Youth Task Force hosts Live Your Best Life conference

LOCAL EVENTS

The struggles associated with growing up are numerous, but a group of San Marcos teens took on the inevitable challenge by hosting the Live Your Best Life Conference with the theme Survival Skills for Adulthood. The event was hosted by the Youth Task Force, which is a youth-led advisory board established in 2020 that is focused on community service and providing insight into the needs of youth in the greater San Marcos area. The group is a part of the Core Four Partnership, which is a collaboration between the city of San Marcos, Hays County, San Marcos CISD and Texas State University. The goal of the conference was to provide leadership skills to young individuals by allowing them to collaborate through activities and workshops to show them the importance of mental and physical health.

The event was free and open to all eighth to twelfth grade students, and recently graduated students were encouraged to attend. Teens enjoyed a full day of programming and activities which included an interactive keynote by the Hays-Caldwell Women’s Center. The day began with breakfast at the San Marcos Activity Center, where participants were welcomed by the YTF team and San Marcos Mayor Jane Hughson. After the keynote, which focused on healthy habits, students had lunch and had the chance to win giveaways donated by local organizations. With bellies full, the group made their way to the gym for a self defense workshop hosted by black belt Jeanne Caldwell. There was also a nutrition workshop hosted by Lizzy Orman and Sadphire Lopez where students learned how to eat on a budget and how to create healthy yet tasty meals. The conference concluded with more giveaways and surveys assessing the teens’ experiences.

Although there were many adult volunteers, the conference as a whole was organized and executed by the teens of The Youth Task Force. This event is their biggest annual project and has grown more successful each year. Throughout the year, the teens also participate in multiple volunteer events such as helping facilitate the costume contest at the annual Farmer Fred’s Spring and Fall carnivals. Other highlights this year included a collaboration with the San Marcos Housing Authority where they hosted gatherings for senior residents. The group also hosted supply drives for the San Marcos Animal Shelter and Southside Community Center.

The Survival Skills theme was chosen by the task force since many of the officers were in their senior year and felt the natural anxiety about taking the next steps towards college.

“Our main goal is to engage the youth to start practicing healthy habits,” said Haley Aguilar, Youth Task Force president. “[The task force] is very different from other coalitions; because in a lot of other ones the adults give them the projects they need to do, but we come up with them on our own and decide what we want to do.”

Each year the officers have a retreat to plan out for the year to come.

“We set our own agenda and goals. At the retreat, we define our goals for the year and what we want to focus on,” said Sophia Robertson, Youth Task Force vice president.

Although programming is planned and developed by the students, they are guided by Cristal Lopez, who is the Youth Services Director for Community Action Inc. of Central Texas.

“She’s committed to executing our vision,” Robertson said.

Part of the vision comes from the 2013 Youth Master Plan by the city of San Marcos, which acts as a guiding principle for the goals of the group. Lopez started her position when it was brand new in 2021 and is now in the fifth year of building up her role and the reach of the YTF.

“I feel like we’re at a place where we’re gaining momentum in the community, getting involvement and increasing engagement with our youth,” Lopez said. “I feel like adults and youth want the same things. We have different pathways of getting there and different ways of explaining that. My role is really to create that space for young people to be able to advocate for themselves and to learn those leadership skills.”

One of the big tasks for the groups is establishing partnerships with community organizations to either provide service opportunities or to collaborate on presentations for the conference.

“We’re really happy that, this year, we had a big community partner in HCWC; I think it really brought a lot of structure,” Robertson said.

The goal for the keynote was to help teens build their skills around healthy relationships, everyday consent, peaceful communication, bystander intervention and self-compassion. The officers were very proud and pleased by the collaboration with HCWC since they felt the teens in the audience were engaged throughout the presentation. HCWC actually attended the Youth Task Force retreat earlier in the year to pitch their organization to the officer team. At each monthly officer meeting, the HCWC team would attend and host an activity for the officers to test run, leading to the final programming at the conference.

“I feel like stuff like this is super important for the youth,” Aguilar said. “I definitely see how positively this has impacted [the attendees].”

The Youth Task Force continues to be a place where the youth of the Greater San Marcos Area can be civically engaged and have a safe and inclusive place to build their leadership skills. One can find out more information about the task force and other programing by Community Action, Inc. and the Core Four Partnership at communityaction. com. Any and all youth in San Marcos are welcome and encouraged to participate in the YTF monthly meetings, the annual conference or other YTF sponsored events. New members are recruited in the Fall and applications open on Sept. 1. For more information reach out to youthservices@communit yaction.com.