetings, noting receptivity but sometimes limited dialogue, and highlights the Youth Voice at Agency Level assessment/training, work with UNR on system-of-care data collection and youth focus groups, and her role with a Nevada Medicaid behavioral health transformation workgroup shaping care coordination improvements. She is excited about continued chapter growth and directs listeners to YouthMoveNV and YouthMoveNV@nevadapep.org.

00:00 Welcome Back Part Two

00:34 Nevada Rural Isolation

01:22 Why Connection Matters

04:51 Reaching Rural Youth

06:46 Everyday Youth Engagement

12:05 Youth Led Meetings

13:27 Youth Voice In Systems

16:22 YVAL And UNR Partnership

21:26 Medicaid Summit Impact

26:08 Future Growth And Contact

28:13 Final Thanks And Wrap

Youth Move Nevada’s Brenna on Youth Advocacy, Mental Health Challenges, and System-Level Youth Voice

Host Carmen interviews Brenna, team facilitator and youth leader with Youth Move Nevada, about her path from working at Nevada PEP to youth advocacy, including how learning about disabilities led her to seek an ADHD evaluation and feel empowered by diagnosis and self-advocacy. Brenna explains Youth Move Nevada’s origins as a youth-voice program under Nevada PEP, its autonomy, and its goals: building youth self-advocacy skills, empowering youth-led change, and reducing stigma around mental health and disabilities for ages 14–24 statewide. They discuss Nevada’s mental health challenges, including ranking 51st, provider shortages, limited community-based services that can force out-of-state treatment, rural/frontier access barriers, siloed systems, and gaps in awareness, alongside a reported 2% state suicide-rate reduction. Brenna describes youth engagement methods (virtual meetings, polls, podcasts, social media, contests, panels) and system advocacy using the Youth Voice at Agency Level tool, work with UNR on needs assessments, and Medicaid workgroups shaping care coordination.

00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro

01:04 Brenna Story and Lived Experience

04:23 ADHD Diagnosis and Empowerment

09:04 Youth Move Nevada Origins

12:05 Host Org and Autonomy

19:45 Who Can Join Youth Move

21:52 Mission and Core Goals

24:13 Nevada Mental Health Crisis

27:19 Rural Access and Out of State Care

33:31 Siloed Systems and Awareness Gaps

35:28 National Youth Mental Health Context

37:31 Why Nevada Ranks Last

38:23 Rural Frontier Reality

41:17 Isolation and Loneliness

45:15 Reaching Rural Youth

47:41 Everyday Youth Engagement

54:46 Youth Voice in Systems

57:33 YVAL and UNR Partnership

01:03:22 Medicaid Summit Impact

01:08:39 Chapter Growth and Contact

Youth Empowerment Radio S3E4: Real Talk Mental Health Support Group at Oaktree Youth Resources

In Season 3, Episode 4 of Youth Empowerment Radio, interns Brooke and Berkeley from Oaktree Youth Resources describe Real Talk, a weekly mental health support group held every Tuesday from 4–5 PM. They explain that the group aims to provide a safe, supportive, consistent space where youth can share successes and challenges, seek advice, or simply connect without having to talk. The episode covers topics and activities used in meetings—such as trust, boundaries, sobriety, group-building games, and planned crafts—plus engagement strategies like hands-on activities, food, easy opening questions, and potential pro-social events. They discuss how supportive peer communities encourage accountability and healthier choices, barriers like not knowing where to find support and lack of trust, ways to create inclusive spaces through group norms and consent to share, and long-term benefits such as reduced isolation, increased confidence, goal achievement, and improved wellbeing.

00:00 Welcome and Introductions

00:45 What Real Talk Is

01:23 Meeting Activities and Topics

01:59 Keeping Youth Engaged

03:09 How the Group Is Going

03:54 Peer Support and Accountability

05:06 Barriers to Seeking Help

06:44 Creating Inclusive Safe Spaces

07:51 Long Term Mental Health Benefits

09:08 Thanks and Weekly Invite

So many mental health struggles grow stronger in isolation. Having a space—or even just one person—to turn to—can make all the difference in breaking that cycle.

Thank you to Brooke and Burkley at Oak Tree Resources for creating that space.

Join Real Talk every Tuesday from 4:00–5:00 PM. You don’t have to go through it alone.