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Local Youth Group Thrive 365 sent two local students, Xander Gallegos, a 7th grader from Sarracino Middle School, and Tatum Rosales, an 8th grader from Cottonwood Valley Charter School, to a Youth Leadership conference in Arizona, where they placed second in a “Shark Tank” style competition.
“A particularly exciting moment for the Thrive365 team came when we participated in a mock Shark Tank competition, where teams were tasked with pitching their ideas for future youth prevention events. Our students, along with adult mentors, collaborated to develop an idea for a Teen Dance focused on Overdose Awareness,” Bernadette Lopez, SCOPE Youth Outreach Coordinator, said, “ Thrive365 was thrilled to be awarded second place in the competition. This win earned us a $250 prize that will go directly toward making our Teen Dance event a reality.”
The Youth Leadership conference was hosted by VIVE18, a nonprofit dedicated to youth drug prevention education. The students had an opportunity to attend sessions on various topics such as creating prevention PSAs, staying drug-free and mental health coping skills. Lopez said these types of workshops help young people become leaders in their schools and communities.
“We are excited to continue our mission of youth empowerment, drug-free living, and community engagement—and we can’t wait to bring the Teen Dance focused on Overdose Awareness to life,” Lopez said.
In her presentation to the youth group on her experience, Rosales said she felt called to go when she learned about the opportunity to attend the conference.
“As many of you all know, I had a cousin overdose on fentanyl. My mission was to go to the conference and find a way I could help bring overdose numbers down into Socorro,” Rosales said.
She shared some of her favorite workshops and said she gained valuable insights about drug prevention.
“I thought that talking about drugs and scaring people with it would make them not curious about it,” Rosales said, “I quickly learned that that was not the case. If you make drug prevention fun and engaging, people will take way more out of it than scaring them.”
She plans to take the skills she learned, such as creating public service announcements and implementing the game ideas she learned in Socorro.
THRIVE 365 is a Socorro County youth group dedicated to sharing their voices and making a change for themselves and their peers. The goal of THRIVE 365 is to help youth in our community THRIVE for a safe, healthy, and happy life. Meetings are every other Thursday at 6:00 pm in the SCOPE office.
