The Hands4Hope-Youth Making A Difference Youth Board hosted the family friendly Hands4Hope Youth Wellness Expo - Say Welcome to Wellness! on April 23rd, 2023 at the Serrano Village Green in El Dorado Hills. The proceeds benefited the local organization JJ's Hello Foundation and the Hands4Hope - Youth Making A Difference Education Program.
The mission of JJ's Hello Foundation is to prevent youth suicide, promote mental health awareness, and create a message of hope for pre-teens, teens, and young adults in our community. The goal for this event was to raise $2,000 from sponsorships to help create Youth Mental Health Kits and spread awareness about this organization. In addition, the Youth Board wanted to connect more youth and families to local resources for wellness.
The Hands4Hope Youth Board consists of 20 middle and high school youth who participate as leaders in one of Hands4Hope’s 14 on-campus Clubs or in its after-school Committees. In addition to driving the organization as a whole, the Youth Board selects a specific area of need to support through a year-long service-learning project.
The 2022-23 Youth Board selected youth mental health as their area of need, and selected JJ's Hello Foundation as their beneficiary. They worked as a team to plan this event for the public to promote mental health and a message of hope for pre-teens, teens, and young adults, and to raise funds. As part of the last phase of Hands4Hope's service learning model, the Youth Board created this demonstration video to showcase their work and share it with others.