Waterloo Youth City Council to Celebrate Youth Mental Health Bill Passage

Thanks to the Waterloo Youth City Council (WYCC), young people in Iowa will have easier access to 24/7 mental health support. HF 602 passed earlier this month in the Iowa House and Senate. The bill calls for crisis hotline telephone and text numbers to be put on the back of high school student ID cards. The web address for Your Life Iowa (YLI), a resource for youth that provides free mental health support and connections round-the-clock, also will be included.  

For the past two years, members of the youth council lobbied elected officials statewide to pass this bill. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for young people ages 10-34 in Iowa, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.  

The WYCC will celebrate this achievement on: 
Wednesday, May 17 
5:30 p.m.  Waterloo Center for the Arts, Town Hall Room 
225 Commercial Street 

“The passing of this bill is a big achievement for not only the WYCC but all youth. With this becoming law, every student will have a valuable resource at their fingertips. I am just glad that every student from now on will have something I didn't have during my time in high school,” says Avery Engel, Mayor of WYCC.   

Mayor Quentin Hart started the WYCC four years ago to give young people in the community a voice. Students from East, Expo, Columbus Catholic and West high schools are members. Co-Directors are Carol Luce and Lieutenant Colonel Glen Keith.  

The WYCC mission: To explore, communicate, and provide for the needs, problems, issues, and activities affecting Waterloo's youth. This latest effort is one of many projects the group has undertaken.  

“We are beginning to see that it is not only the issues that are driving them, but the idea of being civic minded and truly engaged in their community, state and having a voice in helping to create change. We feel that is one of our biggest successes,” says Luce.  

CONTACT: 
Carol Luce, Co-Director Waterloo Youth City Council 
Cluce051774@gmail.com