Written by: Lydia Proulx
Applications to join YMN’s Youth Best Practice Committee open October 1st – Learn a little bit about our ’22 Committee, and consider joining us for 2023!
Founded in 2016, the Youth Best Practice Committee (YPBC) supports young leaders and systems around the nation with understanding the value of youth voice in systems-change. YBPC is made up of young people and supportive adults who understand how youth voice, youth engagement, and youth peer support can really change and improve mental health, child welfare, juvenile justice, and all youth serving systems. Right now, the YBPC is working on projects that will amplify rural young people’s experiences with peer support, including a survey and interview series, as well as developing a tool that will help YBPC decide which consulting and collaborative projects align best with our mission and vision. If you’re interested in Youth Peer Support, Research & Evaluation, and youth voice in systems change work …. apply to the YBPC!!
Apply For YMN’s Youth Best Practice Committee >>
So, without any further ado, let me introduce you to our Youth Best Practice Committee for 2022!
Our fabulous committee members serve one calendar year (January – December) on the YBPC. This is a paid role.
Want to learn more? Read more about the YBPC on our Youth Best Practices Committee Webpage!
Maxx LaBrie (They/He):
Maxx is a young adult with a long history of systems involvement. They have been working in systems advocacy for 7 years, and have a passion for peer support and social justice, with particular interests being fat liberation, anti-capitalism, mad liberation and disability justice. He is a trans, queer, disabled advocate and spends a good portion of his time volunteering with LGBTQ+ youth and he is the Vice President of the Youth MOVE National Board. In their spare time, they enjoy singing, crocheting, writing and performing poetry, learning, and spending time with animals (especially their cat, Lenny!).
Huck Talwar (He/Him/His):
Huck is a fierce mental health advocate who uses his lived experience within the mental health system to fuel his passion for helping others have a better experience than he did. In his free time, he likes to make and send snail mail cards and letters to his friends, write, draw, read, play with his chubby dwarf lab senior dog (Fronz), and rewatch shows from his youth (i.e. Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Golden Girls, and That ’70s Show).
Jax (They/Them):
I am the youngest of three from middle-class South Central PA. I have had personal experience with OCD, anxiety, and major depression, so I became involved with local organizations in eighth grade and have since become a member of YBPC and Meet Me In The Middle, a project from NTTAC.
I love to play jazz on my trombone, write poetry, and have recently picked up skating (two boards and some roller skates coming soon!)
Dani Wilson (They/Them):
Dana Wilson has been an advocate for youth mental health for over a decade. They hope to continue this work through YMN as well as their job as a Research Specialist for the Missouri Institute of Mental Health. In their spare time, they host weekly drag shows as a drag king named Brother Daniel!
Jackson Diaz (He/Him):
Jackson has been working with YBPC to spread awareness on complex topics and provide opportunities to fellow BIPOC and LGBTQI2-S youth like him. Jackson is on the Youth Peer Support subcommittee, using his experience in mental health institutions as a teenager to provide insight into YouthMOVE National’s projects. In his free time, Jackson is a graphic designer, and musician, and enjoys reading fantasy and sci-fi books.
Eden Shaveet (She/They):
Eden is a young person with lived experience in youth-serving systems. After working as a peer mentor for a federally funded young adult access center, she joined their evaluation team at UMass Chan Medical School. Eden holds a master’s degree in health informatics and analytics from Tufts University and is a Bridge Scholar in the Department of Computer Science at Columbia University.
Suzanne Quarles (She/Her):
I first became involved with advocating for Youth back in 2011 for my Autistic daughter that also has many mental health challenges. I’m extremely passionate about helping youth & young adults feel like their voices matter, because they do! I also am passionate about helping adults find their safe places to talk about their daily struggles in helping those that they take care of with mental health struggles, so I became a NAMI Support Group Facilitator for those that take care of family with mental illness. In my free time I love to quilt, sew, craft and read!
