2026 Youth Mental Health Campaign – Oregon City Together

Currently UNDER CONSTRUCTION!

Oregon City High School students are currently journeying through the steps of identifying risk and protective factors they believe are most important for themselves and their peers to address in relation to their mental health. So far, they have identified the main risk factor and created messaging they believe their peers will relate to and take action on.

Next steps are to decide how to ‘deliver’ the message to their peers, create the materials, and execute the campaign! Stay tuned here for the campaign rollout in early April 2026!

Here are some of the messages they voted on:

Inhale Peace, Exhale Stress
Slow Down & Relax
Don’t Bear the Load Alone
Don’t Let Class Clash with Home
Class is Where the Work Stays, Home is Where the Rest Lays
Focus on the Step in Front of You, Not the Whole Staircase
Take a Breath, Don’t Stress

NEXT: The students will spend time deciding what they think will be the best methods of sharing their message. Stay tuned!

Last year’s team chose:

Posters for schools and community
Bracelets with campaign theme/colors
Stress reliever bricks with campaign slogan
Elevate Plaza brick in Oregon City with campaign slogan
*DIY Resilience Wall – large vinyl banner where we will invite students to share their thoughts on how to be/stay resilient (click here to see the results!)

Other campaign components:

Social media ads
Billboard on 99E at 12th in OC
Thriving Together event on 4/24 at Alliance Charter Academy showing Angst and workshop with Dr. Crystal Collier (see below)
Middle School Family Forums – incoming 6th grader events 5/15, 5/22

Youth Mental Health DIY Resilience Wall Event 2025

More than 100 students at Oregon City High School wrote what they do to be resilient on a large banner last Friday as part of a peer-to-peer campaign called “Resilience isn’t Born, it’s Built!” The campaign was designed by the school’s advanced placement psychology (APS) class and includes posters distributed throughout the school district and community, as well as bracelets and stress relievers shaped like bricks with the campaign theme.

The effort was funded by an Oregon City Youth Opioid Prevention Grant to the Oregon City Together Coalition. Oregon City Mayor Denyse McGriff, Police Chief Shaun Davis, Captain David Edwins, School Resource Officer David Plummer and several coalition members joined the students to acknowledge their work.

“We were impressed with how the students helped each other,” said Anne Haynes who heads up the coalition. “It’s vital for youth to have strong social, problem-solving and emotional regulation skills. And in many cases, the best people to help students develop these skills are other students. She adds that peer-to-peer efforts are effective because students know the pressures, the schedules and the social dynamics faced by other students and can offer advice that makes sense in their daily lives.

Advice like don’t worry so much about mistakes because “I’ve messed up a lot in my life but each mistake made me stronger.” shared by APS class member, Gus Murino-Brault. A sampling of what other students wrote on the banner about supporting their own resiliency include; connecting with friends, asking for help when I need it, listening to music, playing sports and family.

“Peer-to-peer campaigns like this one send a message that students are not alone and are in this together,” said Haynes. “We hope to have funding from the city again so we can continue the campaign this fall.”

The Oregon Together Coalition is the only organization in Oregon City that focuses solely on preventing youth substance use. The coalition has been serving Oregon City youth and their families for more than 13 years. Its members include educators, business and community leaders, law enforcement, parents and county public health professionals.