To help us learn and appreciate the difference between the Coalition for Nevada County Youth and the Nevada County Youth Collaborative, two CSN Partner meeting regulars, Serenity Madison and Dena Valin Malakian, have kindly provided descriptions of each endeavor and their contact information for any questions you may have.
From Serenity Madison, Coalition Project Coordinator, Coalition for Nevada County Youth, and Community Recovery Resources
The Coalition for Nevada County Youth is primarily focused on preventing youth substance use. Our activities are environmental strategies such as providing prevention information and training, youth development, policy advocacy, increasing access to services and resources.
Formerly known as the Coalition for a Drug Free Nevada County, Coalition leaders have long had a desire to change the name. We are in the midst of rebranding, with a new logo and major overhaul of the website.
For nearly 15 years, our wider community has remained committed to investing in supporting youth to be healthy, resilient and free from substance use. The Coalition meets quarterly at the Grass Valley CoRR Campus. Meetings are free and open to the public. For meeting dates and times, contact Serenity (Jolley) Madison, sjolley@corr.us, (530) 273-9541 ext. 217.
From Dena Valin Malakian, Associate Director, The Friendship Club
The Nevada County Youth Collaborative is a very informal group that Jenn Singer and I started last year to get the organizations working with at-risk youth together to see how we can coordinate services better with the children/families we serve. This may not be the name we keep, but it’s what we’re using for the time being.
This collaborative group has grown, and right now we are focused on educating the community on child and youth-serving nonprofits in Western Nevada County, how we are unique, how we work together, and why there is a need for all of us in our community. The idea for this collaborative came about because so many of us working with youth were being asked why we don’t all just form one nonprofit because it seems like we all are doing the same thing. We wanted to dispel that misunderstanding and to really help people see why there is such a need for all of us in our community and how we each serve children and youth in a unique way.
We are doing this through a series of articles in The Union and through that, we are getting inquiries from other organizations and programs that want to be a part of the collaborative. Our longer-term goal is to work on coordinating services among all youth-serving organizations in Western Nevada County better, finding ways to do more collaborative grants together and to leverage more funding for services supporting at-risk children and youth. We are open to anyone who wants to come to the table to join us, but we haven’t come up with a set meeting schedule just yet. Our next meeting will be Monday, June 11th at 11:00 at The Friendship Club (200 Litton Drive, third floor in our conference room) if anyone wants to come check it out. If anyone wants to learn more about this group and how to be a part, they can contact me! Dena Valin Malakian, denav@friendshipclub.org, (530) 265-4311.